Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the recent violent attack on journalists by government security forces. On Tuesday, January 4, police acting as security at a meeting of the National Executive Council of Your Excellency’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the capital, Abuja, assaulted at least 10 journalists who were covering the meeting.
Dear Lieutenant General Yaalon: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the shooting of a Palestinian cameraman in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. On January 2, Majdi al-Arabid, who was on assignment for Israel’s Channel 10 TV, was shot in the stomach near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip while reporting on IDF operations against Palestinians suspected of firing rockets into Israel. Channel 10 reporter Sholmi Eldar, who witnessed the incident, told CPJ that IDF troops were responsible.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by new legislation that threatens press freedom in the Gambia. Last week, the National Assembly passed two pieces of legislation that impose criminal penalties for press offenses and could limit media ownership and development. CPJ urges Your Excellency not to sign this legislation into law.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the imprisonment of Eric Wirkwa Tayu, publisher of the small private newspaper Nso Voice, which is based in the western town of Kumbo. According to local sources, Tayu has been in prison in Kumbo since July 28, when he was convicted of defaming Kumbo’s mayor, Donatus Njong Fonyuy.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at your government’s continued clampdown on independent media in Zimbabwe, including proposed new legislation that could be used to jail journalists for up to 20 years. At a time when several other African countries are lifting criminal sanctions for press offenses, bringing their laws in line with international standards, Your Excellency’s government is preparing to introduce penalties that are among the harshest on the continent. This will only further impede Zimbabwe’s media, which already face other restrictive laws.
Your Excellency: Today marks the one-year anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor and publisher of the tabloid weekly Blitz. The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns Choudhury’s ongoing detention and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by Thursday’s violent attacks on four private newspapers in Abidjan, and by a government ban against eight newspapers. These grave attacks on press freedom came as hostilities resumed in the rebel-held north of the country. We are also alarmed at the silencing of three international radio stations in Abidjan, reportedly by an act of sabotage.
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the death of Iraqi freelance cameraman Dhia Najim, who was killed on Monday, November 1, while covering a gun battle between the U.S. military and Iraqi insurgents in the western city of Ramadi.