CPJ delegation meets ambassador, deplores worsening press conditions
New York, March 20, 2001 — A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today met with Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States Simbi Mubako in Washington, D.C. to convey CPJ’s concern about serious threats to press freedom in Zimbabwe. During the two-hour discussion, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said press freedom conditions have…
CPJ Condemns Taliban’s Expulsion of BBC Reporter
New York, March 14, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by the ruling Taliban militia’s decision to expel BBC correspondent Kate Clark from Afghanistan. Authorities ordered Clark to leave the country within 36 hours in response to BBC reports about the militia’s destruction of ancient Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, some 100…
Police arrest key suspects in Cardoso murder
New York, March 14, 2001 — Police in Mozambique arrested two businessmen and a former bank manager accused of ordering the murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, according to international news reports and CPJ sources. The three suspects, who are being held in a maximum security prison in the capital, Maputo, include Momade Abdul Assife…
CPJ urges inquiry into murder of journalist
New York, March 12, 2001—In a recent letter to Arturo González Rascón, Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua, CPJ expressed its concern about the murder of José Luis Ortega Mata, the editor of the weekly Semanario de Ojinaga, based in Ojinaga, Chihuahua State. Ortega Mata, 37, was shot twice in the head at close…
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…