Alerts
2005
Jail sentence for online writer, the third this year
New York, September 22, 2005— The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the conviction of freelance journalist Zheng Yichun, the third Internet journalist this year to be sentenced to jail by Chinese authorities. A court in the northeastern port city of Yingkou on Tuesday handed Zheng a seven-year jail term to be followed by three…
Iraqi TV engineer killed in Mosul
New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the shooting of an engineer working for al-Iraqiya television in Mosul, the third killing of an Iraqi media employee in the northern city in less than a week. Ahlam Youssef was shot to death on Wednesday while driving with her husband, who was also…
Inquiry names Kuchma as mastermind in Gongadze murder
New York, September 22, 2005—A Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating the 2000 kidnapping and beheading of journalist Georgy Gongadze has accused former President Leonid Kuchma and three senior officials of plotting the murder. In an announcement to parliament on Tuesday the commission named Kuchma, late former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin, and Leonid…
CPJ demands end to Uzbek government’s crackdown on media
New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Islam Karimov to stop scapegoating the press and to end his government’s campaign of intimidation and repression against the independent media. The government crackdown, which has targeted several international news organizations in dozens of incidents over four months, is part of a…
Chinese Internet writer’s hunger strike reaches three weeks
New York, September 21, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned about the health of imprisoned freelance writer Zhang Lin, who has been on a hunger strike for three weeks. Zhang’s lawyer Mo Shaoping told CPJ that his client plans to wage the strike for 100 days to protest an unjust, five-year prison sentence…
Iraqi editor slain in Mosul, continuing a deadly trend
New York, September 21, 2005—An Iraqi editor working in the northern city of Mosul was gunned down outside his home on Tuesday, the third journalist killed in the country in four days and the second affiliated with the daily newspaper As-Saffir. The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at the killings, which continue a deadly…
Dmitry Kholodov’s parents allege improprieties in investigation
New York, September 21, 2005—The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear charges that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate and prosecute the 1994 murder of Moscow reporter Dmitry Kholodov, the journalist’s parents told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. Kholodov, a reporter for the independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, was killed in October…
Newspaper seized, editor questioned by police
New York, September 20, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the Rwandan authorities for seizing copies of the newspaper Umuco and harassing its editor who has criticized the government. CPJ also renewed its call for the release of Umuco journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage, who has been in jail without charge since September 7. On Sunday,…
Two Iraqi journalists kidnapped and murdered in separate attacks
New York, September 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the separate kidnapping and murder of two Iraqi journalists in the past two days. Fakher Haider of the New York Times was seized on Sunday night from his home in the al-Asmaey neighborhood of the southern city of Basra by several men claiming…
Reporter arrested, 15 others flee
New York, September 19, 2005— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrest today of a reporter with Kantipur publications in the mid-western district of Dailekh from which 15 independent journalists fled after being harassed by the military for their reporting of Nepal’s civil war. Authorities detained Harihar Singh Rathour, correspondent for the Kathmandu Post…