Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the Iraqi interim government’s closure of the Iraq offices of the Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. On August 7, the interim government barred Al-Jazeera from working in Iraq for 30 days, accusing the station of incitement to violence and hatred, according to news reports. Your Excellency announced the decision at a press conference, noting that an Iraqi media monitoring body had produced a report “on the issues of incitement and the problems Al-Jazeera has been causing.” You also said the ban was implemented to “protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq.”
Your Excellency: The July 9 slaying of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov in the capital, Moscow, is a grim reminder of the years-long pattern of deadly, unchecked violence against journalists in Russia that is damaging your nation’s international reputation and depriving your citizens of the independent reporting essential to democracy. Eleven journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings during your tenure–and four others have died as a result of other violent, work-related circumstances–yet no one has been brought to justice for these killings.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) protests the continued imprisonment of Maka Gbossokotto, publication director of the private French language daily Le Citoyen, who faces a verdict on Monday, August 9, in a trial on criminal defamation charges. We are also concerned by recent government threats against the independent press, which appear to be an attempt to stem criticism of authorities.
Dear Mr. Secretary: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that recent actions by the Department of Homeland Security have impeded access of foreign reporters to the United States, reversing long-standing U.S. government practice.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the detention of Abdulghani Memetemin, a writer, teacher, and translator from the northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. CPJ recently learned that Memetemin, who had actively advocated for the Uighur ethnic group in Xinjiang, has been detained since 2002 on charges of “sending secret state information out of the country.”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the Iraqi interim government’s formation of a media regulatory commission that reportedly will have the authority to restrict news coverage.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the Iraqi interim government’s formation of a media regulatory commission that reportedly will have the authority to restrict news coverage.
Dear Mr. Salas: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide, welcomes the Legislative Assembly’s initial approval of constitutional reforms that repeal the constitutional basis for desacato (disrespect) laws. We urge Panamanian legislators to ratify these reforms.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on you to address the climate of lawlessness that has led to the slayings of more than a dozen independent journalists in Russia in four years, most recently the July 9 murder of Paul Klebnikov, the 41-year-old editor of the Russian edition of Forbes Magazine.