Features & Analysis

On March 2, 2006, Kenyan state agents conducted a commando-style midnight raid on the Standard Group, owner of an independent daily and KTN Television in the capital, Nairobi. The agents seized computers and tapes, vandalized a printing press, and burned roughly 20,000 copies of The Standard, Chief Executive Officer Tom Mshindi told me recently in…

Internationally acclaimed Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi published a letter today on the Web site of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about his fiancee, jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. 

What you can do: Write a letter to your Iranian embassy or mission, and have your friends write letters too. Respectful language and a moderate tone will be most helpful for Roxana Saberi. 

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon spoke extensively to CNN.com’s Tom Watkins about the huge number of journalists imprisoned for their work around the globe. The piece comes at a time when two high profile cases–that of Roxana Saberi in Iran, and Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea–have put the spotlight on jailed journalists. Read…

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon and Senior Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría co-authored an op-ed that appeared today in the Spanish-language El Universal, a national paper based in Mexico City. The piece examines the importance of protecting freedom of expression in Mexico in light of increased violence and U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with counterpart Felipe Calderón.

CPJ’s Robert Mahoney says in an interview with NPR that Roxana Saberi’s trial was not transparent. He urges restrained rhetoric but continued advocacy and diplomacy with Iran. 

China’s National Human Rights Action Plan for 2009-2010 (English/Chinese), released Monday, contained plenty for the domestic media to praise, but enough omissions for international rights activists to jump on. 

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility reports today that a Philippine court has denied a motion to dismiss murder charges against two government officials accused of ordering the 2005 murder of journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat.

Eyewitnesses saw him being led away. “We were in our Banjul newsroom on July 7, 2006, working on the next issue of the Daily Observer, when two plainclothes officers with the Gambian National Intelligence Agency approached Chief,” wrote Observer editor and correspondent Ousman Darboe. “I knew one of the officers as a Corporal Sey. They…