2004 IPFA dinner remarks
Remarks by Ann Cooper, Executive Director of CPJ At this event we celebrate the courage of individual journalists and we demonstrate our collective determination to thwart forces that would silence the press. Those collective efforts over the past 12 months have helped win the early release of journalists imprisoned for their work in Tunisia, in…
Journalist detained in Fallujah by U.S. troops
New York, November 17, 2004—A freelance journalist working for The Associated Press and the Arabic-language, Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya has been detained by U.S. troops in Fallujah since November 11, according to staff at Al-Arabiya. Najwa Kassem, a correspondent for Al-Arabiya, told CPJ that the station lost contact with Abdel Kader Saadi, a reporter and…
Government instructs media to promote leadership’s positions
New York, November 12, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by a new directive from Iraqi authorities that warns news organizations to reflect the government’s positions in their reporting or face unspecified action. The warning came in a statement released Thursday but dated November 9 by the government regulatory Media High Commission. The…
Internet journalists targeted as government turns repressive gaze toward Web
New York, November 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the latest arrest in the Iranian government’s weeks-long crackdown on the press, which has focused heavily on Internet journalists and led to numerous imprisonments without formal charge. At least eight journalists have been detained since the crackdown began in early September, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for…
Army finds no fault in Palestine Hotel shelling
New York, November 5, 2004—Nineteen months after a U.S. Army tank opened fire on a Baghdad hotel full of journalists, killing two and wounding three others, the Pentagon has released a redacted report concluding that coalition forces bore “no fault or negligence” in the shelling. In August 2003, the Pentagon had released summary findings about…
Columnist for opposition weekly is beaten, threatened
New York, November 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Tuesday’s vicious attack on Abdel Halim Kandil, an editor and columnist at the opposition weekly Al-Arabi. The attack occurred just before dawn on November 2, after Kandil’s colleagues dropped him off near his home in Cairo, according to local sources and press reports. Before entering…
CPJ calls for investigation into Iraqi journalist’s death
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the death of Iraqi freelance cameraman Dhia Najim, who was killed on Monday, November 1, while covering a gun battle between the U.S. military and Iraqi insurgents in the western city of Ramadi.
Baghdad car bomb kills five Al-Arabiya employees
New York, November 1, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalist condemns this weekend’s car bomb attack against the Baghdad bureau of the Dubai-based satellite broadcaster Al-Arabiya. Five station employees were among the seven killed, and more than a dozen other Al-Arabiya employees were wounded in the apparent insurgent attack on Saturday, the station staff told CPJ.