New York, July 17, 2002—Zimbabwe’s High Court has suspended government orders to deport Andrew Meldrum, a U.S. citizen and the Zimbabwe correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper, and referred the case to the Supreme Court. Meldrum was served with two deportation orders on July 15, just minutes after being acquitted of “publishing false information” and…
New York, July 16, 2002—Haitian broadcast journalist Israel Jacky Cantave has been missing since last night, and colleagues said that they fear he has been kidnapped in reprisal for his reporting. Guyler C. Delva, head of the Haitian Journalists Association told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Cantave, who covers a range of sensitive…
New York, July 16, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns last week’s ban on the reformist Iranian newspaper Azad. On July 11, Tehran’s Press Court ordered the pro-reform daily to cease publishing indefinitely because it had violated a government directive banning media commentary about the resignation of prominent cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. Iran’s Supreme…
New York, July 16, 2002—In the latest instance of Kazakhstan’s official harassment of independent and opposition journalists, a prominent journalist has been charged with defaming Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Sergei Duvanov, who writes for several Web sites financed by Kazakhstan’s political opposition, was summoned to the Almaty office of the National Security Committee (KNB, successor…
New York, July 15, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the passage of new regulations restricting online news in China. The regulations, together with a voluntary pledge signed by more than 300 companies and organizations—including the U.S.-based Yahoo!—to prevent distribution of “harmful” material online, indicate a clear step backward for freedom…
July 15, 2002 Monday 9:04 AM Eastern Time By KATHY GANNON; Associated Press Writer HYDERABAD, Pakistan The British-born Islamic militant accused of masterminding the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was convicted Monday and sentenced to death by hanging. Three accomplices were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Pakistani authorities braced for a violent…
New York, July 15, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned about the safety of Natasa Odalovic, a correspondent for the U.S.-government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a columnist for the weekly Danas, which is based in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. “I have been under surveillance for the past three days and am very…
New York, July 15, 2002—Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper, was today acquitted of “publishing false information” and “abusing journalistic privileges.” However, Meldrum, the first journalist to be tried under Zimbabwe’s repressive new media laws, was ordered to leave the country within 24 hours. Meldrum, a U.S. citizen who has been…
New York, July 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just learned that Mario Prada Díaz, of the weekly El Semanario Sabanero in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia, was killed this week. His death occurred the same week in which another journalist in the region was threatened at gunpoint, one day after a…
New York, July 12, 2002—Palestinian free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died this morning from gunshot wounds he sustained yesterday in the West Bank town of Jenin. Said Dahla, a photographer for the official Palestinian news agency WAFA who was accompanying Abu Zahra, was also wounded. “We mourn the loss of our colleague Abu Zahra,” said…