New York, January 31, 2002—In a letter sent today to U.S. defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, CPJ requested information about the circumstances behind the U.S. bombing of the Kabul office of the Al-Jazeera satellite television channel in mid-November. During the early morning hours of November 13, 2001, U.S. aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs on the…
New York, January 28, 2002—CPJ is deeply concerned about Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who has been missing in Pakistan since January 23. A previously unknown group stated in an e-mail to news organizations that they had abducted Pearl and accused him of working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “Daniel Pearl is a…
January 19, 2002, New York—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns in the strongest terms Israel’s destruction today of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation building in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Early this morning, Israeli forces entered the five-story building, which houses administrative offices and broadcasting facilities for the Palestinian National Authority’s Voice of Palestine…
New York, January 17, 2002—Shodi Mardiev, the Uzbek radio reporter who was sentenced in 1998 to an 11-year prison term for defamation and extortion, was released under an amnesty earlier this month, according to local and international sources. The journalist’s lawyer, Khakim Bobonorov, who met with Mardiev shortly after his release, told CPJ in a…
New York, January 17, 2002—After a week of intense international pressure, Zimbabwe’s government delayed its vote yesterday on a harsh media bill that would stifle dissent during the run-up to the presidential elections, scheduled for early March, until certain changes can be made to the legislation, according to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
New York, January 11, 2002—CPJ is gravely concerned over today’s ruling by the Presidium of the Highest Arbitration Court upholding the liquidation of the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Company (MNVK), parent company of Russia’s only independent, nationwide television channel, TV-6. The suit was originally lodged in September by the pension fund of LUKoil-Garant, a minority shareholder…
New York, January 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns legislation before Zimbabwe’s Parliament that would create a rigid system to register and regulate media companies and the journalists who work for them. Parliament is expected to vote on the legislation this week. The bill, called the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy…
New York, January 4, 2002—After a record-breaking detention of more than five months, free-lance writer Vanessa Leggett this morning walked out of the Texas jail where she was held for refusing to turn over research materials about a high-profile murder case to federal prosecutors. Leggett, 33, is currently writing a book about the 1997 murder…
New York, January 3, 2002–A total of 37 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work in 2001, a sharp increase from 2000 when 24 were killed, according to CPJ research. At least 25 were murdered, almost all with impunity. The dramatic rise is mainly due to the war in Afghanistan, where…