New York, August 2, 2002—On July 31, Abdullah Keskin, a Turkish publisher charged with “separatist propaganda” for publishing a U.S. journalist’s book about Turkey’s Kurdish minority population, was convicted and sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, which the court converted to a fine of about US$500. An Istanbul State Security Court ruled on Wednesday that…
New York, July 31, 2002—Three weeks after it was refused a radio license, the independent Tajik news agency Asia Plus was informed that it will receive permission to broadcast—and become the first private broadcaster to serve the capital, Dushanbe. On July 29, Tajik president Imomali Rakhmonov met with Umed Babakhanov, director of Asia Plus, and…
New York, July 25, 2002—To mark the one-year anniversary of the murder of Georgy Sanaya, a popular anchor for the Tbilisi-based independent television station Rustavi-2, Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Ann Cooper issued the following statement: “We are disheartened that one year after Georgy Sanaya’s July 26, 2001, murder, justice has not been done.…
New York, July 25, 2002–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by news reports that Czech investigative reporter Sabina Slonkova was the target of a murder plot allegedly planned by Karel Srba, the former general secretary of the Czech Foreign Ministry. Srba was arrested on July 19–in addition to three others who were arrested…
Eritrea: FESSHAYE YOHANNES Languishing in prison since the fall of 2001, prominent Eritrean journalist Fesshaye Yohannes staged a hunger strike in May with nine other colleagues in hopes of spurring their release. Instead, government officials transferred the journalists to an undisclosed location–and no one has heard from them since. Fesshaye (who is also known as…
Bangladesh: TIPU SULTAN For Tipu Sultan, an award-winning free-lance reporter from Bangladesh, writing the truth almost cost him his life. On January 25, 2001, Sultan was abducted and savagely beaten by about 15 thugs wielding baseball bats, hockey sticks, and iron rods after producing an article accusing a local legislator of criminal activity. Joynal Hazari,…
Kazakhstan: IRINA PETRUSHOVA Fearless journalism runs in Irina Petrushova’s family. A generation ago, her father, Albert Petrushov, a reporter for Pravda, wrote exposés that brought down the corrupt Communist Party boss of Kazakhstan, then a republic in the Soviet Union. Now Irina, 36, and the founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly Respublika, routinely challenges post-Soviet…
Colombia: IGNACIO GÓMEZ Colombia is a country of terrible secrets, none of which are safe from Ignacio Gómez. In almost two decades as an investigative reporter, Gómez has exposed alliances between drug lords and politicians, foreign mercenaries operating in Colombia, corrupt soccer teams, and the role of the Colombian military and paramilitary forces in many…