Getting Away With Murder 2009
CPJ’s Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free New York, March 23, 2009 — The already murderous conditions for the press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists…
Iraqi paper, former editor fined for defaming president
New York, March 16, 2009–The court of appeals in Iraqi Kurdistan should overturn yesterday’s decision to fine an independent newspaper and its former editor-in-chief for defaming Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The defamatory article was a translation of one written in 2008 by a U.S. scholar.
Two Iraqi journalists killed, four more injured
New York, March 10, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the deaths today of Al-Baghdadia TV correspondent Haidar Hashim Suhail and the channel’s cameraman Suhaib Adnan, who were among more than 30 people who were killed when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonated himself in the town of Abu Ghraib, south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi cameraman’s pursuit of surgery continues
When Iraqi cameraman Jehad Ali came to the United States last September to have corrective surgery for severe injuries he sustained in a December 2005 attack by gunmen in Baghdad, the plan was to spend two months in Valencia, California. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Donald Wiss had offered to waive his fee and the Henry Mayo Newhall…
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Iraq
Eleven journalists were killed because of their work, making Iraq the most dangerous nation for the press for the sixth consecutive year. Nevertheless, the figure was the lowest yearly toll since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003–and two-thirds lower than the annual figures for 2007 or 2006.
Iraqi journalists harassed covering provincial elections
New York, January 29, 2009–Journalists in at least three Iraqi cities were harassed on Wednesday as police, soldiers, prisoners, some government employees, and displaced persons kicked off the early voting phase of Iraq’s provincial councils elections, according to local and international news reports and journalists who spoke to CPJ.
CPJ urges Obama to assert U.S. leadership on press freedom
Dear President-elect Obama: I am writing as chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists to seek your leadership in reaffirming America’s role as a staunch defender of press freedom throughout the world. Journalists in many countries who risk their lives and liberty upholding the values of free expression look to the United States for support.