Provincial editor shot, seriously injured
New York, March 15, 2005—Unidentified gunmen today shot and seriously injured a newspaper editor at his office in Dharan, 540 kilometers (335 miles) east of the capital, Kathmandu. Khagendra Shrestha, who edits the local Dharan Today newspaper, was shot twice in the head, according to local and international news reports. Shrestha was brought to B.P.…
Three journalists receive death threats
New York, March 14, 2005—Three journalists in the southeastern city of Chittagong received letters containing death threats from a group identifying itself as the student wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Party. Journalists Sumi Khan, Samaresh Baidya, and Jubayer Siddiqui each received similar letters within three days of one another, Baidya told CPJ. “Threats against journalists…
Cameraman killed
New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating today’s murder of an Iraqi cameraman in Mosul who was working for a Kurdish television station. According to several international press reports, gunmen shot and killed Hussam Hilal Sarsam, listed in some reports Hussam Habib. The reports stated that the journalist was kidnapped before…
CPJ mourns death of Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui
New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalist mourns the death of cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, who died of a heart attack on Sunday, March 13. Yahyaoui, founder of the Internet forum TUNeZINE, spent 18 months in prison in retaliation for his criticism of Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. He was released in November…
Supreme Court upholds repressive media law in Daily News case
New York, March 14, 2005—Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court today upheld a widely criticized law requiring all independent journalists and media organizations to register with a government commission, but ruled that the Media and Information Commission (MIC) must reconsider a 2003 decision to deny registration to the banned Daily News and its sister paper, the Daily News…
Cameraman killed
New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating today’s murder of an Iraqi cameraman in Mosul who was working for a Kurdish television station. According to several international press reports, gunmen shot and killed Hussam Hilal Sarsam, listed in some reports Hussam Habib. The reports stated that the journalist was kidnapped before…
Blogger and two technicians detained
New York, March 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prolonged detention of an Internet writer, also known as a Web logger, or blogger, and two technicians working with him. According to sources in Bahrain, prosecutors in the capital, Manama, summoned Ali Abdel Imam on February 27 and detained him. Abdel Imam is the…
Wall Street Journal’s Steiger elected CPJ chairman
New York, March 11, 2005—Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a vice president of Dow Jones & Co., has been elected chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He will succeed CPJ’s current chairman, David Laventhol, at the next meeting of the board of directors on July 12. Steiger will take…
Abducted journalist released; captors’ identity in question
New York, March 11, 2005—Journalist JB Pun Magar was released today after three days in captivity. The Himal Khabarpatrika reporter called the magazine’s office in Kathmandu today from Butwal, where he is based, to say that his abductors released him unharmed at 9 a.m., according to news reports.
Ukrainian prosecutors report progress in the Gongadze case
New York, March 11, 2005—The questioning of Ukraine’s former president and negotiations to obtain a potentially key tape recording capped a week of developments in the Ukrainian government’s investigation into the September 2000 abduction and murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze. The once-dormant investigation, given life when President Viktor Yushchenko took office this year, also…