Editor jailed over Muhammad cartoons
New York, January 18, 2008—Minsk City Court in Belarus today imprisoned Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, an editor at the now-shuttered independent weekly Zgoda (Consensus) newspaper, for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006. Sdvizhkov was charged with “incitement of religious hatred” and sentenced to three years in a high-security prison. Sdvizhkov was arrested on…
Chadian police take radio station off the air
New York, January 17, 2008—Police in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, forced a radio station launched by local human rights activists off the air on Wednesday and detained its director on allegations of defamation over the broadcast of a press release by a consumer advocacy group, according to local journalists and news reports. The studios of…
Deported journalist declared threat to state security
New York, January 17, 2008—Russian authorities say they were ensuring the “security of the state” when they barred a reporter from re-entering the country last month. Natalya Morar, a Moldovan citizen who works for the Moscow-based independent newsweekly The New Times, said the Russian Embassy in Moldova informed her today of the official reason for…
In expulsion case, Pakistani assertions ring hollow
New York, January 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects claims made by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that CPJ’s alert on the expulsion of U.S. journalist Nicholas Schmidle was “misleading and factually incorrect.” The ministry’s remarks were made in a prepared opening statement to a press briefing in Islamabad today and repeated in response…
Appeals court upholds verdict in Fatullayev case
New York, January 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an Azerbaijani appellate court’s decision today to uphold the 2007 conviction of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan. Fatullayev was convicted in October 2007 on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred, and tax evasion,…
CAR journalist imprisoned over corruption editorial
New York, January 15, 2008—A court in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, today sent the director of a private newspaper to prison to await trial on criminal charges in connection with an editorial about a political scandal. Faustin Bambou of the biweekly Les Collines de l’Oubangui was transferred to Bangui’s main Ngaraba prison after…
Arrests made in Kabul hotel suicide bombing
New York, January 15, 2008—Afghan authorities swiftly arrested four suspects following the attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul yesterday, according to The Associated Press. The suicide blast took the lives of at least six people, including that of Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen, 38, a journalist from the Oslo daily newspaper Dagbladet.
Security forces arrest two Somaliweyn Radio staff
New York, January 14, 2008—National security agents for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia arrested two journalists for the independent, Mogadishu-based Somaliweyn Radio on Sunday. According to Somaliweyn Radio sources, security agents seized reporter Bashir Mohammed Abdulkadir at the station and took him to National Security Agency headquarters for questioning. Local journalists said the arrests…
Journalist faces death in Afghanistan
New York, January 14, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by the detention and upcoming trial of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province, northern Afghanistan. The 23-year-old journalism student and brother of prominent journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi will be tried in a religious Islamic court on charges of blasphemy, according to Rahimullah…
Authorities crack down on freelancers after a protest rally in Minsk
New York, January 14, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detention of one freelance journalist and the interrogation of three others in Minsk, and it calls on Belarusian authorities to halt persecution of the independent press. Arseny Pakhomov, a freelance photographer working for the independent weekly Nasha Niva, was arrested and sentenced…