New York, November 19, 2007– The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes an Australian coroner’s Friday ruling that five journalists were deliberately killed in 1975 by Indonesian armed forces seeking to prevent them from reporting on Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor. The killings may qualify as war crimes under the Geneva Conventions and Australian law, according…
New York, November 16, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly alarmed that news channels on the Pakistani networks GEO TV and ARY Digital were ordered by authorities to halt transmission today from the United Arab Emirates after refusing to sign a Pakistani government-mandated “code of conduct.” GEO TV was ordered by the UAE Information…
New York, November 15, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned for the safety of two journalists with the Tamil-language daily Malaysia Nanban. One was beaten and is now in a coma, and another received death threats after reporting on local Malaysian Tamil schools facing closure, according to Gayathry Venkiteswaran of the country’s Centre for…
New York, November 13, 2007—Somalia’s U.S. and Ethiopian-backed government has forced three prominent private radio stations off the air since Monday over their coverage of the bloody conflict centered in Mogadishu, according to news reports and local journalists. In a press conference today, Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed “Dheere” Omar Habeeb accused the private stations Radio Banadir…
New York, November 13, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the effective closure last week of the local edition of the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in the southern city of Samara and the criminal indictment of the edition’s editor for alleged use of counterfeit software. On Thursday, Samara police raided the local bureau and…
New York, November 12, 2007—The Chinese government should abandon its crackdown on so-called “fake” foreign journalists in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ expressed alarm that the government’s plan, which includes amassing records of thousands of foreign journalists seeking Olympics accreditation, is a pretext to block critical…
New York, November 12, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by pressure being exerted by the Pakistani government on broadcasters to sign a 14-page government-mandated “code of conduct.” Station owners say they have been told that if they do not sign the agreement, they will not be allowed to return to the air.…
New York, November 12, 2007—Azerbaijani newspaper editor Genimet Zahidov of the prominent opposition daily Azadlig (Freedom) was given two months of pre-trial detention on Sunday while authorities investigate charges of “hooliganism” and inflicting “minor bodily harm.” Zahidov was arrested and sent to a Baku pre-trial detention center the same day. The two charges brought against…
New York, November 8, 2007—The Pakistani government is continuing efforts to silence the press by harassing journalists, attempting to shut down printing presses, and censoring articles critical of the government, local journalists told CPJ today. News editors at the Urdu-language Daily Ausaf in Islamabad and at the English-language Express in Lahore said their papers were…
New York, November 8, 2007—The Georgian government should immediately allow two private television stations to resume broadcasting, and it must lift a ban on news-gathering imposed on all other private broadcasters, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today. The government shut two popular Tbilisi-based television channels shortly before declaring a state of emergency Wednesday night.…