CPJ disappointed by dissolution of local press freedom group
New York, November 12, 2004—The noted Argentine press freedom organization PERIODISTAS dissolved yesterday amid internal differences. The group, which was established nine years ago to defend local journalists against press freedom abuses, said in a press release that, “after a long internal discussion about the association’s main goals, it was impossible to find a consensus…
Editor brutally murdered
New York, November 12, 2004—The battered body of a local newspaper editor from the eastern state of Orissa was found by the side of a highway near the village of Bhagirathipur on Tuesday, November 9, police sources told the Press Trust of India (PTI), a national newswire service. Dilip Mohapatra, editor of the Oriya-language newspaper…
Government instructs media to promote leadership’s positions
New York, November 12, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by a new directive from Iraqi authorities that warns news organizations to reflect the government’s positions in their reporting or face unspecified action. The warning came in a statement released Thursday but dated November 9 by the government regulatory Media High Commission. The…
Journalist killed covering violent clashes
New York, November 12, 2004—Antoine Massé, a correspondent for the private daily Le Courrier d’Abidjan, was fatally shot November 7 while covering violent clashes between French troops and demonstrators in the western Ivoirian town of Duékoué, his editor told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. CPJ called on French and Ivoirian authorities to conduct thorough…
Supreme Court upholds sentence against journalist
New York, November 11, 2004—Ecuador’s Supreme Court of Justice upheld the conviction of columnist Rodrigo Fierro Benítez on criminal defamation charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists has learned. The Supreme Court then suspended Fierro’s sentence. On October 29, a three-judge Supreme Court panel upheld the one-month prison sentence against Fierro, a columnist for the Quito-based…
Internet journalists targeted as government turns repressive gaze toward Web
New York, November 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the latest arrest in the Iranian government’s weeks-long crackdown on the press, which has focused heavily on Internet journalists and led to numerous imprisonments without formal charge. At least eight journalists have been detained since the crackdown began in early September, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for…
Reporter killed outside electoral office
New York, November 10, 2004—Reporter María José Bravo, who was covering a dispute over recent elections, was killed yesterday, November 9, outside an electoral office in the city of Juigalpa, capital of central Chontales Department. The 26-year-old Bravo, a correspondent for the Managua daily La Prensa in Chontales, had just exited the Juigalpa vote-counting center…
CPJ troubled by editor’s detention
New York, November 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the detention of Mathieu N’do, managing editor of the pro-opposition weekly San Finna. Local sources say N’do was arrested November 5 at the airport in the capital, Ouagadougou, as he was returning from Ivory Coast, where he had traveled to report on…
Army finds no fault in Palestine Hotel shelling
New York, November 5, 2004—Nineteen months after a U.S. Army tank opened fire on a Baghdad hotel full of journalists, killing two and wounding three others, the Pentagon has released a redacted report concluding that coalition forces bore “no fault or negligence” in the shelling. In August 2003, the Pentagon had released summary findings about…
Columnist for opposition weekly is beaten, threatened
New York, November 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Tuesday’s vicious attack on Abdel Halim Kandil, an editor and columnist at the opposition weekly Al-Arabi. The attack occurred just before dawn on November 2, after Kandil’s colleagues dropped him off near his home in Cairo, according to local sources and press reports. Before entering…