Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by your stated intention of banning private radio stations from broadcasting in Kenya’s vernacular languages. On August 31, 2000, at the opening of the Agricultural Society of Kenya show in Mombasa, you accused private stations that broadcast in languages other than English and Kiswahili, Kenya’s two official languages, of undermining national unity and promoting tribal chauvinism. You also ordered Attorney General Amos Wako and Information, Transport, and Communication Minister Musalia Mudavadi to draft legislation that would force private stations to broadcast only in English and Kiswahili.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely disturbed by a National Assembly member’s recent attempt to strangle journalist Chahana Takiou of the private biweekly newspaper L’Independant. This bizarre incident occurred August 30 inside the National Assembly building in the capital, Bamako, CPJ sources say. Takiou was apparently reporting a story when Mamadou Gassama Diaby, a member of parliament from the ruling Democratic Alliance of Mali (ADEMA), assaulted him. Diaby punched and kicked Takiou several times before seizing him by the neck and attempting to throttle him.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by recent indications that censorship regulations are still fully in force in Sri Lanka, despite earlier assurances by the media minister that these restrictions would be lifted by mid-August, well in advance of the upcoming parliamentary elections. CPJ believes that it is impossible to hold free and fair elections in a country where media are subject to censorship regulations.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed at your government’s ongoing persecution of two Kinshasa weekly newspaper editors: Emile-Aimè Kakekese Vinalu of Le Carrousel, and Jean-Pierre Ekanga Mukuna of La Tribune de la Nation. Both journalists have been charged with high treason and face the death penalty if convicted, according to CPJ sources.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the August 26 bombing attack on the offices of two publications in Imphal, Manipur. The attack comes just one week after newspaper editor Thounaojam Brajamani Singh was assassinated on the streets of Imphal.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about press-freedom violations in Paraguay since the August 13 vice-presidential elections. In the tense climate that followed the elections, several Paraguayan journalists have been attacked and threatened, according to CPJ sources and local press reports.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about press-freedom violations in Paraguay since the August 13 vice-presidential elections. In the tense climate that followed the elections, several Paraguayan journalists have been attacked and threatened, according to CPJ sources and local press reports.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the illegal arrests of Rauf Arifoglu and Etibar Djebrayiloglu, respectively editor-in-chief and special correspondent of the opposition daily Yeni Musavat, and by the illegal banning of the independent newspaper Uch Noqte. We fear that these and other incidents constitute an organized government campaign to stifle independent journalism in Azerbaijan during the run-up to the November 5 parliamentary elections.