Alerts

  

Troops attack journalists at a civilian funeral in Kashmir

New York, May 10, 2001 — Seventeen journalists were attacked today by Indian security forces as they attempted to cover a funeral procession in the troubled Kashmir region. The incident occurred in Magam, a town about 17 miles (28 kilometers) north of the state capital, Srinagar. Three of the journalists were hospitalized and thousands of…

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Board member Kati Marton meets with Belgrade journalists and officials

Belgrade, May 8, 2001 ­ In response to new challenges faced by the independent media in post-Milosevic Serbia, Kati Marton, a board member of the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), met for two days of consultations with journalists and government officials in Belgrade. “We are very happy that there is a new atmosphere of…

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Out of jail, journalist maintains hunger strike to protest house arrest

New York, May 7, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the release of Syrian journalist and human rights activist Nizar Nayyouf, who was taken by police from prison to his parents’ home Sunday night after serving nine years of a 10-year sentence for his conviction of membership in an unauthorized organization and…

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CPJ Hears from Imprisoned Iranian Journalist on World Press Freedom DayMessage From Jail Cell Says Press Enemies “Can Never Kill The Thought of Freedom”

New York, May 3, 2001 ƒ The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) received a message from imprisoned Iranian journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin to his “colleagues all over the world” on World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the same day that CPJ placed the man responsible for Shamsolvaezin’s imprisonment, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the top…

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Information Ministry orders censorship of coverage of civil war

New York, May 2, 2001 – The Liberian Government announced on April 27 that media reports on fighting in the north of the country and on other issues of national security should be cleared with the Ministry of Information before publication or broadcast. According to a report by Agence France-Presse, the statement issued by Information…

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Journalist killed by gunmen on motorcycles

New York, May 1, 2001 — Four unidentified gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed Colombian journalist Flavio Bedoya as he stepped off a bus around midday April 27 in the southwestern port city of Tumaco, police and colleagues said. Bedoya, 52, was a regional correspondent for the Bogotá-based Communist Party newspaper Voz. He had worked…

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Journalists subpoenaed in murder case threatened with death if they testify

New York, April 27, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of two South African journalists who have been subpoenaed to testify against a murderous vigilante group that has threatened to kill them if they comply. In August 1996, journalist Kobus Louwrens and photographer Christo Lötter, both from…

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Journalist disappears during riots

New York, April 23, 2001 — CPJ is greatly concerned about the disappearance of Seifu Mekonnen, a reporter for Mebrek, an Amharic-language weekly based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Mekonnen was last seen on the afternoon of April 21 at a press conference of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, a local non-governmental organization, sources…

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Congress repeals “disrespect” statute

New York, April 20, 2001 — The Chilean Senate repealed several provisions of the country’s infamous State Security Law, including one (Article 6b) that makes it a crime against public order to insult high officials. First proposed eight years ago, the new “Law on Freedoms of Opinion and Information and the Practice of Journalism,” known…

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Columnist on trial for “inciting hatred” Fehmi Koru Faces Up to Four Years in Prison for 1999 Commentary Aired on Turkish TV Station

Good evening respected viewers, The placard carried by a girl from Marmara University and bearing the words “Wasn’t 7.4 convincing enough?” caused many tempers to fray. A leaflet distributed at Ankara’s Kocatepe Mosque during a service to commemorate the death of Bediuzzaman Sait Nursi added further fuel to the flames. And when one of the…

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