New York, April 1, 2002—CPJ welcomes the release yesterday of Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft after more than 72 hours in custody on suspicion of violating Zimbabwe’s harsh press laws. Local sources told CPJ that High Court judge Mohammed Adam ordered police to free Thornycroft, the Zimbabwe correspondent for South Africa’s Mail and Guardian and Britain’s…
New York, March 29, 2002—Newspaper columnist Fernando Garavito recently fled Colombia after a series of events that made him fear for his life, CPJ has learned. Garavito, who writes a Sunday column for the Bogotá-based newspaper El Espectador, left Colombia for the United States on March 21 and has no plans to return. In a…
New York, March 29, 2002—Cuban independent journalist and CPJ International Press Freedom awardee Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández has left Cuba for the United States, where he has been granted political asylum. Díaz Hernández arrived in the United States on March 21 and has settled in Fort Worth, Texas. Díaz Hernández, formerly the executive director of…
Nueva York, 29 de marzo de 2002 — Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, periodista independiente cubano que recibió el Premio Internacional a la Libertad de Prensa, galardón que otorga el Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés), abandonó Cuba con destino a los Estados Unidos, donde ha recibido asilo político.…
New York, March 28, 2002—CPJ calls for the release of journalist Peta Thornycroft, the Zimbabwe correspondent for South Africa’s Mail and Guardian and Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Yesterday, Thornycroft was arrested in the rural town of Chimanimani, 300 miles southeast of the capital, Harare, where she was investigating reports that supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party…
New York, March 26, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the prison sentences imposed last week on two journalists from the weekly independent newspaper Sawt Al-Umma. On March 21, the Abdeen Misdemeanor Court convicted Adel Hammouda, editor, and Essam Fahmy, head of the paper’s board of directors, of defaming prominent Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris…
New York, March 22, 2002—The Venezuelan state news agency has sparked widespread furor by accusing three local independent journalists of involvement in an alleged global drug trafficking conspiracy controlled by international banks and political leaders from developed countries. On March 13, the state information agency Venpres published an opinion piece on its Web site (http://www.venpres.gov.ve)…
New York, March 20, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by increasing state restrictions on the press in Jordan, including the detention of some journalists and the harassment of others by security agents. On March 17, a State Security Court prosecutor imposed a 15-day detention on Hashem Khalidi, editor of the weekly newspaper…
New York, March 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned about two recent crippling libel judgments against the satirical weekly Feral Tribune. The judgments were issued in two separate libel suits filed by Marica Mestrovic, the daughter of a famous Croatian sculptor, and Zeljko Olujic, an attorney and former ally of the…
New York, March 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent detention of Shyam Shrestha, editor of the leftist monthly Mulyankan. On March 16, authorities detained Shrestha at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Shrestha was on his way to New Delhi, India, to take part in a conference on…