Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the July 28 death of independent newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh. An autopsy attributed Yansaneh’s death to kidney failure. Yansaneh, acting editor of the daily For Di People, was assaulted on May 10 by a group of attackers. Prior to his death, Yansaneh alleged that Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan had ordered the attack, according to local sources and press freedom organizations. Hassan, a member of your Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was seeking at the time to evict For Di People and five other independent newspapers from the office space they had rented from her family for many years. The other newspapers were The Independent Observer, The Pool, The African Champion, The Pioneer and The Progress.
Dear Mr. Rodríguez: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom around the world, is deeply concerned about the investigation your office has opened against the Caracas-based daily El Universal after it published an editorial that criticized your office and the judiciary.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about your regime’s ongoing crackdown on independent journalists and media. Your government’s actions are especially troubling in the aftermath of the May 13 unrest in the northeast city of Andijan, during which security forces opened fire on antigovernment demonstrators, killing between 500 and 1,000 civilians, according to local and international human rights organizations and eyewitness accounts.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the detention in Kabul of journalists Rohullah Anwari and Shershah Hamdard, who were arrested while reporting on events in eastern Afghanistan’s Konar Province for the news agency Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The two reporters have been held for roughly one week; authorities have not disclosed charges against them or produced evidence of wrongdoing.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the criminal prosecution of three Chadian journalists in connection with their work. One of these journalists, Michaël Didama of the private weekly Le Temps, remains in jail in the capital, N’Djamena, more than two weeks after his initial arrest.
Dear Mr. Ruiz Ortiz: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of 31 employees of the Oaxaca-based daily Noticias who have been held inside the newspaper’s facilities for nearly two weeks after supporters of a pro-government union staged a strike outside the newspaper. We call on you to use the power of your office to bring an immediate end to this situation and allow the publication to resume its normal work.
Your Excellencies, We, the undersigned local and international press freedom and human rights organizations, call for the immediate release from prison of Abdi Farah Nur, editor of the weekly newspaper Shacab in Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Local journalists believe his detention is linked to critical articles in Shacab about the Puntland leadership and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Dear Prime Minister Kostunica: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply dismayed by the Serbian Interior Ministry’s failure to promptly respond to a credible death threat made against Grujica Spasovic, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based independent daily Danas (Today). An anonymous telephone threat was made to the newspaper on June 11 after Danas reported that your government has identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is hiding. We call on you to ensure that the threat is thoroughly investigated and that appropriate protection is provided to Spasovic.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that imprisoned journalist Paul Kamara has been denied due process of law. Administrative obstacles have prevented his appeal from being heard, according to his lawyer, and Kamara has now served more than eight months of a two-year prison sentence. His family and friends say he was transferred to solitary confinement four months ago.