New York, April 5, 2002— CPJ is outraged that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at reporters outside the Ramallah compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israeli troops fired stun grenades at a group of at least two dozen reporters attempting to cover the pending arrival of U.S. Mideast envoy Anthony…
New York, May 10, 2002–In the latest wave of Iran’s ongoing crackdown on the press, the country’s conservative Press Court has sentenced two journalists to prison and banned three newspapers during the last two weeks. CPJ learned that on May 8, Iran’s Press Court convicted Mohsen Mirdamadi, a member of Parliament and director of the…
New York, May 8, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Monday, May 6, confiscation of the intellectual and political magazine Wijhat Nadhar. Wijhat Nadhar editor El-Mostafa Soulaih told CPJ that staff contacted him from Al-Najah al-Jadidah printing press in Casablanca and told him that agents from the secret service, the Direction de la…
New York, May 3, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prison sentence imposed last week on Egyptian journalist Ahmed Haridy, editor of the online daily newspaper Al Methaq Al Araby. On April 28, Haridy was sentenced to six months in prison after the Boulak Abu al-Aila Misdemeanor Court in the capital, Cairo, found him…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the Israeli government’s continued detention of several journalists in the West Bank. As of today, at least three journalists are in Israeli custody after being arrested while carrying out their professional duties. The IDF has so far provided no explanation for their detentions.
New York, May 2, 2002–CPJ condemns the recent sentencing of Iranian reformist journalist Ahmed Zaid-Abadi, a writer for the newspaper Hamshahri, to 23 months in prison. On April 29, The Associated Press quoted Zaid-Abadi’s wife as saying that he was originally charged in August 2000 with “insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and publishing lies…
New York, May 2, 2002—CPJ is deeply concerned about the draft Supreme Radio and Television Board Bill currently being debated by the Turkish Parliament. The bill was passed last year but vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in June 2001. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s government recently resubmitted the bill to Parliament. Under the new law,…
April 24, 2002, New York—CPJ deplores the continuing harassment of journalists by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops deployed in the West Bank. In the most recent incident, the IDF today detained Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, who was CPJ’s 2001 International Press Freedom awardee, and Hussam Abu Alan, a photographer for Agence-France Presse (AFP). IDF troops…
Your Royal Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest an incident over the weekend in which Saudi authorities confiscated videotapes and a laptop computer from Dr. Bob Arnot, a reporter for the U.S. cable television channel MSNBC. On April 21, security officials at the Riyadh airport escorted Dr. Arnot off a flight to Dubai, in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. The officials demanded video footage that Dr. Arnot had gathered during his reporting trip to Saudi Arabia, which the journalist undertook with Saudi government permission.