Alerts
2005
Al-Arabiya cameraman detained for more than a week
New York, April 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists said today that it is alarmed by the more than weeklong detention in Iraq of a journalist working for the Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. Iraqi forces detained Wael Issam, a Palestinian cameraman on assignment for the station, at Baghdad International Airport on March 28, according…
CPJ condemns shooting of border journalist
New York, April 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the vicious attack on a Mexican crime reporter, who was in critical condition today after being shot repeatedly in front of her radio station in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border beset by a wave of drug-related violence.
Authorities launch criminal inquiry of Internews
New York, April 6, 2005—The prosecutor-general’s office in Uzbekistan said yesterday it was investigating the Tashkent bureau of the media training and advocacy group Internews Network on criminal charges of operating without a license, according to international reports. Witnesses have been questioned, “but at this stage nobody has been arrested,” the prosecutor’s spokeswoman, Svetlana Artikova…
Judge acquits editor of criminal charges and creates new interpretation for media law
New York, April 5, 2005—The managing editor of the Nairobi-based East African Standard’s Sunday edition was acquitted of criminal charges yesterday. The charges against David Makali, pending since 2003, stemmed from an investigative article about the alleged murder of Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, a key player in Kenya’s constitutional reform process. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey…
Ukrainian prosecutor claims confessions in Gongadze case
New York, April 5, 2005—Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said yesterday that two former police officers arrested in March as suspects in the 2000 murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze have confessed to the killing, according to local and international press reports. Vyacheslav Astapov, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the officers were cooperating with investigators in…
New judge named in the Dominique case; CPJ urges government to revive the investigation
New York, April 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Haitian transitional authorities today to revive the stalled investigation into the murder of Jean-Léopold Dominique, one of the country’s most renowned journalists. Last Thursday, Haiti’s Minister of Justice Bernard Gousse announced the nomination of a new examining judge, Jean Perez Paul, who will conduct the…
Editor dies of gunshot wounds
New York, April 4, 2005 – A critically wounded Nepali editor died last Friday, according to local news reports. Khagendra Shrestha, editor and publisher of Dharan Today newspaper, was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen just over two weeks ago. The assailants overtook him in his Dharan office, 335 miles east of Kathmandu. Shrestha,…
British journalists face trial on accreditation charges
New York, April 4, 2005—Zimbabwean government prosecutors are pushing ahead with a criminal trial of two journalists from the London-based Sunday Telegraph on accreditation charges that could bring two years in prison, the journalists’ lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said today. Toby Harnden, the newspaper’s chief foreign correspondent, and photographer Julian Simmonds have been jailed since their…
Doctor says journalist in Iranian custody was tortured and raped before her death
New York, April 1, 2005—Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and raped during her detention in Iran, claims a former Iranian army doctor. The doctor, Shahram Azam, says that he was the first to examine Kazemi in a Tehran hospital before her death on July 10, 2003. His allegations were presented yesterday at a press…
Supreme Court rejects editor’s appeal
New York, March 31, 2005—Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court has upheld the October 2004 conviction of Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat, on charges of organizing anti-government riots, according to local and international press reports. The criminal conviction was widely considered to have been politically motivated. “The many irregularities in Rauf Arifoglu’s 2004 trial,…