New York, August 17, 2004—Amid increased political violence, Bala Nadarajah Iyer, a journalist, writer, and political activist with the opposition Tamil group the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), was shot and killed yesterday, August 16, by unidentified assailants in the capital, Colombo. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns attempts during the weekend by Iraqi authorities to bar media from the Iraqi city of Najaf, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting Shiite insurgents. According to CPJ sources in Iraq, most journalists were forced to leave the city as a result of…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that a French-American journalist and his translator have gone missing in Iraq and may have been abducted. Micah Garen, a journalist with the U.S.-based Four Corners Media, and his translator Amir Doushi, were abducted Friday by two armed men in civilian…
New York, August 16, 2004—An unidentified gunman ambushed radio commentator Edward Balida in the public market in Valencia City, Bukidnon Province, on Friday, August 13. Balida, a broadcaster for the Bukidnon affiliate of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), survived the gunshot wound, which shattered his left hand, according to local media groups and news reports. The…
New York, August 13, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction of a British freelance journalist in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The journalist, James Brandon, was released today, according to international press reports. Brandon, a journalist working for The Sunday Telegraph of London and other media, was taken by gunmen at Al-Diyafa…
New York, August 12, 2004—Radio journalist Fernando Consignado was found dead in his home this morning in the town of Nagcarlan, 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of Manila, according to local news reports. Consignado, a correspondent for the Manila-based Radio Veritas, died of a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police investigators. The…
New York, August 12, 2004—The director of the shuttered Kyiv radio station Kontinent has arrived in Washington, D.C., after gaining refugee status from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In a telephone interview with CPJ, Sergey Sholokh said he fled Ukraine five months ago and applied for refugee status through the U.S. Embassy in Poland.…
New York, August 11, 2004—A Chinese high court today rejected the appeal of Internet essayist Du Daobin, who was convicted in June on charges of subversion. The Supreme People’s Court of Hubei Province in Xiaogan City upheld charges of “overtly instigating and subverting state power,” according to Xinhua state news agency. Today’s ruling upheld a…
New York, August 11, 2004—More than seven months after escaping from the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, two of the men charged in the April 2000 killing of prominent journalist Jean Léopold Dominique have been recaptured. Dymsley Millien was arrested August 1 in Port-au-Prince, and Jeudi-Jean Daniel was captured August 8 in the southern city of Jacmel,…
New York, August 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned by a U.S. federal judge’s ruling to hold a journalist in contempt of court for refusing to testify before the grand jury probing the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s name. Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan of U.S. District Court in Washington,…