New York, January 24, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the 10-day suspension of Iran’s top selling daily, Hamshahri, by Tehran’s Press Court on January 22. The judiciary suspended the reformist leaning Hamshahri after the paper failed to print a letter of reply submitted for publication by Ali Reza Mahjoub, head of Iran’s Trade…
New York, January 24, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the assault earlier this week on two Palestinian photographers by Israeli border police in the West Bank city of Nablus. On Monday, January 21, The Associated Press’ Nasser Ishtayeh and Jaafar Ishtayeh, with Agence France-Presse (AFP), were preparing to photograph an Israeli…
Bogotá, Colombia, January 23, 2003—Leftist rebels have detained two journalists, who were on assignment for The Los Angeles Times in the lawless Arauca Department, in eastern Colombia. Scott Dalton, a photographer from Texas, and reporter Ruth Morris, a British national, along with their driver, Madiel Ariza, were removed from their car at a rebel roadblock…
New York, January 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the continued detention of three Jordanian journalists, who have been held without charge since January 16. Editor-in-chief Nasser Qamash, managing editor Roman Haddad, and writer Mohannad Mubaidin, all with the weekly magazine Al-Hilal, have been detained for the last week after an article written…
New York, January 23, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes today’s decision by a court in the city of Ussuriisk, in the Russian Far East, to grant parole to military journalist Grigory Pasko. The journalist was released immediately and traveled to his home in Vladivostok. Under Russian law, Pasko, who had served two-thirds of…
New York, January 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that the Infrastructure Ministry is investigating private television stations Globovisión and Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) to determine whether they violated media broadcast regulations. The ministry could fine the stations or suspend or revoke their licenses. CPJ believes that the stations are being targeted…
New York, January 21, 2003—Four days after the High Court in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, ordered his release, journalist and press freedom activist Saleem Samad was freed on Saturday, January 18. Police had arrested Samad on November 29, 2002, for his work with a documentary crew that was preparing a report on Bangladesh for the “Unreported…
New York, January 14, 2003—The High Court in the capital, Dhaka, ruled today that the government’s detention of journalist and press freedom activist Saleem Samad is illegal and ordered his release. On December 23, 2002, the court had ordered his release on bail in connection with a sedition case. But on December 24, the day…
New York, January 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release from prison today of Iftikhar Gilani, New Delhi bureau chief for the Jammu-based newspaper Kashmir Times. Authorities had accused Gilani of possessing classified documents “prejudicial to the safety and security of the country,” a charge they finally admitted was unsubstantiated. “Iftikhar Gilani’s…
New York, January 10, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of our colleague Vikram Singh Bisht, who died yesterday from internal injuries after falling from his wheelchair. On December 13, 2001, a suicide squad shot Bisht, a cameraman for the New Delhibased news agency Asian News International, while he was covering an…