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.
In advance of your June 21 meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to call your attention to the imprisonment of Vietnamese writers Pham Hong Son, Nguyen Khac Toan, and Nguyen Vu Binh for their journalistic work.
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld, We are writing to you as the executive directors of Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists to express our ongoing concern about the U.S. military’s failure to develop and implement adequate procedures at military checkpoints in Iraq. More than two years after the March 2003 invasion, flawed checkpoint procedures continue to unnecessarily endanger the lives of civilians and U.S. service members.