Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to strongly protest the ongoing detention of Ibrahim Hemaidi, the veteran Damascus bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat. According to media reports and sources at Al-Hayat, Syrian police detained Hemaidi on December 23 in connection with a December 20 article he wrote. The article discussed the Syrian government’s alleged preparations for a possible influx of Iraqi refugees in the event of a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The Syrian government has denied the allegation, and Al-Hayat published a statement from the Syrian government to this effect on December 24.
New York, December 23, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of French television reporter Patrick Bourrat, who was killed in an accident while covering U.S. military exercises in northern Kuwait. Bourrat, a veteran 50-year-old reporter with France’s TF1, died yesterday of injuries sustained on December 21, 2002 when he was struck by…
There were 139 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2002 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is up significantly from the previous year, when 118 journalists were in jail. An analysis of the reasons behind this increase is contained in the introduction.At the beginning of 2003, CPJ sent…
New York, November 11, 2002—Yasser Abu Hilala, a columnist for Al-Rai newspaper and a former correspondent for Al-Jazeera satellite channel, and his cousin, Samir Abu Hilala, who writes for the daily Al-Arab al-Youm, were released today by Jordanian authorities after being held for 24 hours. Yesterday, Jordanian police and intelligence agents detained Yasser Abu Hilala…
New York, November 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of prominent Iranian journalist and reform politician Abdullah Nouri. On Tuesday, November 5, Iranian authorities announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had commuted the remainder of Nouri’s five-year prison term. The pardon came while Nouri was furloughed from prison to attend…
New York, November 4, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s decision by Kuwaiti authorities to suspend Al-Jazeera’s Kuwait bureau. Saad al-Enezi, the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Kuwait, told CPJ he received a telephone call from the Ministry of Information yesterday informing him of the Kuwaiti government’s decision. He said that no specific reason…
New York City, October 28, 2002—Iraqi officials have denied reports that the government has expelled foreign journalists from the country. On Friday, CNN reported that its Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, and five other non-Iraqi reporters and staff members were ordered to leave the country by today, because officials were angered by the network’s coverage,…
New York, October 25, 2002—Iraq’s government has ordered a number of foreign news reporters to leave the country after their recent coverage of events inside Iraq angered authorities. The U.S. network CNN reported that its chief Baghdad correspondent, Jane Arraf, and five other non-Iraqi reporters and staff members were ordered to leave the country by…
New York, October 22, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes today’s release of Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Hussam Abu Alan, who had been held by Israeli authorities without charge for nearly six months. Abu Alan was detained on April 24 at the Beit Einun checkpoint north of the West Bank town of Hebron while…
New York, October 21, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges the Israeli government to release Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Hussam Abu Alan, who has been held without charge for nearly six months. According to AFP’s Jerusalem bureau, Abu Alan’s period of administrative detention is scheduled to expire tomorrow. Abu Alan was detained on April…