Government suspends Al-Jazeera’s bureau operations
New York, July 1, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the Algerian government’s decision to suspend operations of the local office of the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera. According to press reports and journalists in the capital, Algiers, the Ministry of Communications ordered Al-Jazeera’s Algiers bureau to suspend its newsgathering operations yesterday.…
COURT CLOSES CRIMINAL DEFAMATION CASE AGAINST JOURNALIST AFTER LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY
New York, July 1, 2004—Bowing to international pressure, the mayor of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, has dropped criminal charges against a journalist who had criticized his administration. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the decision, but calls on the government to scrap its criminal defamation law entirely.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST REPORTED MISSING
New York, June 30, 2004—Carmela Baranowska, a journalist and documentary filmmaker working for the Australian broadcast network SBS, was reported missing today in southern Afghanistan, along with her Afghan assistant and their driver, according to international news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating the circumstances behind their disappearance. Baranowska, 35, has not…
CPJ APPOINTS TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS
New York, May 19, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today announced the appointment of two new board members: Andrew Alexander, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Cox Newspapers, and Norman Pearlstine, editor-in-chief of Time Inc. “I am pleased to welcome Andy and Norman to CPJ’s board. They each bring extensive international experience, impressive management skills,…
Court cites press, humanitarian concerns in “combatant” ruling
New York, June 29, 2004—In a case with ramifications for journalists working in conflict areas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, must be allowed to challenge his detention in a court of law. The government argued Hamdi was fighting with…
JOURNALIST MURDERED
New York, June 28, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s murder of Humayun Kabir, editor of the Bangla-language daily Janmabhumi, who was killed in a bomb attack in the southwestern city of Khulna. At around 12 p.m., an unidentified assailant threw two bombs at Kabir outside his home while he was exiting his…
Journalist attacked after exposing high-level corruption
New York, June 25, 2005—Alina Anghel, 29, an investigative journalist with the opposition weekly tabloid Timpul, based in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, was attacked outside her home on the morning of Wednesday, June 23, as she was leaving for work, according to local and international news reports.
Journalists assaulted by prison guards
New York, NY, June 24, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent attack on two journalists by prison guards at a district jail in Satkhira, a town in southwestern Bangladesh. On June 22, Mozaffar Rahman, a reporter with the local Bengali-language daily Patradut, and Monirul Islam Moni, a photographer with Patradut, were assaulted…
Two imprisoned journalists granted medical parole
New York, June 24, 2004—Authorities granted medical parole to imprisoned journalists Manuel Vázquez Portal and Carmelo Díaz Fernández within the last week. The two men, who suffer from several health conditions, were among the 29 journalists imprisoned in Cuba since March 2003. Vázquez Portal, a writer with the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro,…
Journalist jailed after sentence upheld
New York, June 23, 2004—The Polish Supreme Court yesterday upheld the three-month jail sentence of a journalist found guilty of libeling a local official in November 2003 and ordered that he be jailed immediately. Andrzej Marek, editor in chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie (Police News) in the western town of Police, was convicted in…