New York, February 9, 2005—Federal authorities in Moscow have issued an official warning to the independent Moscow daily Kommersant for publishing a February 7 interview with Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, according to local and international press reports. The Federal Service for Oversight of Compliance with Media Laws issued the warning Tuesday under the Media…
New York, February 9, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by the death of BBC producer Kate Peyton, who was shot today outside her hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Peyton underwent surgery at a local hospital but died later of internal bleeding, according to the BBC. Details were sketchy, but news reports…
New York, February 9, 2005—An Iraqi correspondent for the U.S.-funded television station Al-Hurra and his 3-year-old son were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the city of Basra today, according to Al-Hurra and international press reports. Abdul-Hussein Khazal, 40, and his son were gunned down outside their home around 8 a.m. Iraq time, Al-Hurra said…
Washington, D.C., February 8, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met with Yemen’s ambassador to the United States, Abdulwahab Abdulla al-Hajjri, today to express deep concern about the imprisonment of a Yemeni opposition newspaper editor and a recent spate of criminal convictions handed down against several other journalists. Abdelkarim al-Khaiwani, editor of the…
New York, February 7, 2005—Gunmen in Pakistan’s tribal area of South Waziristan fatally shot two journalists today and wounded two others. Amir Nowab, also known as Mir Nawab, a freelance cameraman for Associated Press Television News and a reporter for the Frontier Post newspaper, and Allah Noor, who was working for Peshawar-based Khyber TV, became…
Bogotá, 5 de febrero de 2005–El Comité para la Protección de Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) investiga el asesinato de Oscar Alberto Polanco Herrera, periodista televisivo que fue ultimado a balazos el día de ayer, 4 de febrero, en la ciudad de Cartago, departamento de Valle del Cauca, unos 200 kilómetros al suroeste…
New York, February 4, 2005—Security forces have arrested prominent social critic and columnist Khagendra Sangraula and are seeking to arrest Tara Nath Dahal, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, who is currently in hiding. The arrest came on the fourth day of the state of emergency called by King Gyanendra, who has also banned…
New York, February 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the abduction of an Italian journalist today in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Gunmen seized Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based Italian daily Il Manifesto, near Baghdad University, according to The Associated Press, which cited Italian and Iraqi officials.
New York, February 3, 2005—Akrep Hasanov, an Azerbaijani journalist with the independent weekly Monitor in the capital, Baku, was abducted by military officers and held in detention for five hours, Hasanov told CPJ. The journalist says he was detained in retaliation for writing an article about abuses and mismanagement in an Azerbaijani military unit. On…
New York, February 3, 2005—Two days after Nepal’s king declared a state of emergency, the independent press has been effectively shut down with blanket news bans introduced, military patrols placed at media outlets, and reprisals threatened against journalists. King Gyanendra has imposed a six-month ban on what state radio described as critical reporting on government…