Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about proposed amendments to the Books and Newspapers Act that would dramatically increase the mandatory publication-licensing bond. Under the amended Act, new publications would be required to post a bond of 1 million shillings (US$13,459) as security for any monetary penalty that might arise from criminal proceedings against them. This represents a hundred-fold increase over the current bond of ten thousand shillings (US$134.59).
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent harassment of three Portuguese television journalists, who were detained for three days by police in the Indonesian province of West Timor before being forced to leave the country.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by the recent arrest and detention of Andrei Babitsky, a 10-year veteran reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Russia. Babitsky had been covering the conflict in Chechnya from the capital city of Grozny until his disappearance on January 15. Despite initial claims denying any knowledge of his whereabouts, a spokesman for your government acknowledged on January 28 that Babitsky was being held in Chechnya by Russian authorities because he did not have proper accreditation to report from the war zone. At the same time, your government has yet to confirm or deny charges published by the Russian news agency Interfax that Babitsky was arrested for “participating in an armed group.”
Your Excellency: On the occasion of the United Nations Security Council open briefing on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), scheduled to take place in New York on January 24, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wishes once again to express its grave concern over the appalling press freedom situation in the DRC.
Your Excellency: Ahead of the United Nations Security Council open briefing on Angola, scheduled to take place in New York on January 18, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wishes once again to express its deep concern over the deteriorating press freedom situation in Angola.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by today’s arrests of Zulkifli Sulong, the editor of Harakah, the biweekly newspaper of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and Chia Lim Thye, the owner of the company that prints Harakah and formally holds the newspaper’s publishing license.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly disturbed by the pressure your government has exerted on the independent television station ANS to block it from airing an interview with a Chechen rebel leader.