New York, August 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by a federal judge’s ruling today holding five reporters in contempt for refusing to identify sources for stories about Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist once suspected of spying. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson imposed daily fines of $500 against H. Josef…
New York, August 17, 2004—An Iraqi cameraman working for the German television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) was killed August 15 in Fallujah, the station confirmed today. Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, 32, also worked as a producer and editor for the public television broadcaster. ZDF said in a statement that Abbas had called the station August…
New York, August 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased that restrictions have been lifted against journalist Sergei Duvanov, who was released from prison on probation in January. Yesterday, August 16, a district court in Kazakhstan’s industrial capital, Almaty, lifted the restrictions, which included handing over a portion of his salary to the…
New York, August 17, 2004—Amid increased political violence, Bala Nadarajah Iyer, a journalist, writer, and political activist with the opposition Tamil group the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), was shot and killed yesterday, August 16, by unidentified assailants in the capital, Colombo. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns attempts during the weekend by Iraqi authorities to bar media from the Iraqi city of Najaf, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting Shiite insurgents. According to CPJ sources in Iraq, most journalists were forced to leave the city as a result of…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that a French-American journalist and his translator have gone missing in Iraq and may have been abducted. Micah Garen, a journalist with the U.S.-based Four Corners Media, and his translator Amir Doushi, were abducted Friday by two armed men in civilian…
New York, August 16, 2004—An unidentified gunman ambushed radio commentator Edward Balida in the public market in Valencia City, Bukidnon Province, on Friday, August 13. Balida, a broadcaster for the Bukidnon affiliate of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), survived the gunshot wound, which shattered his left hand, according to local media groups and news reports. The…
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.…