Blogger held on sedition charges New York, May 7, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for sedition charges to be dropped against Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who was jailed Tuesday. He is being held in connection with a story alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife were involved in the October…
Arbil, Iraq, May 5, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged KRG President Masoud Barzani on Sunday to publicly investigate a spate of violent attacks against the press, end official interference and harassment of journalists, and support press legislation that conforms to international standards of free expression. A CPJ delegation met with Barzani at his headquarters…
Editor’s note: The original text of this alert was modified to correct Ibrahim Al-Saraj’s professional affiliation. New York, May 5, 2008–Unidentified gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi journalist in Mosul on Sunday after she resisted their attempt to kidnap her. The journalist, Sarwa Abdul-Wahab, and her mother were walking back from a nearby market to…
New York, May 5, 2008—Police in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have detained a journalist and three support staffers of a private entertainment magazine since May 2. Local journalists say the detentions are related to a cover story about the high-profile trial of Ethiopia’s most popular pop singer, Tewodros Kassahun. Deputy Editor and owner Alemayehu…
New York, May 2, 2008–To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike today to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday.
New York, May 2, 2008—To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike today to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday. Hormatallah, a journalist with the independent weekly Al-Watan Al An,…
New York, May 1, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of an Al-Jazeera cameraman who was held for six years without charge or trial at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Jazeera reported late this afternoon that Sami al-Haj had been freed and was on a plane that was expected…
New York, May 1, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the latest in a series of anonymous threats received by Radio Free Asia (RFA) investigative reporter Lem Pichpisey in Cambodia. On April 10, Pichpisey’s 11-year-old daughter found six AK-47 rifle bullets placed neatly in a row in front of his family’s house…
New York, May 1, 2008–An amendment that would allow the Russian courts to close media outlets for publishing defamatory statements has made its way through the parliament’s lower house, according to local press reports. On April 25, the State Duma approved on a first reading a restrictive bill that would add the dissemination of “deliberately…