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)…
May 27, 2004, New York, NY—Former Hong Kong radio host and delegate to the Chinese legislature Allen Lee told members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council today that he quit both posts last week after being pressured by Beijing officials because of his support for democracy on-air. Lee announced his resignation from both posts on May…
New York, May 27, 2004—Nguyen Vu Binh, an imprisoned journalist who went on a hunger strike on May 5 after his conviction on espionage charges was upheld on appeal, has ended his strike and is suffering from ill health, according to CPJ sources and Agence France-Presse. Binh’s wife, Biu Thi Kim Ngan, was allowed to…