Letters

Dear Prime Minister al-Maliki: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) would like to bring to your attention several issues that harm press freedom in Iraq. In recent months, our organizations have documented a number of assaults and instances of harassment committed by government officials against journalists in various parts of the country under the control of Iraq’s central government.

Forty members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) have signed on to a letter calling on the international community to press for the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling

Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing ahead of your scheduled speech in Cairo on June 4 to bring to your attention important matters that are crucial to the long-term success of your stated goal of engaging the people–and not just the regimes–of the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to express its concern about your government’s recent crackdown on media outlets that have covered civil unrest in the southern part of Yemen.

Dear Prime Minister Najib: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express its longstanding concerns about Malaysia’s restricted media environment and to urge you to undertake reforms that allow for greater press freedom, both for the mainstream and fast emerging online news media.

Dear President Lee: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by your administration’s increasing pressure on the Republic of Korea’s media. The arrest on April 28 of four staff members with your country’s second-largest broadcaster, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), is only the most recent step in what appears to be a broader effort to stifle independent reporting critical of government policies.

Dear Governor Kahongya: We are concerned about the safety of journalist Tuver Wundi Muhindo following an armed attack on his home in the North Kivu capital of Goma on April 12. The incident followed the 2007 murder of Goma photojournalist Patrick Kikuku Wilingula, which is still unsolved. We call on you to use your influence to ensure authorities conduct a thorough and transparent investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Dear Prime Minister Barzani: The Committee to Protect Journalists would like to bring to your attention the deterioration of press freedom in Kurdistan. There has been an alarming wave of politically motivated criminal lawsuits filed against mostly independent journalists as well as blatant violations of the region’s new press law. The law has no provisions for jail terms for journalists, but journalists are still being imprisoned.

Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to protest the rising incidence of press freedom violations, many of which occurred during the recent electoral campaign that resulted in your re-election to a third term.

Your Majesty: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to protest the ‎recent deterioration of press freedom in Bahrain and your government’s ‎ongoing campaign against critical or ‎opposition Web sites and blogs. The crackdown against those sites has resulted ‎in dozens of them ‎being blocked inside the kingdom, according to local and international human rights and ‎press ‎freedom watchdogs. ‎