New York, October 4, 2006-The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this week’s arrest of Rudy Apolo, a columnist and publisher of the Asian Star Journal and Asia Star Balita, and three members of his editorial staff on a criminal defamation charges related to reports on alleged government corruption. The four were arrested Monday morning in…
New York, October 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the three-year prison sentence given today to a critical journalist in Azerbaijan on what local press freedom activists called trumped up drug charges. Sakit Zakhidov, a prominent reporter and satirist for the daily opposition newspaper Azadlyg, was convicted of drug use by a court in…
New York, October 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by death threats on Islamist Web sites against a controversial commentator for the French daily Le Figaro over an article critical of the Prophet Muhammad. Robert Redeker, a high school philosophy teacher in the southwestern city of Toulouse, has gone into hiding under…
New York, October 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores local authorities’ ongoing harassment of the independent weekly Permsky Obozrevatel, one of the few sources of independent news in the western Russian city of Perm. “We are deeply concerned by the continuing harassment of Permsky Obozrevatel,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. Perm police detained…
New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the ongoing campaign of intimidation by the authorities in Burundi against radio stations that have cast doubt on a government claim to have uncovered a coup plot. The State Prosecutor today questioned three journalists from three independent stations about their sources for a…
New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a three-month ban by authorities in Gabon on the newspaper Les Echos du Nord for an article which criticized the handling of a territorial dispute with neighboring Equatorial Guinea. The National Council on Communications (CNC), an official regulatory body, imposed the ban on September 29,…
New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a ban on the Far Eastern Economic Review, which has been hit with a criminal defamation lawsuit by the Singapore leadership for an article about an opposition politician. The Ministry of Information, Communications and Arts revoked the Review’s distribution rights in Singapore on September…
New York, September 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats against a media company owner and a prominent columnist, both harsh critics of President Néstor Kirchner’s administration. CPJ today called on Argentine authorities to immediately denounce the threats and to launch a thorough investigation. Joaquín Morales Solá, columnist for the daily…
New York, September 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at the closure by Islamist militiamen of a radio station in southern Somalia and the questioning of three journalists. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said two other journalists had gone into hiding. The militias closed HornAfrik Radio, a prominent private radio…
New York, September 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by Tunisian and Egyptian government decisions to ban recent issues of European newspapers addressing the controversy caused by remarks about Islam made by Pope Benedict XVI. “Banning newspapers is unacceptable, and it is no solution in furthering the cause of mutual understanding and…