New York, April 8, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns yesterday’s murder of popular writer Georgi Stoev, author of a series of books on the origins and rise of Bulgaria’s criminal underworld since the fall of communism in 1989. Stoev, 35, was on a busy street when two unidentified men stopped him near the Pliska…
New York, April 8, 2008—A Russian district court judge on Monday acquitted a man accused in the killing of Vagif Kochetkov, Tula correspondent for the Moscow daily Trud and a columnist for the local newspaper Molodoi Kommunar, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. Prosecutors had charged Yan Stakhanov, a local businessman, with robbery and…
New York, April 7, 2008—Four men have been convicted and sentenced to 11 years apiece in the November 2004 murder of Mexican photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the convictions as an important step against impunity in attacks on the press. Judge Daniel Armenta Rentería convicted former Escuinapa Police Chief Abel…
New York, April 7, 2008—Five years after a series of U.S. military strikes against media outlets in Baghdad killed three journalists, CPJ calls on the U.S. military to fully investigate the incidents and make its findings public. CPJ also calls on the U.S. military to implement procedures to address the presence of journalists on the…
New York, April 7, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an order by the Yemeni government this weekend to cancel the license of the independent weekly newspaper Al-Wasat. On Saturday, Yemeni Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi ordered the newspaper’s license terminated because the paper had damaged relations with Saudi Arabia, and violated technical provisions of the…
New York, April 7, 2008—A New York Times reporter and a British national were released on bail from Zimbabwe’s Harare Central Prison today after spending five days in detention on charges of reporting without accreditation. The award-winning Times journalist, Barry Bearak, is currently receiving medical treatment for a chest infection and a back injury he…
New York, April 7, 2008—The editor of a New York-based weekly told CPJ he received a death threat. Majeed Babar, executive editor of the Weekly Asia Tribune, said a man called him on March 29 and told him, “We will cut you to pieces” in Urdu. Babar said the threat was linked to opinion columns…
YEAR NAME AFFILIATION CHARGE ACTION 2000 Obed Zilwa The Associated Press None; accused of involvement in bomb attack on defunct Daily News Held for three nights; left the country Rob Cooper Chris Mazivanhange Vincent Murwira Peter Maringisanwe The Associated Press The Associated Press South African Broadcasting Corp. South African Broadcasting Corp. N/A Beaten by Zimbabwean…
In Zimbabwe, New York, April 3, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention in Harare today of New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak and calls for his immediate release. “It is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to freely cover the important political situation unfolding in Zimbabwe,” CPJ Executive…
New York, April 4, 2008—Zimbabwe’s acting attorney general recommended today that the police release a foreign correspondent and another man accused of working as a journalist in custody since yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, police raided one of the hotels used by foreign journalists, the York Lodge in the Harare suburbs, and arrested New York Times reporter…