New York, August 13, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction of a British freelance journalist in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The journalist, James Brandon, was released today, according to international press reports. Brandon, a journalist working for The Sunday Telegraph of London and other media, was taken by gunmen at Al-Diyafa…
New York, August 12, 2004—Radio journalist Fernando Consignado was found dead in his home this morning in the town of Nagcarlan, 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of Manila, according to local news reports. Consignado, a correspondent for the Manila-based Radio Veritas, died of a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police investigators. The…
New York, August 12, 2004—The director of the shuttered Kyiv radio station Kontinent has arrived in Washington, D.C., after gaining refugee status from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In a telephone interview with CPJ, Sergey Sholokh said he fled Ukraine five months ago and applied for refugee status through the U.S. Embassy in Poland.…
New York, August 11, 2004—A Chinese high court today rejected the appeal of Internet essayist Du Daobin, who was convicted in June on charges of subversion. The Supreme People’s Court of Hubei Province in Xiaogan City upheld charges of “overtly instigating and subverting state power,” according to Xinhua state news agency. Today’s ruling upheld a…
New York, August 11, 2004—More than seven months after escaping from the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, two of the men charged in the April 2000 killing of prominent journalist Jean Léopold Dominique have been recaptured. Dymsley Millien was arrested August 1 in Port-au-Prince, and Jeudi-Jean Daniel was captured August 8 in the southern city of Jacmel,…
New York, August 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned by a U.S. federal judge’s ruling to hold a journalist in contempt of court for refusing to testify before the grand jury probing the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s name. Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan of U.S. District Court in Washington,…
New York, August 10, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes a Hong Kong court decision today setting aside a search warrant issued in a July 24 raid on the daily newspaper Sing Tao. The newspaper was one of seven raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation. Justice Michael…
New York, August 9, 2004—A court in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, today sentenced Maka Gbossokotto, publication director of the private French language daily Le Citoyen, to a 12-month suspended jail term and a 500,000 CFA franc (US$960) fine for printing “public insults” against businessman Jean-Serge Wafio. Gbossokotto was also charged with defamation, but…
New York, August 9, 2004—Seven employees of an evangelical radio station that was shuttered last week were freed on Saturday, August 7, without charge. The station, Radio Hosanna, in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Lubumbashi, remains closed. The station has been shut down since August 4, when national intelligence agents and police…
New York, August 9, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is troubled by the continuing deterioration of press freedom conditions in Nepal, marked by several recent threats and attacks on journalists covering the Maoist rebel insurgency in the western part of the country. On July 31, Maoist rebels abducted a local journalist and human rights…