No criminal charges against IDF soldier in journalist’s shooting death
New York, March 9, 2005—Israel’s army said today that it would not press criminal charges against a soldier thought responsible for the May 2003 shooting death of British freelance cameraman and film director James Miller in the Gaza Strip. In Tel Aviv, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mandelblith told members of Miller’s family that the soldier would…
CPJ urges ‘vigorous’ investigation into Baghdad shooting
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the events of March 4 when a car carrying the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena came under fire from U.S. forces while en route to Baghdad International Airport. Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed and Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto, was wounded. Sgrena, who was held by kidnappers for a month, had just been released.
Editor remains jailed
New York, March 8, 2005—Lawyers representing an imprisoned journalist were beaten by security forces during a hearing last week to appeal the prison sentence of Yemeni editor Abdelkarim al-Khaiwani. Jamal al-Jaabi, one of al-Khaiwani’s lawyers, told CPJ that the day of the hearing, March 2, he and colleague Naji Mohamed Allaw were invasively searched before…
Freed Italian journalist wounded by coalition fire
New York, March 4, 2005—Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release today and an Italian security agent was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad. Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who was held…
Freed Italian journalist wounded by coalition fire
New York, March 4, 2005—Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release today and an Italian security agent was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad. Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who was held…
French reporter abducted in Iraq pleads for help in video
New York, March 1, 2005—A French reporter who disappeared in Baghdad nearly two months ago appeared pleading for help in a videotape released today by her captors. In the videotape, Florence Aubenas, a correspondent for the French daily Libération, is shown looking pale and tired and states that she is in bad health, The Associated…
Kidnapped journalist killed in IraqJournalist injured in separate incident
New York, February 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the murder of Raeda Wazzan, a news anchor with the Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya who was kidnapped on February 20. Wazzan’s body was found on Friday, February 25, on a roadside in Mosul, where the journalist had lived and worked, according to…
BAHRAIN
FEBRUARY 27, 2005 Posted: March 14, 2005 Ali Abdel Imam, www.bahrainonline.com IMPRISONED Abdel Imam, an Internet writer, also known as a Web logger, or blogger, was summoned by prosecutors in the capital, Manama, and detained, according to sources in Bahrain. Abdel Imam is the founder and editor of www.bahrainonline.com, which features a blog with commentary…
IRAQ
FEBRUARY 25, 2005 Posted: March 1, 2005 Raeda Wazzan, Al-Iraqiya KILLED—CONFIRMED Wazzan, a news anchor with the Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya who was kidnapped on February 20, was found dead five days later on a roadside in Mosul, where the journalist had lived and worked, according to press reports citing her husband. She had…
CNN’s Jordan is gone, but questions remain over U.S. security record in Iraq
Committee to Protect Journalists This article appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on February 22, 2005 Posted: February 17, 2005 The media was abuzz over comments attributed to CNN news executive Eason Jordan that some of the several dozen journalists killed in Iraq were deliberately targeted by U.S. forces. Pundits, bloggers, columnists, and members of Congress…