Critical journalist badly beaten by unidentified assailants
New York, October 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced alarm today at the savage beating of publication director Dimas Dzikodo, whose weekly Le Forum de la Semaine is strongly critical of Togolese authorities. Unidentified attackers knocked Dzilan from his motorcycle on Sunday in the capital Lomé and beat him, local sources told CPJ. They…
Journalist arrested; facing extradition to UN war crimes tribunal
New York, October 7, 2005—A Croatian journalist was arrested Thursday and faces extradition to the Hague-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after being accused of identifying a protected witness and failing to appear at a hearing on a contempt of court charge. Croatian police in the southern city of Split…
Journalist beaten and warned to halt investigation
New York, October 7, 2005 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an attack on a Ukrainian television reporter by an unidentified assailant who warned her to stop investigating the political party headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko. Reporter Natalya Vlasova of 34 Kanal, a television station in the eastern industrial city of…
Imprisoned journalist dies in jail after transfer to hospital is refused
New York, October 5, 2005 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today held the Nepalese authorities responsible for the death of an imprisoned reporter who died after being denied proper medical treatment. Maheshwar Pahari, 30, who worked for the weekly Rastriya Swabhiman, died of tuberculosis on Tuesday, according to local journalist groups. Pahari died in…
Philippine reporter shot, seriously wounded, but spared when gun jams
New York, October 4, 2005—A newspaper reporter was shot and seriously wounded today in General Santos City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao but escaped death because his attacker’s gun jammed. Danilo Aguirre, a business and features writer for the weekly Mindanao Bulletin, was walking to work with photographer Emmanuel Zaldimar when a hooded…
One year later, an editor still jailed in Sierra Leone
New York, October 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that journalist Paul Kamara remains in jail in Sierra Leone a year after being convicted of “seditious libel” for articles criticizing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Kamara was convicted on October 5, 2004, and sent to Pademba Road Prison in the capital, Freetown, to serve…
Thai prime minister sues two journalists
Bangkok, October 4, 2005 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned today the filing of criminal and civil lawsuits by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against two Thai journalists who allegedly accused him of disloyalty to the King. . “Prime Minister Shinawatra’s resort to criminal defamation suits against journalists represents a clear and present danger…
Editor of women’s rights magazine arrested
New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that police arrested the editor of a women’s rights’ magazine in Kabul on Saturday after local religious leaders accused him of publishing anti-Islamic articles. The High Court ordered the arrest of Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights), after…
CPJ voices concerns in meeting with Chad ambassador
Washington, October 3, 2005—After meeting today with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a top Chadian diplomat promised to convey concerns over press freedom violations in Chad to his country’s president, Idriss Déby. In a session with Mahamoud Adam Bechir, Chad’s ambassador to the United States, CPJ representatives called on Chadian authorities to…
In China, a popular Web forum is shuttered
New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shuttering of the Beijing-based Yannan bulletin board system. Radio Free Asia reported today that the popular Web forum was closed after providing coverage and debate on a turbulent recall campaign in a village in Guangdong province. Yannan posted a September 30 announcement stating that…