Your Excellency: We are writing to express alarm over the deteriorating human rights situation and growing repression of freedom of expression in Eritrea. In particular, we are concerned about the ban that your government has imposed on all independent non-governmental press since September 2001, when an unknown number of critics of your government were detained. Those detained include more than a dozen journalists who have been incarcerated for over three years without being formally charged.
Dear Sir: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to request an immediate and thorough investigation into the murder of Venezuelan journalist Mauro Marcano, who was killed by unidentified attackers while he was leaving his home on September 1 in the city of Maturín, the capital of eastern Monagas State.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the August 31 police attack on Guatemalan journalists covering the eviction of peasants from a ranch in the southern department of Retalhuleu. The police operation ended with several deaths and scores of injuries.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by an alarming government attack against the Lagos-based news magazine Insider Weekly, one that is fundamentally at odds with the most basic democratic principles. Members of the State Security Service (SSS) recently raided the newspaper, arrested employees, seized equipment, censored the news, and shut its…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned about an escalating campaign of intimidation and harassment against independent and opposition journalists in Tajikistan. The actions are further eroding press conditions at the very moment your citizens most need a free press–for the run-up to parliamentary elections in early 2005.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about an August 15 arson attack on the home of Gambian journalist and BBC correspondent Ebrima Sillah, and recent threats against local independent journalists. About 3 a.m., attackers broke through the windows of Sillah’s house, poured gasoline, and set fire to the building, causing extensive damage. The house is located outside the capital, Banjul.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that Tewodros Kassa, the imprisoned former editor-in-chief of the Amharic language weekly Ethiop, has been newly convicted on a four-year-old defamation charge, delaying his scheduled release from prison.
Minister al-Naqib: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the reported detentions of several Baghdad-based staff members of the official Iranian news agency IRNA. Iraqi police detained Mostafa Darban, IRNA’s Baghdad bureau chief, and as many as three Iraqi staff members on Monday, according to international news reports. The circumstances of the reported detentions remain unclear.