Press freedom in the news 1/21/2009

Agence France-Presse has coverage of our letter sent to Cameroonian President Paul Biya on January 16. The letter protested the jailing of four Cameroonian journalists, which makes the country Africa’s second-leading jailer of journalists. The reporters have been held since September on charges of criminal defamation. AFP quotes CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon: “The journalists should have never been the object of criminal charges, and we demand that they be freed.”

In the Spanish-language media today, the Venezuela-based Cadena Global newspaper has coverage of our alert yesterday about the murder of Venezuelan journalist Orel Sambrano. Sambrano, director of ABC de la Semana, had covered drugs and corruption issues.