New York, July 15, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned about the safety of Natasa Odalovic, a correspondent for the U.S.-government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a columnist for the weekly Danas, which is based in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. “I have been under surveillance for the past three days and am very…
New York, July 15, 2002—Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper, was today acquitted of “publishing false information” and “abusing journalistic privileges.” However, Meldrum, the first journalist to be tried under Zimbabwe’s repressive new media laws, was ordered to leave the country within 24 hours. Meldrum, a U.S. citizen who has been…
New York, July 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just learned that Mario Prada Díaz, of the weekly El Semanario Sabanero in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia, was killed this week. His death occurred the same week in which another journalist in the region was threatened at gunpoint, one day after a…
New York, July 12, 2002—Palestinian free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died this morning from gunshot wounds he sustained yesterday in the West Bank town of Jenin. Said Dahla, a photographer for the official Palestinian news agency WAFA who was accompanying Abu Zahra, was also wounded. “We mourn the loss of our colleague Abu Zahra,” said…
July 10, 2002, Wednesday, BC cycle International News By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer HYDERABAD, Pakistan The trial of four Islamic militants charged in the killing of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl wrapped up Wednesday with prosecutors calling for the death penalty. Judge Ali Ashraf Shah scheduled court proceedings for Monday to hand down…
Manila, July 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about a case of mistaken identity that could jeopardize the safety of Philippine journalist Bernadette Tamayo, a veteran military correspondent with the People’s Journal newspaper. Military intelligence officials on the southern island of Mindanao have issued a “wanted poster” that mistakenly included a…
New York, July 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has censored media coverage of the resignation of prominent cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. According to a CPJ source in Tehran, the council, which is headed by the president and includes several top government officials, sent the written…
New York, July 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed that Israeli authorities continue to detain three Palestinian journalists—Reuters sound technician Youssry al-Jamal, photographer Hussam Abu Alan of Agence France-Presse, and Al-Quds newspaper reporter Kamel Jbeil. Al-Jamal was arrested on April 30 while filming near Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, and Abu Alan…
New York, July 10, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by today’s attack on Shahid Rashid, editor of the Urdu-language daily State Reporter. Rashid was shot this morning by masked gunmen as he rode his scooter to the newspaper office in the Chanapora area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir…
Bogotá, July 1, 2002—The owner of a radio station, who recently had alerted the public to the presence of paramilitary fighters in the region, was shot and killed in northeastern Colombia. Efraín Varela Noriega, owner of Radio Meridiano70, was driving home from a university graduation in Arauca Department on the afternoon of June 28 when…