Ugandan magazine questioned over Museveni cartoon
New York, January 13, 2011–Police in Kampala arrested the director and editor of the monthly newsmagazine Summit Business Review on Tuesday in connection with a caricature of President Yoweri Museveni that appeared on the cover of the October issue.Director Samuel Sejjaaka and Editor Mustapha Mugisha were released on bond but face continued interrogations, Sejjaaka told…
Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar gunned down in Karachi
New York, January 13, 2011–Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar was shot and killed in Karachi this evening, shortly after covering gang violence in the city, according to several Pakistani journalists. At least two assailants intercepted Babar’s car at 9:20 p.m., shooting him multiple times in the head and neck, Geo TV Managing Director Azhar…
Journalists continue to be detained and tried in Belarus
New York, January 13, 2011–As a part of the ongoing crackdown in Belarus on independent reporters, the Belarusian security service (KGB) has detained journalist Andrzej Poczobut, a Grodno correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, and freelance reporter Irina Charniauka in Minsk, local press reported today. Poczobut was also summarily tried and fined
Concern as Vietnam plays ‘national security’ censorship card
Bangkok, January 13, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a new executive decree issued on January 6 in Vietnam that will give authorities greater powers to penalize journalists, editors, and bloggers who report on issues deemed as sensitive to national security. The new media regulations were issued amid a mounting clampdown on dissent shortly before…
Jailed Chinese journalist, freed on medical parole, dies
New York, January 13, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death on December 31 of Zhang Jianhong, the founder of Aiqinghai (Aegean Sea), a popular website closed by the Chinese government in 2006, according to several human rights groups. Zhang had been sentenced to six years in prison by a court in Ningbo in…
Zimbabwe hikes media fees under draconian media law
New York, January 13, 2010–Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government should repeal the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Committee to Protect Journalists said today after a late 2010 amendment to the legislation hiked mandatory registration and accreditation fees for the press working in the country by as much as 400 percent.
Tunisia must end crackdown on media
New York, January 12, 2010–Tunisian authorities must end their weeks-long crackdown on bloggers and reporters covering street protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Scores of journalists have been detained in the past four weeks, three of whom remain in custody. Local and international reporters have faced continued harassment, including detention, restrictions on movement,…
More raids on journalists’ homes amid Belarus crackdown
New York, January 12, 2011–As part of an ongoing assault on the independent press in Belarus, KGB agents in Minsk raided the apartments of imprisoned journalist Irina Khalip and her mother, Lyutsina Khalip, and took the journalist’s computer, the independent news website Charter 97 reported. Today’s raids are the second at each apartment since the agency imprisoned the journalist on December…
CPJ concerned for safety of Pakistan’s Sherry Rehman
New York, January 12, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned about public threats made against journalist and National Assembly member Sherry Rehman. The government has stepped up protection for Rehman after she supported a bill in the National Assembly that would amend Pakistan’s blasphemy law. The changes include the repeal of the law’s…
Post-election crackdown on the press continues in Belarus
New York, January 11, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing official crackdown against the independent media in Belarus. The Belarusian security service, known as the KGB, continues to relentlessly raid newsrooms, confiscate reporting equipment from publications and journalists’ homes, imprison independent and pro-opposition journalists, and harass their families.