New York, August 26, 2003—In an appeal trial heard today, the Hanoi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence of journalist Pham Hong Son from 13 years to five years. Son is still required to serve three years of administrative detention, or house arrest, upon release. Son’s wife, Vu Thuy Ha, was the only witness allowed…
New York, August 22, 2003—Vietnam’s Hanoi Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the appeal of journalist Pham Hong Son on Tuesday, August 26. Son is serving a 13-year sentence on espionage charges. “Pham Hong Son should never have been imprisoned,” said Ann Cooper, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “We believe…
New York, August 21, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the continued detention of South Korean journalists Kim Seung Jin and Geum Myeong Seok in Shanghai. On August 7, Shanghai police arrested Kim and Geum as they were filming North Korean refugees who were attempting to gain asylum by forcibly entering a school run…
New York, August 21, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns this week’s murder of journalist Noel Villarante in Santa Cruz, a town in the Philippine’s central Laguna Province. At about 6:30 p.m. on August 19, an unidentified gunman shot Villarante as he was standing in front of his house, according to reports in Philippine…
New York, August 13, 2003—Armed men claiming to be supporters of Harold Keke, a rebel leader in the Solomon Islands, attacked the Bougainville offices of the daily English-language Papua New Guinea Post-Courier and threatened Gorethy Kenneth, the newspaper’s correspondent in Bougainville, on Friday, August 8. Bougainville is an island in Papua New Guinea, across the…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent attacks against Hasan Jahid Tusher, a correspondent for the English-language newspaper The Daily Star, and Jahangir Alam Akas, a reporter of the Bengali-language daily Sangbad. These are the latest in a series of assaults against journalists in Bangladesh, none of which your government has adequately investigated.
New York, August 4, 2003—American free-lance journalist William Nessen was released on Sunday, August 3, after being convicted the previous day on immigration charges. The Banda Aceh District Court sentenced Nessen to 40 days in jail, time he had already served. Chief Justice Syafruddin Nasution convicted Nessen of reporting without informing local authorities in war-torn…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent murder of Bonifacio Gregorio, a reporter and columnist for the weekly Dyaryo Banat, in La Paz, Tarlac Province. On the evening of July 8, an unidentified gunman approached Gregorio while he was talking to a colleague on a cell phone in front of his house and shot him in the head three times at close range. According to news reports, the gunman was likely a professional killer who fled the scene on foot. Gregorio was rushed to La Paz District Hospital, before being transferred to Ramos General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
New York, July 25, 2003—Taiwan’s High Court today sentenced reporter Hung Che-cheng to one and a half years in prison on sedition charges for allegedly revealing military secrets. Though the court granted Hung a three-year suspended sentence, the threat of imprisonment remains. The sedition charges stem from a July 29, 2000, article that Hung wrote…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by a series of recent threats and attacks against journalists in Bangladesh and urges your government to take immediate action to ensure that these crimes are prosecuted vigorously.