New York, May 12, 2005 – Zimbabwe’s High Court yesterday dismissed a request to accredit journalists of the banned Daily News, according to news reports and CPJ sources. The ruling came more than a year after the newspaper’s owners, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), filed the application. The judge said the newspaper’s journalists could not…
New York, May 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists said today it was alarmed by reports that Chilean radio reporter Paola Briceño Verdina was beaten and improperly detained by national police agents after covering a student protest in Santiago last week. CPJ called on Chilean officials to investigate the attack and take action against those…
New York, NY, May 11, 2005- Last night the editor and publisher of a local community newspaper was shot and killed—the second murder of a journalist in the Philippines in less than one week. Philip Agustin, editor and publisher of the local weekly Starline Times Recorder, was killed by a single shot to the back…
New York, May 11, 2005—A U.S. photographer was released from custody yesterday after being detained by Sudanese authorities in Darfur two weeks ago, the U.S. daily The Hartford Courant reported today. Sudanese security forces detained Brad Clift on April 26 while he was taking photographs at an internally displaced persons camp outside Nyala, capital of…
New York, May 10, 2005 – CPJ condemns the closure of the leading opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye (Republic Business Review) by The Kazakh Culture, Information, and Sports Ministry. Last Thursday in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital, Galina Dyrdina, the weekly’s deputy editor told a press conference that editorial staff will not publish the paper’s next…
May 10, 2005 The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the police investigation of independent documentary filmmaker Martyn See who is being questioned under Singapore’s stringent Films Act. On May 6, Assistant Superintendent of Police Chan Peng Khuang called See to inform him that police had received a copy of his film…
New York, May 6, 2005—Using antiquated criminal laws dating back to Indonesia’s colonial era, a district court in the city of Lampung on the island of Sumatra found two journalists guilty of criminal defamation and sentenced them to nine months in prison on Wednesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the ruling and the…
New York, May 6, 2005—Puntland authorities have ordered the immediate closing of the weekly newspaper Shacab for allegedly inciting violence, according to CPJ sources. The decree, issued after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, cited the government’s constitutional responsibility to uphold the unity of Puntland. The decree was signed by Vice President Hassan Dahir Afqurac on…
New York, May 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about official harassment and threats against Sudanese editor Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed. Ahmed is being tried this month on criminal charges of insulting the Prophet Mohammed after publishing an April 21 article in the daily Al-Wifaq. The article, by the well-known Muslim historian Al-Maqrizi,…
New York, May 5, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned this week’s arrest of a newspaper publisher, who was charged with criminal libel after his publication accused First Lady Stella Obasanjo of corruption. Omo-Ojo Orobosa, publisher of the weekly Midwest Herald, has been held since Monday, his lawyer, Festus Keyamo, told CPJ. Orobosa was…