Dear Prime Minister Brown, The Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonpartisan organization committed to promoting global press freedom, welcomes your visit to China at this crucial time in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. Your trip provides a unique opportunity to encourage Chinese leaders to meet the pledges they made when they were awarded the Games in 2001 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Dear President Nguyen, The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by the recent spate of arrests, detentions, and trials of journalists in Vietnam. Even though Article 69 of your country’s constitution broadly protects press freedom and freedom of expression, your government has continued to use criminal and national security laws to arbitrarily stifle these essential freedoms.
Dear President Bush: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you in advance of your expected meetings next week with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. We would like to draw your attention to the ongoing imprisonment of two journalist bloggers as well as to other restrictions on the press in each country.
Dear President Nguyen, The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the November 17 arrest and continued imprisonment of Somsak Khunmi, a long-time news assistant with the Japan- and U.S.-based Chan Troi Moi (Radio New Horizon) radio program.
Dear President Rajapaksa, As your government prepares to withdraw from its 2002 cease-fire agreement with Tamil separatists, the Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by reports that members of your government have tried to intimidate journalists in the Sri Lankan media in recent weeks. In at least two instances, an official used the word “traitor” against a journalist, which is decidedly inflammatory in a country that has seen civil war rage since 1983.
Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned about the upcoming trial of Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for the Bengali-language daily Dainik Sangbad, based in Rajshahi.He is charged with extortion, but we believe Akash has been unfairly targeted because of his investigative reporting, and we are greatly concerned about his health.
Mr. President, The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes your recent directive to Nigeria’s federal police to renew investigations into all unresolved criminal cases, particularly assassinations. As an organization of journalists dedicated to defending our colleagues worldwide, we would like to draw your attention to a pattern of impunity in the violent murders and disappearances of at least five Nigerian journalists since 1986.
Dear Secretary Rice, In advance of your meeting with Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa, the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw your attention to our concerns regarding press freedom conditions there. You may know that 15 Ethiopian journalists were recently released from prison, but this development belies the country’s sustained record of contempt for independent media, which manifests itself in a variety of legal and administrative restraints. The 15 jailed journalists were sentenced on trumped-up charges such as genocide in connection with the media’s coverage of Ethopia’s 2005 post-election unrest.
Dear Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, We are greatly disturbed by your government’s decision on Friday to stop satellite re-transmission of GEO TV and ARY One World Television through the Dubai Media City. The fact that the stations remain off the air five days after the decision undermines the stated aim of the United Arab Emirates “to transform Dubai into a knowledge-based society and economy” as described on the Media City Web site.