The world’s most censored countries
Could you pick out Equatorial Guinea on the world map? Or Turkmenistan, or Eritrea? Probably not at the first attempt. These countries are usually below the radar of the international media, and the autocrats who run them like it that way. It helps them crush press freedoms and keep their population in the dark. That is why the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom group, has drawn up a league table of the world’s 10 most censored countries. We hope that the list, issued on World Press Freedom Day, will shine a light into the dark corners of the world where governments and their political cronies decide what people will read, see, and hear.
Two charged in Klebnikov murder acquitted
Editor’s note: The final paragraph has been amended to make clear that 12 murders remain unsolved. New York, May 5, 2006— A Moscow jury acquitted two Chechens today of the murder of Forbes Russia editor-in-chief Paul Klebnikov after a trial criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists for its lack of transparency.
Italian court frees journalist held after writing about serial murders
New York, May 3, 2006—Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist whose new book raises questions about a serial murder investigation, was released from a prison in the central city of Perugia on Saturday, according to local and international press reports. An appeals court that day ordered that Spezi be released immediately, but it did not issue…
Opposition editor placed in two-month pre-trial detention
New York, May 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the detention of an opposition newspaper editor for criticizing the president of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Viktor Shmakov, editor-in-chief of Provintsialniye Vesti (Provincial News), was arrested April 28 by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in Ufa, the capital of the semi-autonomous republic,…
Two journalists indicted for reporting on Iraq intelligence
New York, May 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the criminal charges brought against two Danish reporters accused of leaking state secrets by publishing intelligence reports that questioned the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Danish journalists say it is the first time that reporters have been indicted in their country…
Police detain two journalists preparing to cover opposition rally
New York, April 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns authorities in Belarus for preventing local and foreign journalists from covering an opposition rally in the capital Minsk on Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Police in the eastern city of Bobruisk detained journalists Nikita Bytsenko and Yuri Svetlakov of…