New York, June 22, 2004—Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Gennady Vasilev, announced yesterday that investigators are questioning a suspect who admitted to killing independent journalist Georgy Gongadze, local reports said. The citizen, identified only as K, is a convicted murderer already in prison for several other killings that involved decapitation, the manner in which Gongadze was killed four…
New York, June 21, 2004—Tagib Abdusalamov, director of the Dagestani bureau of the Russian state radio and television company GTRK, was shot and wounded on Friday, June 18, by unknown assailants, according to local and international reports. Abdusalamov is in critical condition at the hospital in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)…
Baku, June 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today held a press conference in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to call on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to end his government’s repression of independent and opposition media. In Baku, CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, Europe & Central Asia Program Coordinator Alex Lupis, and Senior Editor Amanda Watson-Boles…
New York, June 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that authorities in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR)—a mountainous enclave in southwest Azerbaijan—have harassed two journalists writing about politics, economics, and social issues, including local government corruption. Melakhet Nasibova, a correspondent for the Azerbaijani news agency Turan and the Azerbaijani Service of the…
New York, June 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s expulsion from Morocco of Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem, a reporter and photographer, respectively, with the Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenbladet. Dommersnes told CPJ that four plainclothes Moroccan security officers woke Refvem and him up in their hotel rooms in Rabat early yesterday…
New York, June 17, 2004—Eliseo (“Ely”) Binoya, a radio commentator with Radyo Natin, was gunned down by unidentified assailants today outside of the port city General Santos, on the southern island of Mindanao, according to international news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to Binoya’s journalistic work.…
New York, June 16, 2004—Mohamed Benchicou, publisher of the French-language daily Le Matin, was sentenced by an Algiers court to two years in prison on Monday, June 14, for violating Algeria’s currency exchange laws, according to Youssef Razzouj, Le Matin’s editor. Benchicou was also ordered to pay a large fine, totaling several hundred thousand dollars…
New York, NY, June 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of Internet journalist Le Chi Quang, who served more than 19 months of a four-year jail term for posting essays critical of the government online. According to international news sources, Quang was released on Monday, June 14, from Nam Ha Prison…
New York, June 15, 2004—Two editors from the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), received reduced prison sentences on appeal at the Intermediate People’s Court in Guangzhou, in the southern Guangdong Province, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Yu Huafeng, Nanfang Dushi Bao deputy editor in chief and general manager, had his prison…
Kinshasa, June 14, 2004—Concluding a two-week mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called on the transitional government not to use national security as a justification for restricting the work of the press. Journalists working in the DRC face frequent harassment, legal action, and even imprisonment, according to…