Letters

  

Iran: Banned newspaper’s editor convicted of “insulting Islam”

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest the conviction handed down yesterday against Latin Safari, director of the banned daily newspaper Neshat.

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Iran: Banned newspaper’s editor convicted of “insulting Islam”

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest the conviction handed down yesterday against Latin Safari, director of the banned daily newspaper Neshat.

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Yemen: Government continues to harass independent press

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its deep concern about continuing state restrictions on the press in Yemen. We are particularly dismayed by the authorities’ ongoing harassment of the thrice-weekly newspaper Al-Ayyamand the closure of the opposition weekly Al-Shoura.We call on Your Excellency to assume a leadership role to help reverse state restrictions on the press and to guarantee the right of journalists to practice their profession freely.

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Indonesian authorities threaten to prosecute blacklisted U.S. journalist Allan Nairn

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned over reports that Indonesian authorities intend to prosecute American journalist Allan Nairn for entering the country in violation of immigration laws. Nairn’s name appears on a “blacklist” compiled by the Indonesian armed forces, barring the journalist from reporting in Indonesia.

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Palestinian security officials arrest TV journalist for “dangerous security reasons”

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its deep concern about the arrest of Maher al-Dessouki, a television journalist with the independent Al-Quds Educational TV station. On the morning of September 15, Palestinian Preventive Security Services (PSS) agents arrested al-Dessouki in the West Bank city of Ramallah. According to the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW), he was accused by Palestinian authorities of “possessing material inciting against the PNA.”

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CPJ welcomes new Turkish amnesty law but presses for meaningful reform of press statutes

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing in response to the Turkish parliament’s approval last month of an amnesty law (law 4454 for 1999) that will secure the release of a number of jailed journalists and writers imprisoned on the basis of their published work and which is expected to temporarily cancel dozens of other prosecutions pending in court.

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Lebanese reporter abducted by Israeli security forces in occupied south Lebanon

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is writing to express grave concern about the case of Cosette Elias Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalism student and freelance reporter who was abducted by Israeli forces in the town of Rumaish in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon.

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Indonesia: American journalist detained in East Timor

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the Indonesian military’s detention of the American journalist Allan Nairn in Dili, the capital of East Timor. Nairn has been covering East Timor for the U.S.-based Pacifica Radio program “Democracy Now!” and the political weekly The Nation.

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Syria: Ailing journalist Nizar Nayyouf still in solitary confinement

Your Excellency, I am writing to express concern about Nizar Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement at Mezze military prison in Damascus. I would like to request a meeting with you later this month in New York to discuss his case.

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Jordanian press freedom still limited, despite legal reforms

Your Majesty: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) would like to extend a warm welcome to you on the occasion of your visit to the United States. CPJ supports Your Majesty’s efforts to initiate reform of the 1998 Press and Publications Law (PPL). As you are well aware, the 1998 PPL imposed sweeping restrictions on the press. As a result it became the subject of vigorous local and international protest. Parliament amended some of the more restrictive articles of that law in September. This is a welcome development which we hope will bolster freedom of the press in Jordan and lead to bolder reforms of Jordanian laws that inhibit free expression.

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