Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is very concerned about the recent surge of criminal defamation cases brought against journalists in Algeria, including numerous cases filed in retaliation for critical coverage of Your Excellency. In the past week alone, at least four journalists have been convicted of criminal defamation and three have received prison sentences. Hundreds of cases are pending against local journalists, many involving charges of defaming Your Excellency, journalists have told CPJ.
New York, May 23, 2005—Three Romanian journalists and their translator were released Sunday after nearly two months of captivity in Iraq. The journalists arrived in Romania today. A group identifying itself as the Muadh ibn Jabal Brigade kidnapped reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, both of Bucharest-based Prima TV, and reporter Ovidiu…
Doha, Qatar, May 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report today to an ad hoc group investigating journalist safety issues. The group requested the statement from CPJ as part of its yearlong effort to study the causes and effects of the rising death toll of journalists worldwide. Known as the Committee of Inquiry,…
Doha, Qatar, Monday, May 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists has analyzed the deaths of journalists across the world for many years, producing two recent reports that highlight alarming trends in the circumstances, locations, and motives. At least 339 journalists were killed on duty between 1995 and 2004, according to CPJ research compiled in January.…
New York, May 17, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder of two Iraqi journalists on Sunday on a road in Latifiyah, a town about 25 miles south of Baghdad. Agence France-Press identified the journalists as Ahmed Adam and Najem Abed Khudair, who worked for the private Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada.…
New York, May 13, 2005—Authorities in Cairo today detained six Al-Jazeera employees and two freelance technicians covering a national gathering of judges, a station editor told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Hussein Abdel Ghani, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Cairo, said four Al-Jazeera staffers and the two technicians were preparing for a live transmission outside the…
New York, May 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed deep concern about the detentions of at least eight Iraqi journalists by U.S. and Iraqi military forces. CPJ called on U.S. and Iraqi officials to publicly explain the basis for the journalists’ continued detention. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan told CPJ that…
Dear Ambassador Al-Hajjri: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the continuing detention of two Yemeni media support staff members, Munif and Naif Damesh, who now have been held without charge for over a month. We wrote to Minister of Interior Rashad Muhammad al-Alimi on April 21, requesting Yemeni officials make public the reason for their detention. We have not received a reply to that letter.