Alerts
2005
Journalist assassinated in car bombing
June 2, 2005, New York, NY—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the murder of Lebanese columnist Samir Qassir, who was killed in a car bombing outside his home in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh neighborhood this morning. Qassir, a prominent columnist for the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, died when his car exploded after he started the engine, international…
Journalists fight FM radio crackdown
New York, June 2, 2005 – The director of a recently banned radio production and distribution company filed a legal challenge with Nepal’s Supreme Court, inspiring local radio journalists to protest. In his May 30 petition to the court, Communication Corner Director Gopal Guragain said that the government’s May 27 ban was an illegal effort…
New accusation extends jail time without trial forNew York Times researcher
New York, June 1, 2005 Police have leveled a new accusation at imprisoned New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, which permits Chinese authorities to continue holding him for an additional unspecified period of months. Zhao, who was formally arrested in October 2004 under suspicion of leaking state secrets, is now accused of fraud, police…
Polish TV crew detained in Ingushetia
New York, June 1, 2005— Police and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia detained three journalists from the Polish state television station TVP, according to The Associated Press. Mariusz Pilis, Marcin Mamon, and Tomasz Glowacki were detained on Sunday around 8:30 p.m., at their hotel in Nazran, Ingushetia’s biggest…
China detains senior Hong Kong journalist
New York, May 31, 2005 The Chinese Foreign Ministry revealed today that it has detained senior Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong on suspicion of espionage. In a statement released to reporters and published in international news reports, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that it has been holding Ching since April 22 and that the journalist…
Uniformed Assailants Shoot at Journalist
New York, May 31, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the recent armed attack on Jean Ngandu, a Congolese journalist for Radio Okapi. On the evening of Saturday, May 28, as Ngandu was returning from an assignment, several men wearing Congolese army uniforms accosted him in front of his home in Lubumbashi, a…
Journalist released from prison
New York, May 31, 2005—Iranian authorities temporarily released imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji. Ganji was released for medical leave on Sunday, according to press reports. Judicial authorities had previously refused Ganji’s request to be released on medical leave, prompting him to start a hunger strike on April 18. Ganji ended the strike after his release. Ganji’s…
Police search Corriere della Sera newsroom
New York, May 27, 2005—Six police officers searched the headquarters of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading national daily based in Milan. The officers spent at least two hours in the newsroom Wednesday evening, looking for documents that the daily had used as part of its earlier report on the use of Italian pistols by Iraq…
CPJ Condemns Pakistani Governments ban on ads
New York, May 27, 2005—The Pakistani government has banned state-sponsored advertising in two newspapers owned by a leading conservative media company, the Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt and the English-language daily The Nation. According to reports in The Nation, last week’s ban was implemented in direct retaliation for an April ad that both dailies ran from the…
In Dangerous Assignments, information war rages in Chechnya
New York, May 27, 2005—The Kremlin has waged a brutally effective information war in Chechnya using repressive policies, restrictive rules, subtle censorship, and outright attacks on journalists, Alex Lupis reports in the new edition of Dangerous Assignments. The spring/summer edition of the magazine is now available from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Also in the…