New York, January 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by an arson attack on private Cameroonian radio station Freedom FM. Fire broke out in the building housing the station on Tuesday evening, according to Freedom FM’s founder Pius Njawe, who received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1991. He told CPJ that police…
TEMPLATE Nueva York, 4 de enero del 2006–El Comité para la Protección de Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) está preocupado por una acusación de censura gubernamental de un prominente periodista argentino cuyo programa de radio fue abruptamente sacado del aire. José “Pepe” Eliaschev señaló al CPJ que la emisora estatal Radio Nacional le…
New York, January 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of journalist Jiang Weiping, who has been jailed for five years for writing about corruption in his home province of Liaoning. CPJ honored Jiang in 2001 with an International Press Freedom Award. “In the four years since we honored Jiang Weiping for…
New York, January 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that the Belarusian prosecutor’s office has suspended an investigation of the murder of journalist Veronika Cherkasova. Local and international press reports said the authorities shelved the case on December 28 for lack of suspects. The authorities did not examine whether Cherkasova was stabbed…
New York, December 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s court decision upholding the conviction of Internet writer Zheng Yichun on charges of “inciting subversion” for his articles criticizing the government. The Liaoning Supreme People’s Court rejected Zheng’s appeal, making it more likely that he will serve a prison term of seven years. “Zheng…
New York, December 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed that a criminal case against veteran Hong Kong reporter Ching Cheong could be handed over to prosecutors in mainland China by the end of next week. Ching, a correspondent for the Singapore-based daily The Straits Times, was detained in the mainland on April 22…
New York, December 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the indictment of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan on charges of leaking state secrets. Prosecutors notified Zhao’s lawyers today of the charges, which could 10 years or more in prison, according to international news reports. Zhao’s lawyers have not seen the indictment and do…
New York, December 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the indictment of two Nigerian radio journalists for airing an erroneous report of a bridge collapse, which their station retracted. Klem Ofuokwu and Cleopatra Taiwo, journalists for the private radio station Rhythm 93.7 FM in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt, were remanded…
New York, December 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a new law that makes criticism of authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and his government punishable by up to five years in prison. Lukashenko secretly signed the amendments to the penal code on December 15. They were registered on December 20 and will become law at…
Washington, December 22, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists that met today with the Ethiopian ambassador to the United States expressed outrage at the jailing of at least 16 journalists and demanded their immediate release. “Ethiopia and Eritrea are by far Africa’s worst jailers of journalists in 2005,” CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Julia…