Alerts
2006
Days before Belarusian vote, four newspapers forced to halt publication
New York, March 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Belarusian authorities’ escalating harassment of the country’s few independent newspapers as Sunday’s presidential election approaches. Four newspapers based in the capital, Minsk, have been forced to interrupt publication less than a week before the balloting in which incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko seeks re-election, according to local…
Son of slain journalist Veronika Cherkasova released on bail
New York, March 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on bail of the 16-year-old son of murdered journalist Veronika Cherkasova. Anton Filimonov was freed Monday from the Minsk detention center where he had been held since December 27, local media reported. Although he was formally charged with forging currency, Filimonov was pressured…
Insurgents kill head of Iraq state television
New York, March 13, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Amjad Hameed, head of programming for Iraq’s state television channel Al-Iraqiya. Gunmen apparently affiliated to Al-Qaeda killed Hameed and his driver Anwar Turki in an ambush in Baghdad Saturday. Hameed, 45, had run the station since July. “We deplore the senseless murder…
Photographer gunned down outside his home
New York, March 10, 2006—Mexican photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo was shot to death Thursday outside his home in La Piedad in the central state of Michoacán. The special prosecutor for crimes against journalists has opened a preliminary inquiry and will work with state authorities to establish if the murder was related to Olvera’s work.…
Bomb attack and threats against newspaper
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a bomb attack on a Venezuelan newspaper and a threat against its editor. Unidentified assailants threw three homemade explosives on Wednesday at the offices of the daily La Región in Los Teques, southwest of Caracas. No one was injured in the attack, which caused minor…
Egyptian court sentences journalist to a year in prison
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the one-year prison sentence handed down to Egyptian journalist Amira Malash for defamation. On Tuesday, a court in Giza near Cairo convicted Malash, a reporter for the independent weekly Al-Fagr, of defaming Judge Attia Mohammad Awad in an article she wrote in July…
Ethiopian editor sentenced to prison; another freed on bail
New York, March 10, 2006—An editor was sentenced on Wednesday to one year in prison on a charge of publishing “false news” in a 2002 report attributed to the BBC, which claimed that Ethiopia was training rebels in neighboring Eritrea. Abraham Gebrekidan, who edited the now-defunct Amharic-language weekly Politika, was immediately jailed, several local sources…
Pakistan: CPJ puts abducted journalist on its missing list
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today officially placed Pakistani journalist Hayatullah Khan on its list of missing journalists after repeated calls to Pakistani authorities for information about the abducted reporter went unanswered. Khan was seized by unidentified gunmen in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan on December 5. Some…
Journalist abducted
New York, March 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction and attempted murder of a Dominican crime reporter early Wednesday morning. Unidentified assailants seized Roberto Sandoval outside his Santo Domingo home and threatened to kill him, according to news reports and a CPJ source. Sandoval escaped by jumping from a moving vehicle as…
TV presenter murdered, station attacked and threatened for its reporting
New York, March 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of presenter Munsuf Abdallah al-Khaldi of the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV which has been threatened and shelled by insurgents. Unidentified gunmen shot al-Khaldi, 35, as he was driving from Baghdad on Tuesday with three passengers to interview poets in the northern city…