Local journalists increasingly targeted, CPJ finds In Iraq, murder top cause of journalist deaths
New York, March 17, 2006—Murder has overtaken crossfire and other acts of war as the leading cause of work-related deaths among journalists and media support workers in Iraq, and local journalists are far and away the most vulnerable to attack, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. CPJ research, compiled for…
China: CPJ hails dropping of charges against NY Times researcher
New York, March 17, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes China’s decision today to drop charges of revealing state secrets against jailed New York Times researcher Zhao Yan. The decision by the prosecutor’s office was announced by Zhao’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, in Beijing. Zhao was detained in September 2004 after The New York Times…
Government intensifies press crackdown ahead of election
New York, March 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the ongoing government crackdown on independent media in Belarus ahead of a presidential election Sunday. Authorities barred two Polish journalists from entering the country to cover the poll, seized the print-run of an opposition newspaper, and pressured a cable TV operator to drop a Russian…
CPJ concerned about health of two journalists on hunger strike
New York, March 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today about the health of two independent journalists on hunger strike in Cuba, one of them in prison. Guillermo Fariñas, director of the independent news agency Cubacán Press, has refused food for 45 days to protest government restrictions on journalists’ access to the Internet,…
Arrests, jailings mark pre-election press crackdown
New York, March 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the latest government crackdown against independent journalists in the days before Sunday’s presidential election. Police arrested at least four journalists this week, and local courts handed them sentences of five to 10 days in jail on charges of hooliganism. Andrei Pochobut, editor of the magazine…
Uzbekistan targets reporters for German broadcaster
New York, March 16, 2006—The Foreign Ministry has invoked restrictive new regulations to reprimand three correspondents working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, escalating pressure on the few remaining local journalists working for foreign media, according to international press reports. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry revoked the accreditation of Deutsche Welle correspondent Obid Shabanov…
In meeting with CPJ, Colombian president pledges support for provincial journalists
Bogotá, Colombia, March 15, 2006–Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez today expressed support for the work of provincial journalists who report under threat of violence and said that any official who impedes their work “is committing a crime against democracy.” Uribe issued the statement at the urging of a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists,…
Kidnappers free foreign journalists in Gaza
New York, March 15, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved that Palestinian kidnappers have released French and South Korean journalists abducted in Gaza. Caroline Laurent, a reporter for the French women’s weekly ELLE, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, a photographer from the photo agency SIPA, and Yong Tae-young, a correspondent for South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, were…
Arrests, closings, censorship found by CPJ delegationEthiopian political divide ensnares the press
Nairobi, Kenya, March 14, 2006—Deep political divisions in Ethiopia have fueled the massive, months-long crackdown on the private press in that country, gutting the print media, promoting rampant self-censorship, and resulting in the imprisonment of more than a dozen journalists on charges that could bring the death penalty, the Committee to Protect Journalists found during…
China: CPJ condemns latest attempt to charge journalist Li Jianping
New York, March 15, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects Chinese government charges of subverting state power brought against imprisoned Internet journalist Li Jianping. Li has been detained in Zibo, a city in northeastern China’s Shandong Province, since May 27, 2005. The latest charges were brought on March 9, and recently made public by Li’s…