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…
New York, June 2, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a thorough and transparent investigation into a scuffle Friday between members of Cameroon’s soccer team and journalists following a pre-game press conference. Cameroon’s star striker Samuel Eto’o allegedly assaulted a reporter during the incident, according to local journalists and news reports. Philippe Boney,…
New York, June 2, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned today about a further delay in the appeal of Afghan journalist Parwez Kambakhsh. Kambakhsh is appealing a death sentence for blasphemy in a Kabul court. The appeal was delayed on Sunday pending medical corroboration of Kambakhsh’s allegation that he was tortured in prison, according…
New York, May 29, 2008—CPJ is deeply troubled by the death of award-winning photojournalist Trent Keegan, whose body was found on Wednesday in a ditch in Nairobi, Kenya. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told Agence France-Presse that Keegan was found with head injuries in a drainage trench along a central highway. Police have opened an inquest,…
New York, May 29, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal murder of a television journalist in the conflict-ridden Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Paranirupasingham Devakumar, Jaffna correspondent for the Maharaja Television news channel News 1st, was stabbed to death by a group of unidentified people on Wednesday evening, according to…