CPJ skeptical of official line on Chinese reporter’s beating
New York, December 22, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the vicious beating of reporter Sun Hongjie and doubts official reports that the attack occurred because of an online dispute with a social media acquaintance. Sun, a reporter for the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post (known locally at the Beijiang Morning Post) was attacked by a group…
CPJ condemns two Venezuelan media laws
New York, December 21, 2010–President Hugo Chávez Frías must veto two laws regulating the Internet and telecommunications that could promote further censorship and seriously limit freedom of expression in Venezuela, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Both provisions were passed on Monday by the National Assembly.
After officials are criticized, DRC radio host is arrested
New York, December 21, 2010–Authorities should immediately release Congolese radio journalist Robert Shemahamba, who has been held in the eastern city of Uvira since Friday in connection with a political program critical of local officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
Dozens of journalists beaten, arrested in Belarus crackdown
New York, December 20, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the violent government crackdown against journalists covering demonstrations in Minsk against Sunday’s flawed presidential vote won by President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Security police have arrested at least 20 journalists and beaten at least 20 more between the outbreak of rallies Sunday evening and their forcible dispersal…
Journalist given 15 years for espionage in Transdniester
New York, December 17, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the 15-year prison sentence given to independent journalist Ernest Vardanian, who has been held on falsified espionage charges in the unrecognized separatist Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) since April. The PMR is commonly known as Transdniester, and broke away from Moldova proper in 1990.
Indonesian editor dead under suspicious circumstances
New York, December 17, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with Indonesian journalist groups in calling for a full and vigorous investigation into the death of an editor on Kisar, one of the eastern Maluku Islands. Alfrets Mirulewan, chief editor of the Pelangi Weekly, was found with bruises on much of his body at 3…
Tajik journalist arrested on defamation, insult charges
New York, December 16, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists today denounced the imprisonment in northern Tajikistan of Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the Dushanbe-based independent weekly Nuri Zindagi. Ismoilov was arrested in Sogd region on November 23, but the regional press first reported on the case on Monday. Ismoilov is currently being held in a pretrial facility in the city…