Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent illegal closure of the privately-owned stations Star Radio and Radio Veritas. During the morning of March 15, heavily armed police officers under the command of Director of Police Paul Mulbah occupied the Star Radio compound in Monrovia and sealed its gate. Star Radio’s Internet-based news service was also interrupted. Meanwhile, police also sealed the compound housing Radio Veritas, which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) regrets that journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo continue to be persecuted because of their work, despite Your Excellency’s promises to respect press freedom. CPJ is particularly concerned about the prolonged detention of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, editor of the Kinshasa-based private weekly La Libre Afrique.
Your Excellency: As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the ongoing prosecution of newscaster Frank Bagonza Kimoone and reporter Joseph Kasimbazi of the community radio station Voice of Tooro.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the prosecution of free-lance journalist Rafael Marques, whose trial date has been set for March 9. We believe that the charges of criminal defamation pressed against Marques, and his continued harassment by the Angolan government, reflect Your Excellency’s deep-seated disregard for freedom of expression, an internationally-recognized human right. Based on this record, we have little confidence that Marques will receive a fair trial. We intend to monitor developments closely.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the physical and psychological abuse that veteran Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky has reported suffering at the hands of Russian forces during his detention at Chrernokozovo, a Russian detention camp near Grozny. We are also concerned that despite his release on February 29, after several weeks of captivity, Babitsky still faces criminal charges for allegedly traveling on a forged passport.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges you to order an investigation into the apparently illegal takeover of the independent television station Telekanal 25 in the Ajarian capital, Batumi. Late on the evening of February 19, former Batumi mayor and current Georgian parliamentarian Aslan Smirba forced three of Telekanal 25’s four owners to sign over 75 percent of the station’s shares to Mikhail Gagoshidze, whom CPJ’s sources describe as an unknown third party chosen by Smirba to be the station’s nominal owner.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the prolonged imprisonment of Krishna Sen, editor of the Nepali-language weekly Janadesh. Though police claim that Sen was freed on February 9 and arrested on an unrelated charge on February 13, CPJ has learned that Sen was never truly released. He has been in police custody for more than ten months, according to CPJ’s sources.
Your Honor: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by your decision to censor media coverage of the trial of former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. In an order delivered on February 25 in response to a petition filed by the prosecution, you reportedly said that any statements made by the defendants must be recorded by the court, which “will decide at the appropriate stage as to whether the same or part of it should not be released to the public or media.”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing yet again to protest the continued detention of journalist Andre Domingos Mussamo, who has been held for 86 days in Cuanza Norte province amid increasing concerns for his safety and his health.