COLOMBIAN JOURNALIST KILLED
Bogotá, July 3, 2001 — Colombian radio reporter Pablo Emilio Parra Castañeda was murdered with two shots to the head in central Tolima Department on June 27, according to local press reports. Parra, 50, was the founder and head of the community radio station Planadas Cultural Estéreo in the town of Planadas. He was also…
Four jailed journalists freed
New York, April 2, 2001 –Four journalists from the Liberian daily The News were released on March 30 after being jailed on espionage charges for over a month. International news sources reported that the government’s action came in response to an appeal by the Press Union of Liberia in addition to a written apology that…
Gazprom completes NTV takeover
April 3, 2001, New York – Russia’s state-dominated gas monopoly Gazprom used a shareholders meeting today to take formal control of the independent Russian television network, NTV. The new management removed NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky and managing director Yevgeny Kiselyov from the station’s board of directors
Journalist jailed for defamation
New York, March 8, 2001 — Ethiopian journalist Tilahun Bekele, editor of the defunct Amharic-language weekly Fetash, was charged with criminal defamation by an Addis Ababa court and jailed, CPJ sources reported. Bekele has been in government custody since February 7, when he was arrested in connection with an article he had published more than…
Government blocks international newsmagazines
New York, March 7, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is troubled by the Malaysian government’s decision to block distribution of the international newsmagazines Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review, both published weekly from Hong Kong. “The Malaysian government has a history of using bureaucratic restrictions to control the media,” said CPJ…
CPJ meets with Gazprom Media chief
New York, March 6, 2001 — Alfred R. Kokh, general director of Russia’s Gazprom Media, visited the New York offices of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today to assert that his company’s long-running dispute with Vladimir Gusinsky’s NTV television network was purely a business matter. In the course of a two-hour meeting, CPJ executive…
Editor of Amharic weekly released on bail
New York, February 28, 2001 – Befekadu Moreda, editor of the private Amharic-language weekly Tomar, was released on bail on February 27, after spending two weeks in jail for refusing to reveal sources for a story on a secessionist movement. Kifle Mulat, the president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), said the relative…
Government orders expulsion of foreign correspondent
New York, February 15, 2001 — Mercedes Sayagues, Harare correspondent for the South African weekly Mail and Guardian, has been ordered to leave Zimbabwe within 24 hours, according to the government-owned Herald newspaper. The decision to expel Sayagues came as the government of President Robert Mugabe announced a clampdown on permits for foreign journalists seeking…
Internet publisher’s trial adjourned for health reasons
February 13, 2001—Internet publisher Huang Qi, whose Web site carried articles about human rights and political corruption, went on trial for subversion today in a closed courtroom in Chengdu, in the western province of Sichuan. Court officials told reporters that the trial had been adjourned due to Huang’s poor health. A CPJ source said that…
Sierra Leone grills editor for report on President’s security fears
February 6, 2001 — Police yesterday detained Pius Foray, owner and editor of the independent Freetown daily Democrat, after his newspaper ran a story suggesting that President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah feared for his life following the postponement of elections. He was released later the same day. The article was written by Foray and ran on…