Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned about an ongoing campaign by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and prosecutors to intimidate and obstruct the work of independent journalists reporting on the ongoing war in and around the southern republic of Chechnya.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that a bill to repeal the crime of desacato (disrespect) has been languishing in Congress for more than a year. We urge you to use the power of your office to expedite the elimination of these anachronistic provisions.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at your government’s harassment and intimidation of three Zimbabwean journalists working for international news agencies, which has forced them to flee the country in fear for their security. Last week’s police action against freelance reporters Angus Shaw, Brian Latham, and Jan Raath seems aimed at silencing these senior journalists in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s general elections on March 31. CPJ is also disturbed to learn of police accusations against another freelance journalist, Cornelius Nduna, who has been forced into hiding.
Dear President Bush: The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned about the dramatic decline in press freedom under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tenure, including a recent surge in new media restrictions spearheaded by the Kremlin and its allies.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled that Radio France Internationale’s (RFI) FM broadcasts in Djibouti have been cut since January 14. According to RFI and French media reports, Djiboutian authorities silenced the broadcaster because of its report on an ongoing French legal inquiry into the 1995 death in Djibouti of Bernard Borrel, a French judge. RFI reported on January 12 that a French court had summoned the head of the Djiboutian secret services, Hassan Saïd, as a witness in the inquiry. An earlier French inquiry conducted in Djibouti had concluded that Borrel committed suicide.
Dear Ambassador Shrestha: Thank you for meeting with Joel Simon, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and CPJ Washington, D.C., Representative Frank Smyth last week. As communicated in that meeting, CPJ is deeply alarmed at the treatment of Nepalese journalists since King Gyanendra’s February 1 declaration of a state of emergency, and we urged your government to restore press freedom immediately in the interests of your nation’s citizens and its international standing. We greatly appreciate your offer to convey our grave concerns to the king.
Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by recent statements Your Highness made threatening to suspend or shut down newspapers that publish information related to the Kuwaiti government’s current fight against religious extremists.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by an ongoing government ban on news programming on Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), a popular, privately owned station based in Mutsamudu, capital of the semi-autonomous island of Anjouan.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is heartened by your stated commitment to improve the poor press freedom climate in Ukraine. There is much to be remedied–and many benefits to be gained–as your administration ushers in what is widely hoped to be a new democratic era.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed that the Ministry of Justice suspended two Arabic-language weeklies. According to press reports and local journalists, intelligence agents notified the editors of the Oujda-based weeklies Al-Sharq and Al-Hayat Al-Maghribiya on January 18 that they were to cease publication of their weeklies immediately for three months on order of the ministry.