China: CPJ calls for release of journalist Li Yuanlong
New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on China today to release Li Yuanlong, a reporter with the daily Bijie Ribao, who was charged with “inciting subversion of state authority” for articles he posted online. Li was charged on February 9 but news of the indictment has only recently emerged. “Chinese authorities…
NTV reporter found murdered in Moscow apartment
New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a thorough investigation into the killing of Ilya Zimin, a 33-year-old correspondent for the national television station NTV, who was found murdered in his Moscow apartment. Several of Zimin’s colleagues from NTV—which is owned by the state oil giant Gazprom—went to his apartment…
CPJ condemns ongoing harassment of independent journalists
New York, February 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Cuban authorities for continuing to harass independent journalists and failing to provide adequate medical treatment for those in prison. Independent journalist Jorge Olivera Castillo, who was released from jail in December 2004 on medical parole, was ordered by a Havana municipal court on February 21…
Newspaper’s Web site and radio blocked during election vote count
New York, February 24, 2006—The Monitor Group said today its news Web site and radio station were being blocked within Uganda to prevent them from publishing early results from polling stations in Thursday’s crucial presidential election. Readers were unable to access the Web site of Uganda’s leading independent daily, The Monitor, and broadcasts of station…
Egyptian appeals court upholds one journalist conviction, overturns others
New York, February 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the decision of a Cairo criminal appeals court today to uphold the conviction and one-year prison sentence of journalist Abdel Nasser al-Zuheiry for defamation. Al-Zuheiry, a reporter for the independent daily Al Masry al-Youm (The Egyptian Today), had lodged the appeal along with…
Three Iraqi journalists slain near Samarra
New York, February 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns in the strongest terms the murder of three journalists on assignment in Samarra for the Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. The bodies of correspondent Atwar Bahjat, cameraman Khaled Mahmoud al-Falahi, and engineer Adnan Khairallah were found today near Samarra, a day after the station lost…
British reporter unwelcome in Addis Ababa
New York, February 23, 2006—A British reporter who recently recounted alleged human rights abuses in Ethiopia was denied press accreditation on Tuesday to work in the African country. Inigo Gilmore, whose report appeared in the London weekly TheObserver, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he left the country the same day after Ethiopian authorities…
In Belarus and India, governments launch criminal actionsCartoon furor becomes press freedom crisis
New York, February 23, 2006—Controversy over the publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammed continued to grow as an international press freedom crisis on Thursday as Indian authorities imprisoned a magazine editor and Belarusian prosecutors opened a criminal probe into a weekly newspaper. In each case, the publications said they printed one or more cartoons…
CPJ alarmed by attacks on Chinese journalists in U.S.
New York, February 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by attacks and threats against ethnic Chinese journalists based in or near the U.S. cities of Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York. Journalists for the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper and Web site Epoch Times told CPJ that they believe they have been targeted in retaliation…
Critical Web site still blocked on eve of presidential election
New York, February 22, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that the Ugandan government has blocked internal access to a critical Web site, Radio Katwe, in the run-up to Thursday’s hotly contested presidential election. The site has been blocked in Uganda for more than a week, according to news reports and local journalists. The…