Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the health of Nizar Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement at Mezze military prison in Damascus. Our organization has recently received reports that Nayyouf continues to suffer from Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, and that his life may be in jeopardy unless he receives proper treatment.
Your Excellency, I am writing to express concern about Nizar Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement at Mezze military prison in Damascus. I would like to request a meeting with you later this month in New York to discuss his case.
Washington, D.C., March 25 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported today in its annual worldwide study of press freedom that at least 118 journalists were in prison in 25 countries at the end of 1998, and 24 journalists in 17 countries were murdered during the year in reprisal for their reporting.
Call for crackdown on China’s press In its effort to revive traditional socialist values, the Chinese Communist Party at its annual plenum in October resolved to tighten its grip on ideology and exert greater social control–a move that offers little hope for the relaxing of press restrictions in China.