Journalist on trial for defamation missing for five days
New York, September 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that an Iraqi journalist on trial for defamation has been missing since Sunday morning. A source told CPJ that Ahmed Mutair Abbas, managing editor of the defunct daily Sada Wasit in the southern city of Kut, called Sunday morning to say that…
Editor kidnapped and beheaded
New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the kidnapping and beheading in Sudan of a newspaper editor. Masked gunmen bundled Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the private daily Al-Wifaq, into a car outside his home in east Khartoum late Tuesday. Police found his severed head next to his body today in…
Journalists given suspended jail sentence for defamation
New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jail sentences given to two journalists in Senegal for defamation. A court in the capital Dakar on Tuesday handed down six-month suspended prison sentences to Alioune Ndiaye and Saliou Sambe, respectively director and reporter with the private daily L’Observateur, according to local news reports…
Vietnam: Pro-democracy advocate and writer held, others harassed
New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention in Vietnam of Cong Thanh Do, a political activist and pro-democracy advocate who writes on the Internet under the pen name Tran Nam. He was detained August 14 while on vacation with his family in Phan Thiet. Do, who is a…
In Niger, two journalists sentenced to 18 months in jail
New York, September 5, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by 18-month prison sentences and heavy fines handed down against the director and editor of the Niger private weekly Le Républicain on charges of defaming the government and publishing false news. A court in the capital, Niamey, found Director Maman Abou and Editor Oumarou…
U.S. blogger freed after 30 days in jail; case still looms
New York, September 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gratified that a federal appeals court in San Francisco has agreed to release a video blogger on bail while the journalist’s appeal is pending. Joshua Wolf spent 30 days in prison after refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a videotape of a…
Three Iraqi journalists face trial on defamation charges
New York, September 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the ongoing criminal prosecution of three Iraqi journalists whose trial on defamation charges resumes in Baghdad on Sunday. Editor-in-Chief Ayad Mahmoud al-Tamimi and Managing Editor Ahmed Mutair Abbas of the now-defunct Iraqi daily Sada Wasit, a local newspaper in the southern city…
Police holding three suspects in journalist’s murder
New York, September 1, 2006—Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo are holding a former soldier and two civilians in connection with the July 8 murder of freelance journalist Bapuwa Mwamba, according to the local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger and Agence France-Presse. Kinshasa regional police chief Gen. Patrick Sabiti told journalists Thursday that…
CPJ condemns jailing of a third journalist
New York, September 1, 2006—A reporter for the private newspaper l’Enquêteur has been jailed since August 28, making him the third journalist imprisoned in Niger in recent weeks, according to local sources. Salif Dago was tried Thursday on charges of publishing false information and sent back to jail, the newspaper’s director Idrissa Soumana Maïga told…
In China, Hong Kong journalist sentenced to five years in prison
New York, August 31, 2006—A court in Beijing today sentenced Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, China correspondent for The Straits Times, to five years in prison on charges of spying for Taiwan. The Committee to Protect Journalists noted that authorities have not presented evidence that Ching committed any crime, and that his jailing appears to…