Alerts
2005
Publisher enters 5th day of detention
New York, July 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the continued detention of Jean Marie Kanku, publisher of the private newspaper L’Alerte in the capital, Kinshasa. Kanku has been charged with criminal defamation stemming from a July 8 article alleging that a DRC official had misused humanitarian reconstruction funds, according to the…
Al-Iraqiya crew attacked by gunman
New York, July 15, 2005—A gunman fired on a car carrying an Al-Iraqiya television crew in Baghdad on Thursday, wounding three staffers, according to news reports. The crew was on its way to cover the funerals of car-bomb victims when a masked assailant walked up to its car in the New Baghdad neighborhood and opened…
Radio France Internationale suspended
New York, July 15, 2005—A media regulatory agency has ordered Radio France Internationale (RFI) to halt its broadcasts in Ivory Coast until it retracts two disputed reports and pays a fine. The order is the latest incident pitting Ivoirian authorities against the France-based public broadcaster, whom President Laurent Gbagbo’s supporters accuse of being biased against…
Belgrade broadcaster forced to evacuate following threat
New York, July 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a bomb threat made late Thursday night against the Belgrade-based independent radio and television station B92. An anonymous caller told a B92 security guard that a bomb would explode in an hour inside the station’s offices because of its “anti-Serb campaign,” according to local news…
Al-Iraqiya crew attacked by gunman
New York, July 15, 2005—A gunman fired on a car carrying an Al-Iraqiya television crew in Baghdad on Thursday, wounding three staffers, according to news reports. The crew was on its way to cover the funerals of car-bomb victims when a masked assailant walked up to its car in the New Baghdad neighborhood and opened…
Violent attacks on the press continue
New York, July 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by a recent series of violent attacks on journalists in Bangladesh, including a gang assault on a reporter inside a local press club. Rafiqul Islam, a correspondent for daily Amar Desh in the northwestern town of Rajshahi, was assaulted on July 6 by…
Government lifts ban on private radio station
New York, July 14, 2005—Government officials unsealed the studios of Freedom FM on Tuesday, more than two years after the Communications Ministry shuttered the private radio station just as it was about to broadcast for the first time. Based in the southwestern port city of Douala, the station was founded by Pius Njawé, a veteran…
CPJ mourns the death of Jacques Roche
New York, July 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, whose body was found today in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Roche, cultural editor with the daily Le Matin, was kidnapped on Sunday, according to international press reports. Roche, who also hosted a local television station show, was taken from…
CPJ seeks investigation into cameraman’s death at drag-race site
New York, July 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a thorough and aggressive investigation into the death of Pavel Makeev, 21, a cameraman for Puls television in the southern Russian town of Azov. Makeev’s body was found alongside a road on the outskirts of the Rostov Region town on May 21, shortly…
Puntland editor freed, newspaper remains suspended
New York, July 14, 2005—Editor Abdi Farah Nur has been released after more than two weeks of imprisonment in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, but his newspaper remains under government suspension and Farah fears for his safety, sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. Farah was freed on July 5, but word of…