New York, February 7, 2005—Gunmen in Pakistan’s tribal area of South Waziristan fatally shot two journalists today and wounded two others. Amir Nowab, also known as Mir Nawab, a freelance cameraman for Associated Press Television News and a reporter for the Frontier Post newspaper, and Allah Noor, who was working for Peshawar-based Khyber TV, became…
Remarks by Ann Cooper, Executive Director of CPJ At this event we celebrate the courage of individual journalists and we demonstrate our collective determination to thwart forces that would silence the press. Those collective efforts over the past 12 months have helped win the early release of journalists imprisoned for their work in Tunisia, in…
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 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, May 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that Sami Yousafzai, a stringer for Newsweek who was detained in late April, has been moved from a detention facility in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province to North Waziristan Agency in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal areas. The tribal areas, which are not…
New York, May 14, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the harassment and detention of several Pakistani journalists in connection with the Tuesday, May 11, return of exiled politician Shahbaz Sharif to Lahore. Zaffar Abbas, a producer with the BBC, and Ali Faisal Zaidi, a cameraman with the BBC, accompanied Sharif on his flight…