New York, August 11, 2005—Ugandan authorities shut a prominent independent radio station today after it aired a talk show about the July helicopter crash that killed southern Sudanese leader John Garang, according to local sources. The suspension came a day after President Yoweri Museveni threatened to shut down any news outlet that “plays around with…
New York, August 10, 2005—Gabon’s media regulatory council has indefinitely suspended the independent bimonthly newspaper Nku’u Le Messager over an editorial it says insulted the council, according to local news reports and the publication director. In a statement issued Tuesday, the council said the suspension would be lifted only if the newspaper changed its editorial…
New York, August 10, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Taiwanese government’s recent actions against the cable television news station ETTV-S. The government halted the station’s broadcasts and revoked its license last week, citing “irresponsible” reporting. The Government Information Office, the official agency tasked with monitoring the media, accused the station of abusing broadcast…
New York, August 9, 2005—A radio reporter jailed for five days in Jowhar was released without charge on Sunday, but was expelled from the town and told not to come back, according to the journalist and local sources. Abdullahi Kulmiye Adow, a reporter for the Mogadishu-based independent radio station HornAfrik, had been detained since August…
New York, August 8, 2005—A Polish photojournalist was expelled from Belarus on Saturday and banned from the country for five years. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today it is disturbed by the expulsion of Adam Tuchlinksi, 25, of the weekly news magazine Przekroj. Belarusian security agents detained Tuchlinksi as he was about to board…
New York, August 8, 2005—Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred today and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources. The charges stemmed from May articles in Le Temps, one…
New York, August 8, 2005—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has sentenced a newspaper editor to one month in jail on a contempt charge after the editor refused to identify an unnamed source who criticized an earlier court ruling. The editor of a second paper was fined in a related case. Tamrat Serbesa, editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language…
New York, August 5, 2005—A judge in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, convicted two staffers of Internews Network, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy organization, on Thursday of producing television programming without a license and publishing information illegally. Former Internews director Khalida Anarbayeva and accountant Olga Narmuradova will not have to serve the prescribed six-month jail…
New York, August 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the Nepalese government’s threat to pull the license of independent radio station Nepal FM 91.8 for defying an official ban on broadcasting news. “The independent broadcasting of FM radio news is protected by Nepal’s constitution and is vital for the free flow…
New York, August 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about recent threats against Glenda M. Gloria, managing editor of Newsbreak, and Mei Magsino-Lubis, Batangas correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A funeral wreath was delivered to the residence of Gloria’s mother on Tuesday night, according to a statement released by the Manila-based…