Internet writer missing after reporting on steel worker protests
New York, October 26, 2005 —A businessman who reported online about steel worker protests in the central Chinese town of Chongqing has disappeared, and is thought to be in police custody, according to the advocacy group Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD). Police seized Shi Xiaoyu from his home in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province on October 20, CRD…
Held for nearly four years without charge
New York, October 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about alleged attempts by the U.S. military to recruit a detained journalist as a spy. London’s Guardian newspaper reported that U.S. military interrogators allegedly told a journalist for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera that he would be released if he agreed to inform U.S. intelligence authorities about…
CPJ condemns harassment of BBC and foreign media
New York, October 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the government harassment of foreign media in Uzbekistan, which today prompted the BBC to close its Tashkent bureau. The BBC World Service said it would immediately close its office and withdraw staff because of continued harassment since its reporting of the May 13 massacre in…
CPJ condemns Afghan editor’s conviction, two-year jail sentence
New York, October 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the conviction of Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights), on blasphemy charges and the two-year jail sentence handed down by Kabul’s Primary Court on October 22. Judge Ansarullah Malawizada said that his ruling in Nasab’s case was based on…
Government shutters Senegalese-owned radio station
New York, October 24, 2005—Police shut down the Gambian branch of Senegalese private radio station Sud FM on Saturday, according to international news reports and local sources. In an interview on Sunday with the BBC, acting Gambian Information Minister Neneh Mcdoll-Gaye accused Sud FM of “inciting trouble” between Gambia and Senegal, but gave no further…
Journalists’ hotel attacked in Baghdad
New York, October 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s deadly car bomb attacks on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, which is widely used by foreigners, including journalists and news organizations reporting from Iraq. In a coordinated attack, three large car bombs detonated outside the hotel at dusk, killing as many as 20 people, injuring a…
Police raid on leading radio station called outrageous’
New York, October 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brazen late-night raid on Kantipur FM’s Kathmandu headquarters on Friday when dozens of armed police officers forcibly entered the radio station, seized control of the studio, and confiscated modems, recorders, and equipment used by the station to transmit programming to the country’s eastern districts.…
Private broadcasters forced off-air after reporting on deadly plane crash
New York, October 24, 2005—Nigerian authorities ordered the country’s leading independent broadcast network off the air today, in part because the network’s reports on Saturday’s deadly Bellview Airlines crash included details that had not been officially released. Daar Communications group’s African Independent Television (AIT) and its radio network, RayPower FM, complied with the order but…
Journalist Ching Cheong imprisoned without lawyer for six months
New York, October 21, 2005 — The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the continuing imprisonment of veteran Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, who will mark six months in detention on Saturday. Ching, a China correspondent for the Singapore daily The Straits Times, has been held in Beijing without charge or access to a lawyer. “It…
Journalist found dead in apartment
New York, October 20, 2005—Vasily Grodnikov, a freelancer who wrote for the Minsk opposition newspaper Narodnaya Volya, was found dead with a head wound in his apartment outside Minsk on Monday, local and international news agencies reported. CPJ is seeking to determine whether Grodnikov, 66, was murdered in retaliation for his journalistic work. Authorities have…