New York, March 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned that Israeli forces opened fire on a hotel housing numerous journalists near the West Bank city of Ramallah. In the early morning hours of March 12, Israeli forces directed heavy machine gun fire at the City Inn hotel, from which some 30…
New York, March 8, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at the recent detention of two Al-Jazeera cameramen by Egyptian security forces. Mohamed Ezzedine El-Najjar and Mohamed Eid Galal were filming a pro-Palestinian student protest at the campus of Alexandria University on the morning of March 5, according to sources at Al-Jazeera’s Cairo bureau.…
New York, March 5, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about a recent Jordanian court decision to delay the publication of the opposition weekly Al Majd. On March 3, the State Security Court banned the publication of the March 4 issue of Al-Majd unless the paper’s management agreed to remove two articles about…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that independent Algerian journalists are facing criminal prosecution for defaming the military under restrictive new laws passed in June 2001. During a February 25 court hearing, the Ministry of National Defense charged Selima Tlemcani, a journalist for the French-language daily Al-Watan, under the new law with defaming the army. In a December 11 article, Tlemcani had accused the military police of financial misconduct.
New York February 21, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the destruction of a Palestinian broadcasting facility in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces today. Early this morning in the Gaza city of Al-Shijaieh, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops entered a two-story building that houses offices and studios used by the Palestinian National Authority’s…
New York February 21, 2002–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the destruction of a Palestinian broadcasting facility in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces today. Early this morning in the Gaza city of Al-Shijaieh, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops entered a two-story building that houses offices and studios used by the Palestinian National Authority’s…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the recent suspension of the weekly newspaper Al-Shumou. CPJ has learned that the Ministry of Information issued an order for the indefinite closure of the newspaper on February 3. Seif al-Hadheri, Al-Shumou’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ that the ministry provided no explanation for its action and that officials have refused to discuss the matter with him. He surmised that the closure came in response to Al-Shumou’s various “criticisms of government ministers.”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the recent suspension of the weekly newspaper Al-Shumou. CPJ has learned that the Ministry of Information issued an order for the indefinite closure of the newspaper on February 3. Seif al-Hadheri, Al-Shumou’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ that the ministry provided no explanation for its action and that officials have refused to discuss the matter with him. He surmised that the closure came in response to Al-Shumou’s various “criticisms of government ministers.”
New York, February 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores the suspended prison sentences and fines imposed last week on two journalists from the weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire. On February 14, a Casablanca court of appeals convicted Abou Bakr Jamai, publications director of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, and Ali Ammar, the newspaper’s general director, of…