Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by this weekend’s arrest of veteran journalist Najam Sethi, founder and editor of the English-language weekly newspaper Friday Times. Sethi is the third Pakistani journalist arrested under suspicious circumstances in less than a week, prompting fears that your government is engaged in a campaign to silence the country’s independent press. All three men had been interviewed before their arrest by a BBC television crew preparing a report on high-level official corruption in Pakistan for the program “Correspondent.”
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns in the strongest terms today’s indictment of Andrew Finkel, a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul who reports for Time magazine and the Times of London and appears on CNN. In a hearing today, Finkel, a British national, was charged with “insulting state institutions” under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charge comes in response to a February 1998 article Finkel wrote for the daily Sabah titled “Shurnak 1998,” which discussed Turkey’s ongoing military operations against the Kurds in the southeast. An expert panel’s report, submitted to the court, concluded that Finkel did not insult the military. Another hearing has been scheduled for November 16, pending the report of a second panel of experts on the validity of the charges. If convicted, Finkel faces up to six years in prison.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by two recent violent attacks against journalists investigating corruption in Romania. On September 23, Marian Tudor, a reporter with the daily Jurnalul de Constantain the Black Sea port of Constanta, was assaulted by two unidentified assailants aboard a train traveling from Constanta to Bucharest. Tudor was delivering edited manuscripts for that day’s edition of Jurnalul de Constantato a printer in the capital.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by your government’s decision to ban nine local publications, many of which had yet to publish their first issue. On October 4, Viktor Guretsky, director of the State Press Committee’s licensing board, canceled the registration of nine Minsk-based publications, claiming they had failed to obtain local authorities’ approval for opening their offices, as required under a provision of the country’s press law. Guretsky claimed that his committee had hitherto enforced the provision only outside Minsk, adding that the publications concerned have one month to seek the needed authorization and reregister.
Your Highness, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-governmental organization of journalists devoted to upholding press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms the conviction and imprisonment of Dr. Ahmad Baghdadi, head of the political science department at Kuwait University and a regular contributor to the daily newspaper Al-Siyassa.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the recent killing of Indonesian journalist Agus Muliawan, who was among a group of nine church workers massacred on Saturday, September 25 as they traveled to Baucau from Lospalos, East Timor. The gunmen were identified in Western news reports as Indonesian troops or pro-Indonesian militia members.
Mr. Martin, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the killing of Agus Muliawan, an Indonesian journalist who was among a group of nine church workers massacred on Saturday, September 25, as they traveled to Baucau from Lospalos, East Timor. The gunmen were identified in Western news reports as Indonesian troops or pro-Jakarta militia.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed that journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of the Harare-based Sunday Standardnewspaper are to face trial in Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on October 4, despite widespread international outrage over their case.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to condemn the September 16 murder of Guzmán Quintero Torres, editor-in-chief of the daily El Pilónin Valledupar, capital of the northern Cesar Department. We urge you to ensure that those responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice.
Your Excellency, El Comité para Proteger a los Periodistas (CPJ) le escribe para condenar el asesinato el 16 de septiembre de Guzmán Quintero Torres, jefe de redacción del diario El Pilón de Valledupar, capital del departamento norteño de Cesar. Le exhortamos a garantizar que los responsables de este horrible crimen serán llevados a justicia.