Turkey: Reporter Faces 12 Years in Prison for Article on Alleged Judicial Improprieties
First, let us take another look at the chronology of this terrifying event: Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan tells Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk that Prosecutor Oktar Cakir is “involved in malfeasance.” The Justice Minister then conveys this information to the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors, which will elect the new chief prosecutor of the…
CPJ asks amnesty for two journalists serving life sentences
Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to reiterate its concern about the plight of two journalists currently serving life sentences in Kuwait for their alleged collaboration with Iraq during its occupation of Kuwait 10 years ago.
Guatemala: Mob attacks newspaper for alleging government corruption
Your Excellency, We are writing to express our deep concern about the attack against the offices of the Guatemala City daily elPeriódico, which apparently resulted from the newspaper’s coverage of high-level corruption in your government.
Côte d’Ivoire: Journalists harassed for covering coup attempt
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the continued harassment of independent journalists in your country under the pretext of investigating the failed coup attempt of January 8, 2001. Most recently, on February 10, as many as thirty armed men and three uniformed police officers broke into the printing press where the independent Abidjan daily Le Jour is produced. The intruders forced a security guard to lie prone while they searched the premises for “arms and mercenaries.” A police helicopter hovered over the factory while the search was being performed. The men all claimed to be law enforcement officers, but did not have a search warrant. They claimed to be acting on an anonymous phone tip, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Venezuela: Preocupan al CPJ amenazadoras declaraciones de Chàvez
Su Excelencia: El Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) se encuentra alarmado por los numerosos casos de acoso e intimidación contra la prensa venezolana que hemos documentado durante las últimas seis semanas.
Pakistan: Journalists arrested for blasphemy
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed by the recent arrests of at least a dozen employees of the English-language newspaper The Frontier Post and its sister publication, the Urdu-language daily Maidan. District officials in Peshawar, where both newspapers are published, ordered the arrests and sealed The Frontier Post’s printing press without having conducted any investigation into allegations of blasphemy against the daily.
Indonesia: Foreign Minister seeks to limit journalists’ access to trouble spots
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by a proposal announced last week by Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab that could severely restrict foreign journalists from traveling to a number of crisis-prone regions in Indonesia.
Zimbabwe: “Unpatriotic” newspaper bombed
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns yesterday’s early-morning bombing of the printing press of the independent Daily News in Harare. Sunday’s attack is the second such bombing of the private daily in less than a year. These violent attacks appear to be part of a deeply disturbing campaign against the Daily News and its staff, which have suffered frequent and ongoing harassment at the hands of police and top-ranking officials of the ruling ZANU-PF.
CPJ Press Freedom Award Winner Held for “Dangerousness”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes yesterday’s release of independent journalist Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, who was imprisoned for two years because of his work, in clear violation of international law. We urge Your Excellency to release the two other journalists who remain behind bars, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Manuel Antonio González Castellanos.