New York, June 15, 2004—Two editors from the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), received reduced prison sentences on appeal at the Intermediate People’s Court in Guangzhou, in the southern Guangdong Province, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Yu Huafeng, Nanfang Dushi Bao deputy editor in chief and general manager, had his prison…
New York, June 14, 2004–Two provincial radio stations run by the private network Bombo Radyo were ordered closed by the local mayor’s office on June 10 because of alleged permit violations, according to local news reports. Mayor Caesar Dy ordered the police to close the stations, DZNC and DWIT, located in Cauayan City, Isabela Province,…
New York, June 11, 2004—Du Daobin, a Chinese Internet essayist, was convicted of subversion today but received a suspended three-year sentence from the Intermediate People’s Court in Xiaogan, a city in the central Hubei Province, according to international news reports. Du’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, told Agence France-Presse that Du was released from prison today after…
New York, June 10, 2004—Tran Khue, an elderly writer and former literature professor, was recently formally charged with espionage, after being detained without charge for almost 18 months. Another writer, Pham Que Duong, who was arrested around the same time, has not yet been charged or tried. According to CPJ sources, on Tuesday, June 9,…
New York, June 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns two recent police attacks on journalists covering street demonstrations in connection with a nationwide antigovernment strike, or hartal. On Friday, June 4, the eve of the strike, police assaulted photojournalists who were covering a protest march led by supporters of the opposition Awami League…
New York, June 8, 2004—Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a freelance Pakistani journalist, went on trial today in an anti-terrorism court in the southwestern city of Quetta on charges of sedition, conspiracy, and impersonation, according to the journalist. The charges against him carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Rizvi told CPJ that several witnesses for the…
New York, June 3, 2004—Minn Kyaw, a Burmese journalist and pro-democracy activist living in Malaysia, was detained and harassed by people who claimed to be security officials on Tuesday, June 1, according to international news reports. Kyaw, the editor of the Burmese-language news magazine Burma Media Link, was driving to the airport in Kuala Lumpur…
New York, June 2, 2004—Sami Yousafzai, a stringer for Newsweek, was released without charge from prison today by local authorities in Miran Shah, the capital of the North Waziristan Agency near the Pakistani-Afghan border, according to local journalists. Mohamed Salim, a driver hired by Yousafzai and arrested with him, was also released. On April 21,…
New York, June 1, 2004—Aiyathurai Nadesan, a veteran Tamil journalist, was shot and killed on Monday, May 31, by unidentified assailants in Batticaloa, a town on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka and 135 miles (216 kilometers) from the capital, Colombo, according to international news reports and local journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)…