2005

Independent Tunisian Journalists Still Face Harsh Attacks By Joel Campagna Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, London

New York, April 26, 2005–The Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement today in response to press reports that a U.S.-led inquiry has cleared U.S. troops of wrongdoing in a March 4 shooting in which Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena wounded. Italian officials have disputed the findings,…

New York, April 27, 2005— Sudanese security forces in Darfur, Sudan, detained an American freelance photographer yesterday as he photographed a refugee camp. Hartford-based Brad Clift is under house arrest at a United States Agency for International Development office building after being detained in Nyala in the Darfur region of Sudan, the daily Hartford Courant…

APRIL 26, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 Brad Clift, freelance IMPRISONED Sudanese security forces detained Clift while he was taking photographs at an internally displaced persons camp outside Nyala, capital of Darfur’s southern state. Clift works for The Hartford Courant but was in Sudan as a freelancer traveling with the relief group, Hartford Catholic Worker,…

APRIL 23, 2005 Posted: April 25, 2005 Saleh Ibrahim, APTN KILLED—CONFIRMED Ibrahim was killed by gunfire near the city’s al-Yarmouk Circle, the scene of an earlier explosion that he and his brother-in-law, AP photographer Mohamed Ibrahim, had gone to cover, according to The Associated Press. The AP said Mohamed Ibrahim suffered shrapnel wounds to the…

April 22, 2005, New York—The captors of three Romanian journalists and a translator threatened to kill their prisoners within four days unless Romania withdraws its troops from Iraq, according to a videotape that was broadcast today on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera. The video, which aired without sound, showed reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, of the daily…

April 22, 2005, New York—The captors of three Romanian journalists and a translator threatened to kill their prisoners within four days unless Romania withdraws its troops from Iraq, according to a videotape that was broadcast today on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera. The video, which aired without sound, showed reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, of the daily…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of three Yemeni media support staff, who have been held without charge since early this month. On April 3, Yemeni authorities detained freelance reporters James Brandon and Shane Bauer; bothers Munif Damesh and Munaf Damesh, who were working as fixers; and their uncle, Naif Damesh, who was working as the driver. The five men were detained at an army checkpoint while leaving the northern Yemeni city of Saada, where they had been reporting on fighting between the Yemeni army and fighters loyal to rebel Badreddine al-Hawthi. They were then taken to the offices of Yemen’s Political Security Organization in the capital Sanaa.

APRIL 21, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, Al-Wifaq LEGAL ACTION Al-Wifaq CENSORED Ahmed, an editor, was tried on criminal charges of insulting the Prophet Mohammed after publishing an April 21 article in the daily Al-Wifaq. The article, by the well-known Muslim historian Al-Maqrizi, called into question the Prophet Mohammed’s lineage, according…