CPJ calls for probe into death threats against Bucaramanga editor
New York, July 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Colombian authorities to fully investigate death threats against a provincial journalist who criticized a local mayor. Marcos Perales Mendoza, editor of the weekly regional newspaper Portada in the northeastern city of Bucaramanga, has already been given a bulletproof vest, and a two-way police…
China: Policeman beats Guizhou editor to death in public
New York, July 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Chinese authorities to fully investigate the death of a newspaper editor who was beaten by a uniformed policeman in public, the second journalist to die at the hands of police in less than a year. Authorities in the southwest province of Guizhou have arrested…
Gunmen attack university radio station
New York, July 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an attack by gunmen on a university radio station in Oaxaca, southeast Mexico, which has backed efforts to oust the local state governor. At least 10 men in ski masks sprayed bullets at Radio Universidad on the evening of July 22 as it was on…
Lebanese journalist killed, TV transmitters hit
New York, July 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the killing of a freelance photographer and a media technician during separate Israeli missile attacks in Lebanon. Layal Najib, 23, a freelance photographer for the Lebanese magazine Al-Jaras and Agence France-Presse, became the first journalist to be killed since Israel began attacks on…
Afghanistan: Cameraman killed reporting on double suicide bomb attack
New York, July 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Aryana television cameraman Abdul Qodus, who died in a double suicide bombing in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday. Qodus had arrived at the scene of a suicide car bomb when a second attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew…
Justice official tells CPJ that government opposes press restrictions
New York, July 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is encouraged by a letter from Costa Rica’s top justice official stressing her government’s opposition to newly proposed press restrictions. On June 8, CPJ sent a letter to Costa Rican President Oscar Arias expressing concern about a May 3 decision by the Costa Rican Constitutional Court…
Independent journalist held for a year may be charged
New York, July 20, 2006—After a year in detention without trial, Cuban journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez could soon be charged with causing public disorder, his lawyer has told the family. González, a reporter for the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, was arrested on July 22, 2005 after he left his home in…
TV crews hit by rubber bullets
New York, July 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that members of two Arab television crews were wounded by rubber bullets during an Israeli army operation in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday. Wael Tanous, a satellite technician with the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera, was hit in the left leg while…
CPJ condemns dropped charges in Zongo case
New York, July 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the decision of a judge in Burkina Faso to drop charges against the only suspect in the 1998 murder of a journalist probing criminal allegations against the president’s family. Prosecutors said yesterday an examining magistrate had granted their request to drop the case…
Two Nigerian journalists released after four days in detention
New York, July 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved that the Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has freed two Nigerian journalists, but it’s alarmed that the pair were held for four days without charge or due process. CPJ remains deeply concerned over the state of press freedom in the Gambia. Sam Obi, a…