July 28, 1999 –On July 28, two days after the Minister of Government and Justice withdrew her proposed amendment to a 1978 gag law in the face of national and international criticism, the Panamanian Cabinet approved an only slightly different amendment to the law. As a July 30 editorial of the Panama City-based daily La…
El 28 de julio, dos días después de que el Ministerio de Gobierno y Justicia retirara un proyecto para modificar una ley mordaza de 1978 ante protestas a nivel nacional e internacional, el Gabinete panameño aprobó un proyecto casi igual. Como dice un editorial del periódico La Prensa,de la ciudad de Panamá, el nuevo proyecto…
Istanbul, Turkey, July 23, 1999–The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a report today documenting Turkey’s continuing use of criminal prosecutions to silence journalists who report on sensitive topics, such as the Kurdish question and the role of Islam in politics. At a press conference in Istanbul, a CPJ delegation expressed its concern…
Sanaa’, Yemen, July 15, 1999 — In a meeting today with press freedom advocate Terry Anderson, Yemen’s prime minister said harassment and threats against journalists are “abhorrent to our laws and ideals” and should be condemned. He promised to investigate any cases that are reported to him. Anderson, vice chairman of the New York-based Committee…
May 7, 1999 His Excellency Mohammad Khatemi President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Palestine Avenue Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its grave concern about the reported arrest of Azeri journalist Qanimat Zahidov in northern Iran. Zahidov, editor in chief for…
May 5, 1999 His Excellency Selcuk Oztek Minister of Justice Adalet Bakanligi 06659 Ankara, Turkey Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed by yesterday’s verdict in the retrial of 11 police officers accused in the January 1996 murder of Metin Goktepe, a journalist with the leftist daily Evrensel. The Afyon court’s decision…
July 8, 1999 — CPJ is concerned about the safety of Jesús Barraza, editor of the weekly Pulsoin San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora State, Mexico. As mentioned in CPJ’s May 13 and June 14 letters to President Ernesto Zedillo, Barraza has received several death in recent months because of his reporting on the local narcotics…
July 8, 1999 — El CPJ está profundamente preocupado por la seguridad física de Jesús Barraza, director del semanario Pulso en la población de San Luis Río Colorado, estado de Sonora, México. Tal como dijimos en las cartas al presidente Ernesto Zedillo del 13 de mayo y 14 de junio, Barraza ha recibido varias amenazas…
June 17, 1999 — Two British journalists and their ethnic Albanian interpreter were injured late on June 16 when unidentified gunmen fired at their rental car near the village of Stimjle in southern Kosovo, according to editors at Glasgow’s Daily Record. The three men, all working for the Daily Record, were heading from Prizren toward Macedonia to…
June 14, 1999 — Two German journalists on assignment in Kosovo were fatally shot by unidentified gunmen on June 13 just outside Dulje, some 25 miles south of the provincial capital Pristina. Veteran photographer Volker Kraemer, 56, died on the scene, while 35-year-old Gabriel Gruener, an experienced Balkans correspondent, expired en route to a hospital…