Two journalists shot and killed in separate attacks
New York, September 13, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of an Iraqi photographer today in Baghdad and a journalist in Diyala province yesterday by unidentified gunmen. Safa Isma’il Enad, 31, a freelance photographer for several outlets including the now-defunct newspaper Al-Watan, was shot in a photo print shop in Baghdad’s Ur neighborhood,…
Design editor of state-run paper murdered
New York, September 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of an editor of Iraq’s state-run daily Al-Sabah. Abdel Karim al-Rubai, 40, a design editor for the newspaper, was shot Saturday morning while traveling to work in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood known as Camp Sara by several gunmen. The driver of the car…
Authorities close prominent critical daily and a monthly
New York, September 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalist condemns the closure of Iran’s most prominent critical newspaper today for failing to remove an executive accused of publishing blasphemous articles and insulting officials. Authorities shuttered the daily Sharq saying it had not replaced managing director, Mohammad Rahmanian, as ordered in a letter on August 10,…
In Sudan, jailed U.S. reporter to be freed
New York, September 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the promised release of a U.S. reporter imprisoned in Sudan since August 6 on espionage charges. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed today to release Paul Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Chadian interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa, driver Idriss Abdelrahman Anu on…
Government suspends Al-Arabiya TV over sectarian violence claim
New York, September 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the decision of the Iraqi government today to close the Baghdad bureau of the Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya for one month. The station reported that police entered its Baghdad offices to halt operations after the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the suspension.
Journalist on trial for defamation missing for five days
New York, September 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that an Iraqi journalist on trial for defamation has been missing since Sunday morning. A source told CPJ that Ahmed Mutair Abbas, managing editor of the defunct daily Sada Wasit in the southern city of Kut, called Sunday morning to say that…
Editor kidnapped and beheaded
New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the kidnapping and beheading in Sudan of a newspaper editor. Masked gunmen bundled Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the private daily Al-Wifaq, into a car outside his home in east Khartoum late Tuesday. Police found his severed head next to his body today in…
Three Iraqi journalists face trial on defamation charges
New York, September 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the ongoing criminal prosecution of three Iraqi journalists whose trial on defamation charges resumes in Baghdad on Sunday. Editor-in-Chief Ayad Mahmoud al-Tamimi and Managing Editor Ahmed Mutair Abbas of the now-defunct Iraqi daily Sada Wasit, a local newspaper in the southern city…
Two killed in car bomb attack on Iraqi newspaper
New York, August 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Sunday’s deadly car bomb attack on the state-run daily newspaper Al-Sabah. The blast killed two people, injured 20 others, and caused severe damage to the newspaper building in Baghdad’s northern Waziriya district. The newspaper published on Monday despite the attack.