Journalists expelled
New York, June 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s expulsion from Morocco of Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem, a reporter and photographer, respectively, with the Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenbladet. Dommersnes told CPJ that four plainclothes Moroccan security officers woke Refvem and him up in their hotel rooms in Rabat early yesterday…
Publisher sentenced to two years in prison
New York, June 16, 2004—Mohamed Benchicou, publisher of the French-language daily Le Matin, was sentenced by an Algiers court to two years in prison on Monday, June 14, for violating Algeria’s currency exchange laws, according to Youssef Razzouj, Le Matin’s editor. Benchicou was also ordered to pay a large fine, totaling several hundred thousand dollars…
Journalist imprisoned
New York, June 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the ongoing imprisonment of Hafnaoui Ghoul, an Algerian journalist and human rights activist who has been jailed since May 24 on defamation charges. Ghoul, who writes for the Algerian dailies El-Youm and Djazair News, was detained on May 24 by the police and…
BBC Cameraman killed in Saudi Arabia
New York, June 7, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, 36, who was shot to death yesterday by unidentified gunmen near Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, was also critically injured in the attack. The shooting occurred in Al-Suwadi, a suburb…
Japanese journalists, translator killed
New York, May 28, 2004—Two Japanese journalists and their Iraqi translator were killed on Thursday night when their car came under attack by gunmen in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Baghdad, according to news reports. Bangkok-based freelancer Shinsuke Hashida and his nephew Kotaro Ogawa, also a freelancer, had been traveling to Baghdad from…
AL-JAZEERA JOURNALIST KILLED
New York, May 21, 2004— Rashid Hamid Wali, assistant cameraman and fixer for the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, was killed by gunfire early this morning in the Iraqi city of Karbala, the station reported. According to a statement on Al-Jazeera’s Web site, Wali was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head when he…
JOURNALISTS ABUSED BY U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ
New York, May 18, 2004—Reuters news agency revealed today that three of its Iraqi employees were subjected to sexual abuse and humiliation in January, when they were arrested by U.S. troops near Fallujah while covering the aftermath of the downing of a U.S. helicopter. According to Reuters, U.S. troops detained cameraman Salem Ureibi, journalist Ahmad…