New York, July 5, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the arrest of two reporters for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Asa’ad Abad, the capital of Konar Province in eastern Afghanistan late last week. The reporters remain in custody in the capital, Kabul, according to Radio Free Afghanistan’s chief editor, Sharifa…
New York, July 5, 2005—A district court in Minsk has handed down judgments against the opposition daily Narodnaya Volya (The People’s Will) in three separate civil defamation trials and ordered the daily to pay a total of 115 million Belarusian rubles (US$53,500) in damages, according to local and international reports. Narodnaya Volya staff told the…
New York, July 5, 2005—An Iraqi television producer for the state news channel Al-Iraqiya was killed on Friday in Mosul after being kidnapped earlier in the day, according to international press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the circumstances surrounding the slaying of Khaled al-Attar, who produced a program satirizing government officials. Insurgents…
New York, July 5, 2005—A radio commentator was ambushed and shot at least 15 times by a gang of motorcycle-riding assailants while driving home on the southern island of Mindanao on Sunday. Rolando “Dodong” Morales, who died at the scene, had just finished hosting his weekly program on radio dxMD in General Santos City. The…
New York, July 5, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the imprisonment of two radio journalists in Bossasso, a city in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Sheekh Aduun, director of the Bossasso radio affiliate of the private STN network, and Awale Jama, an editor at the station, have been in police…
New York, July 5, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the arrest of two reporters for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Asa’ad Abad, the capital of Konar Province in eastern Afghanistan late last week. The reporters remain in custody in the capital, Kabul, according to Radio Free Afghanistan’s chief editor, Sharifa…
New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the Hunan Supreme People’s Court decision to uphold the conviction of journalist Shi Tao on charges of “illegally leaking state secrets abroad.” The ruling makes it more likely that Shi will serve out the bulk of a 10-year prison sentence for e-mailing to the editor…
New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at recent comments by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez that could endanger journalists in his country. In a June 27 interview with radio station W Radio, Uribe suggested that leftist guerrillas told a foreign news organization in advance about an impending attack in southern…
New York, June 30, 2005—Security forces today harassed and detained several journalists covering opposition protests in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, and at least one camera operator was still being held at the end of the day, according to local sources. A presidential spokesperson told the Committee Protect Journalists that any journalists detained while doing their…
New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi reporter for Knight Ridder Newspapers who was killed in Baghdad last Friday on his day off from work. Knight Ridder reported yesterday that Salihee was driving alone in his neighborhood of Amariyah and approaching a joint patrol of…