Hong Kong complaint targets Yahoo for role in jailed journalist case
New York, March 31, 2006—A Hong Kong legislator and a representative for the family of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao filed a privacy complaint Thursday against U.S. Internet giant Yahoo for its role in the imprisonment, according to news reports. The family is also considering legal action against the company in Hong Kong or the…
Thai newspaper menaced by pro-government protestors
Bangkok, March 31, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the harassment and intimidation by pro-government protestors of the Thai-language daily newspaper Kom Chad Luek. As many as 3,000 pro-government protestors staged demonstrations beginning Tuesday in front of the newspaper’s offices, demanding that the newspaper’s editors apologize for an article that made what they considered to…
Russian authorities in Dagestan detain, question U.S. journalist
New York, March 31, 2006—Authorities in the southern republic of Dagestan have interrogated U.S. journalist Kelly McEvers in four prolonged sessions this week, confiscated her possessions, and instructed her not to leave the region, she told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a telephone interview today. Police officers first detained McEvers at 4 p.m. Wednesday…
Paraguayan reporter placed on CPJ missing list
New York, March 30, 2006—Nearly two months after Paraguayan radio reporter Enrique Galeano vanished, the Committee to Protect Journalists today placed the journalist on its missing list and renewed its call for the authorities to thoroughly investigate the journalist’s fate. Galeano, also known as “El Pirulito,” has been missing since February 4, when he disappeared…
CPJ welcomes release of Jill Carroll
New York, March 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor who had been held captive in Iraq for nearly three months. Carroll was freed at mid-day in Baghdad. She was reported in good health and told reporters that she was…
Gambian journalists, still held, say reason for detention unclear
New York, March 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the detention since early Tuesday of two senior journalists for The Independent private newspaper, whose offices were sealed off by security forces. Police allowed Editor Musa Saidykhan and General Manager Madi Ceesay, who is also secretary-general of the Gambia Press Union, to…
China: CPJ supports effort to release filmmaker and blogger Wu Hao
New York, March 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists supports calls by Wu Na for the release of her brother Wu Hao, a documentary filmmaker and blogger detained by police in Beijing on February 22. Nina Wu, as she is also known, did not publicize the detention until March 22, when her family became convinced…
Broadcaster loses contact with two correspondents for 2nd time
New York, March 30, 2006—The Turkmen service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has lost contact with correspondents Meter Khommadov and Dzhumadurdy Ovezov for a second time this month, the broadcaster said today. Khommadov gave an interview to the service on March 23, describing the conditions of his and Ovezov’s March 7 arrest and 10-day…
Gambian security forces seal off leading newspaper, arrest staff
New York, March 28, 2006—Plainclothes Gambian security agents today sealed the offices of the twice-weekly newspaper The Independent and arrested staffers found on the premises, local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most of the staff members were released after brief questioning, but Editor Musa Saidykhan and General Manager Madi Ceesay remained in custody…
Maldives: CPJ urges fair, transparent trial for journalist
New York, March 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about Maldivian authorities’ criminal prosecution of Abdullah Saeed, a reporter with the opposition Minivan Daily newspaper. The journalist, also known as Fahala, was sentenced on Sunday to two months in jail for refusing a urine test when he was arrested last October. Saeed still…