New York, April 7, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an order by the Yemeni government this weekend to cancel the license of the independent weekly newspaper Al-Wasat. On Saturday, Yemeni Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi ordered the newspaper’s license terminated because the paper had damaged relations with Saudi Arabia, and violated technical provisions of the…
Leading independent editor sentenced to six months in jail New York, March 26, 2008―The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the six-month jail term handed down today to a leading Egyptian editor and urges the appeals court to overturn the conviction. The Boulak Abul Ela Court of Misdemeanor, on the outskirts of Cairo, sentenced Ibrahim Eissa,…
New York, March 24, 2008―The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by an upcoming court ruling in Cairo that might send a leading Egyptian editor to prison. The ruling is expected on March 26. Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of the daily Al-Dustour and one of Egypt’s top critics of President Hosni Mubarak’s 27-year rule, was charged…
“Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam,” Sheikh Barrak was quoted by Reuters as saying in his March 14 religious edict. “We are extremely worried about the safety of our colleagues…
New York, March 19, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Iranian government’s ban on nine lifestyle and cinema magazines because of their content about foreign film stars and their promotion of “superstitions.” This latest wave of shuttering publications, spearheaded by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, occurred on Sunday. The Press Supervisory Board, part…
New York, Mach 18, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by three-month prison sentences handed down to five Jordanian journalists in two separate defamation cases in a week. Editor Taher al-Adwan and reporter Sahar Qassam of the Arabic daily Al-Arab al-Youm, former Ad-Dustour editor Osama Sharif, and Ad-Dustour reporter Fayez Louzi were sentenced…
Jehad Nga, freelance photographer On arriving at the beginning of the war When we arrived in Baghdad, as you can imagine, Baghdad was basically ablaze. The Americans had created a safety zone around the Palestine Hotel; otherwise the city was in a state of anarchy. As you can imagine, every journalist on the face of…
James Glanz, New York Times Baghdad bureau chief On managing the bureau All of us live basically in walled compounds. It’s easy for us to get out in the area of Baghdad. We just go out the door and there we are in the Baghdad commercial district. Usually we’ll have some sort of missions planned…
Bobby Ghosh, Time magazine, world editor On Iraqi staff The journalists arriving in Iraq after that period–let’s say between the spring of 2006 and today–only get to see little slivers of the country, you can see the Green Zone which is not really Iraq, its this sort of strange artificial construct, and you can maybe…