New York, June 9, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a militant group’s abduction of three journalists from Philippine network ABS-CBN in the southern Philippine province of Sulu on Sunday. ABS-CBN news head Maria Ressa provided CPJ with an official statement today confirming that journalist Ces Drilon, cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion, and assistant cameraman Angelo Valderama…
New York, June 6, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Moroccan authorities to investigate disturbing allegations that former high-ranking Interior Minister official Fouad Ali El Himma was the instigator of a demonstration in 2006 in Casablanca against an independent weekly for reporting on controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed. Mustapha Ramid, a leading…
New York, June 6, 2008—CPJ applauds a regional court’s ruling on Thursday declaring the 2006 arrest of Gambian journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh to be illegal and ordering his immediate release. The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States also ordered the Gambian government to pay US$100,000 in damages to Manneh’s…
New York, June 6, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that China has begun to restrict local and foreign coverage of the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake. Several international media outlets have reported the harassment and temporary detention of reporters at the hands of local officials. The moves come after a brief period…
New York, June 6, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the legal harassment of BBC correspondent Jonathan Head in Thailand. A high-ranking police official, Lt. Col. Wattanasak Mungkandee, has filed two separate criminal complaints alleging that the journalist insulted the monarchy—charges that Head and the BBC have called unfounded. Thai law allows any…
New York, June 5, 2008—A Philippine court today convicted newspaper editor and publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares on libel charges stemming from a 2003 article about a politically prominent lawyer, according to news reports. The regional court in Makati, outside the capital, Manila, sentenced Cacho-Olivares to an indeterminate prison sentence of six months to two years and…
New York, June 4, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brazen attack on investigative reporter Dusan Miljus, who covers organized crime and corruption for the popular Croatian daily Jutarnji List. According to Reuters, two unidentified men beat Miljus with baseball bats in a parking lot near his house in Zagreb on Monday evening. Miljus…
VENEZUELA: New York, June 3, 2008—Unidentified gunmen killed Pierre Fould Gerges, vice president of the Caracas daily Reporte Diario de la Economía, on Monday following dozens of death threats against the paper’s senior administrative staff over the last year. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today that Venezuelan authorities must conduct a thorough investigation and…
New York, June 3, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detention of blogger Gopalan Nair on charges of insulting a Singaporean judge during a high-profile libel case. Nair, a former Singapore citizen who obtained U.S. citizenship in 2005, was arrested in a hotel on Saturday evening, according to news reports citing his…
New York, June 2, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked by allegations that a paramilitary group with links to local police kidnapped and tortured two journalists and a driver working undercover in a Rio de Janeiro slum. CPJ called on Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation. “We are appalled by O Dia’s allegations…