Letters

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the continued detention of Hippolyte Agboh, publisher of the private weekly L’Exilé, who is being prosecuted on criminal defamation charges. We are equally concerned about the recent spate of reprisals against news organizations that have criticized your government.

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the recent assassination of political columnist José Luis López de la Calle. López de la Calle, a regular contributor to the Basque edition of the Madrid-based daily El Mundo, was gunned down outside his home on Sunday morning, May 7. Though no arrests have been made, Interior Ministry officials are reportedly attributing the crime to the Basque separatist group ETA.

Dear Mr. McKinnon, On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its concerns about press freedom violations in Malaysia and Sierra Leone, which have been Commonwealth member states since 1957 and 1961, respectively. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the leaders of these Commonwealth countries rank among CPJ’s “10 worst enemies of the press” for 2000.

Your Excellency: On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to remind you that the illegal detention of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, editor of the Kinshasa-based weekly La Libre Afrique, is entering its fifth consecutive month.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by your government’s recent crackdown on the Baku-based magazine Monitor Weekly and the continued harassment of its editor in chief, Elmar Huseynov.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing campaign of harassment against the independent, Harare-based paper The Daily News, whose offices were the target of a terrorist bomb attack on April 22.

Honorable Members of Parliament: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-governmental organization of journalists devoted to upholding press freedom worldwide, is concerned about draft Penal Code amendments, now under discussion in Parliament, that would substantially increase criminal penalties for defamation.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged about the recent closure of 14 Iranian newspapers and the imprisonment of journalists Akbar Ganji and Latif Safari.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the imprisonment of Nongthonbam Biren, chief editor of the Manipuri-language daily Naharolgi Thoudang, and Thounaojam Iboyaima, the author of a speech recently published in the newspaper.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by the recent assassination attempt against Amnat Khunyosying, owner and editor of the newspaper Phak Nua Raiwan, which is published in the northern city of Chiang Mai.