Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the Cuban government’s latest crackdown on the independent press, during which 27 journalists have been detained and await prosecution. The timing of these actions suggests that the Cuban government has taken advantage of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the U.S.-led war…
Dear Governor Ismail Khan: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent assault, detention, and expulsion from Herat of Ahmad Behzad, a reporter for the U.S.- funded Radio Free Afghanistan. On March 19, security agents in the western city of Herat assaulted and detained Behzad after the journalist raised questions about…
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to request information about the U.S. bombing of Iraqi state television facilities in Baghdad earlier this week. We are concerned that the Pentagon may have violated international humanitarian law in targeting these facilities. During the early morning hours of March 26, 2003 (Baghdad time),…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about your government’s enforcement of media restrictions under a state of emergency that has been in effect since the March 12 assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic. Natasa Micic, president of the Serbian National Assembly and currently acting president of Serbia, declared a state…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the safety of Shawkat Milton, a reporter for the Bengali-language national daily Janakantha who went into hiding on March 14 after learning that police were about to arrest him. The journalist had been covering campaign abuses committed by officials in the run-up to…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent arrest of Nguyen Dan Que, a writer and publisher of the underground magazine The Future. His detention is the latest move in your government’s ongoing crackdown on free expression in Vietnam. On March 17, Que was arrested outside his home in Ho Chi Minh…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about threats made against Belize journalist Melvin Flores, who fled to the United States. Flores began receiving threats and menacing telephone calls following the publication of an exposé about corruption in Belize City, the country’s largest metropolis. Flores, 33, is a prominent investigative journalist who…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about a recent threat allegedly made by a senior official of the Punjab provincial government to the Weekly Independent—a Lahore-based, English-language newspaper. On March 10, Punjab home secretary Ejaz Shah reportedly telephoned Weekly Independent publisher, Ilyas Mehraj, and told him, “Enough is enough. The…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about threats made against Vukasin Obradovic, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Vranje-based weekly Novine Vranjske, and Goran Antic, a reporter with the publication, in retaliation for reporting allegations of sexual abuse made against Serbian Orthodox Bishop Pahomije. The bishop’s secular name is Tomislav Gacic.…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about increased restrictions on press freedom in Togo ahead of presidential elections, which are scheduled for June. We are particularly alarmed by last week’s closure of private radio station Tropik FM, based in the capital, Lomé. On Friday, February 28, the High Authority for…