2005

New York, October 4, 2005—A newspaper reporter was shot and seriously wounded today in General Santos City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao but escaped death because his attacker’s gun jammed. Danilo Aguirre, a business and features writer for the weekly Mindanao Bulletin, was walking to work with photographer Emmanuel Zaldimar when a hooded…

New York, October 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that journalist Paul Kamara remains in jail in Sierra Leone a year after being convicted of “seditious libel” for articles criticizing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Kamara was convicted on October 5, 2004, and sent to Pademba Road Prison in the capital, Freetown, to serve…

Bangkok, October 4, 2005 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned today the filing of criminal and civil lawsuits by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against two Thai journalists who allegedly accused him of disloyalty to the King. . “Prime Minister Shinawatra’s resort to criminal defamation suits against journalists represents a clear and present danger…

New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that police arrested the editor of a women’s rights’ magazine in Kabul on Saturday after local religious leaders accused him of publishing anti-Islamic articles. The High Court ordered the arrest of Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights), after…

New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shuttering of the Beijing-based Yannan bulletin board system. Radio Free Asia reported today that the popular Web forum was closed after providing coverage and debate on a turbulent recall campaign in a village in Guangdong province. Yannan posted a September 30 announcement stating that…

New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the forced closure on Friday of three radio stations in the Muslim holy city of Touba, center of the Senegalese Muslim community known as the mourides. In a recorded statement broadcast by local radio stations, chief caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacké ordered all three…

New York, September 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is very concerned about the health of imprisoned Tunisian journalist Hamadi Jebali, who is in the 16th day of a hunger strike protesting 14 years of unjust imprisonment. The journalist did not feel well enough to leave his cell when his wife, Wahida Jebali, went to…

New York, September 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved that New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been freed after spending 85 days in a U.S. prison for refusing to disclose a confidential source. But CPJ is deeply troubled by the long-term damage that the federal prosecutor’s investigation has had on the free…