New York, June 14, 2004–Two provincial radio stations run by the private network Bombo Radyo were ordered closed by the local mayor’s office on June 10 because of alleged permit violations, according to local news reports. Mayor Caesar Dy ordered the police to close the stations, DZNC and DWIT, located in Cauayan City, Isabela Province,…
New York, June 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the ongoing imprisonment of Hafnaoui Ghoul, an Algerian journalist and human rights activist who has been jailed since May 24 on defamation charges. Ghoul, who writes for the Algerian dailies El-Youm and Djazair News, was detained on May 24 by the police and…
New York, June 11, 2004—Du Daobin, a Chinese Internet essayist, was convicted of subversion today but received a suspended three-year sentence from the Intermediate People’s Court in Xiaogan, a city in the central Hubei Province, according to international news reports. Du’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, told Agence France-Presse that Du was released from prison today after…
New York, June 11, 2004—Yesterday the Moscow Military District Court again acquitted the six suspects in the October 1994 murder of Dmitry Kholodov, a popular journalist for the Moscow-based independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. The trial is the second one in the case. On June 26, 2002, the same court fully acquitted the defendants—former intelligence officers…
Kinshasa, June 10, 2004—Three community radio stations that had been threatened by rebel forces in the eastern town of Bukavu resumed broadcasting yesterday, after government forces retook the town, according to journalists at the stations. One station reported further threats. Radio Maria, Radio Sauti ya Rehema (Voice of Mercy), and Radio Maendeleo have been able…
New York, June 10, 2004—Tran Khue, an elderly writer and former literature professor, was recently formally charged with espionage, after being detained without charge for almost 18 months. Another writer, Pham Que Duong, who was arrested around the same time, has not yet been charged or tried. According to CPJ sources, on Tuesday, June 9,…
New York, June 10, 2004—The private weekly newspaper The Tribune was ordered closed today by the government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) for violating sections of Zimbabwe’s draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Tafataona Mahoso, the MIC chairman, announced today that the newspaper’s license would be suspended for one year. He…
New York, June 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns two recent police attacks on journalists covering street demonstrations in connection with a nationwide antigovernment strike, or hartal. On Friday, June 4, the eve of the strike, police assaulted photojournalists who were covering a protest march led by supporters of the opposition Awami League…
New York, June 8, 2004—Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a freelance Pakistani journalist, went on trial today in an anti-terrorism court in the southwestern city of Quetta on charges of sedition, conspiracy, and impersonation, according to the journalist. The charges against him carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Rizvi told CPJ that several witnesses for the…
Kinshasa, June 7, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that Albert Kassa Khamy Mouya, former publication director of the weekly newspaper Le Lauréat, and Rakys Bokela, editor of newspaper Le Collecteur, have been imprisoned in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, since May 27 and May 21, respectively, on criminal defamation…