2005

CPJ Update February 15, 2005 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists Return to front page | See previous Updates

Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by recent statements Your Highness made threatening to suspend or shut down newspapers that publish information related to the Kuwaiti government’s current fight against religious extremists.

FEBRUARY 9, 2005 Posted: February 10, 2005 Abdul-Hussein Khazal, Al-Hurra KILLED—UNCONFIRMED Khazal, 40, and his son were gunned down outside their home around 8 a.m., Al-Hurra said in a statement. Khazal, who joined Al-Hurra in April 2004, also worked as a correspondent for the U.S.-funded radio station Radio Sawa, the station said.

New York, February 9, 2005—An Iraqi correspondent for the U.S.-funded television station Al-Hurra and his 3-year-old son were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the city of Basra today, according to Al-Hurra and international press reports. Abdul-Hussein Khazal, 40, and his son were gunned down outside their home around 8 a.m. Iraq time, Al-Hurra said…

Washington, D.C., February 8, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met with Yemen’s ambassador to the United States, Abdulwahab Abdulla al-Hajjri, today to express deep concern about the imprisonment of a Yemeni opposition newspaper editor and a recent spate of criminal convictions handed down against several other journalists. Abdelkarim al-Khaiwani, editor of the…

FEBRUARY 7, 2005 Posted: February 11, 2005 All newspapers THREATENED In a meeting with leading Kuwaiti editors, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah warned that the Cabinet would suspend or permanently close newspapers that published information about ongoing state investigations of terrorism suspects or unauthorized information about the country’s security situation, according to international and…

FEBRUARY 4, 2005 Posted: March 14, 2004 Giuliana Sgrena, Il ManifestoABDUCTED Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, abducted on February 4, was released on March 4. Shortly after her release, she was wounded and an Italian intelligence agent escorting her was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed that the Ministry of Justice suspended two Arabic-language weeklies. According to press reports and local journalists, intelligence agents notified the editors of the Oujda-based weeklies Al-Sharq and Al-Hayat Al-Maghribiya on January 18 that they were to cease publication of their weeklies immediately for three months on order of the ministry.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to protest the continued detention of Mohamed al-Oshen, editor-in-chief of the Riyadh-based Islamist weekly Al-Mohayed, who has been in detention for almost two weeks.