Fixer abducted in February has been released
March 18, 2004, New York—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that Ruslan Soltakhanov, a fixer and driver working for Atlanta-based Cox Newspapers, was released from captivity on March 12 after being abducted in February. On February 13, several unidentified men abducted Soltakhanov from his home in Mozdok, just west of Chechnya in North…
Imprisoned journalist transferred to house arrest
March 17, 2004, New York—Uzbek authorities have allowed imprisoned journalist Ruslan Sharipov, who has been jailed since May 2003, to complete his sentence under house arrest. On Friday, March 12, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced that Sharipov would be moved from Tavaksay Prison in Tashkent Region to a low-security prison near Kibray District, also in…
PROMINENT U.S. AND LATIN AMERICAN JOURNALISTS CALL FOR RELEASE OF IMPRISONED CUBAN JOURNALIST
New York, March 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today sent more than 600 appeals—including more than 50 from some of the most renowned journalists in Latin America—to Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz calling for the release of jailed Cuban journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, a recipient of CPJ’s 2003 International Press Freedom Award, and…
Government bans ads to newspaper group
New York, March 15, 2004—Last week, Pakistan’s Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, acknowledged that the government had suspended advertising in newspapers belonging to the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications, including the English-language daily The Nation and the Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt. He denied, however, that an official ban had been issued. In February, the government effectively stopped…
Journalist sentenced to six months in jail
New York, March 12, 2004—Judes Zossé, publication director of the private daily newspaper L’Hirondelle (The Swallow) in the Central African Republic (CAR), was sentenced today to six months in prison and fined 200,000 CFA francs (US$375). He was charged with “insulting the head of state.” “This harsh sentence belies the CAR government’s stated commitment to…
HONG KONG JOURNALISTS QUESTIONED AND EXPELLED
New York, March 10, 2004—Authorities in Beijing interrogated three reporters from the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily newspaper yesterday and then deported them to Hong Kong, according to a spokesman for the paper. Apple Daily is the second-largest Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. Early on the morning of March 9, security officials arrived at the journalists’…
AFP PHOTOGRAPHER SHOT IN THE WEST BANK
New York, March 9, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned by today’s shooting by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of Palestinian photographer Saif Dahla in the West Bank city of Jenin. Two witnesses—Dahla’s brother, Reuters photographer Said Dahla and Reuters cameraman Ali Samoudi—told CPJ that there were about half a dozen journalists standing together…
JOURNALIST KILLED AND ANOTHER WOUNDED
New York, March 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the loss of a Spanish television journalist killed yesterday afternoon when gunmen opened fire on demonstrators in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The demonstrators were calling for the prosecution of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A U.S. photographer was also wounded in the incident.
CPJ URGES GOVERNMENT TO END CYCLE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS
Dhaka, March 5, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called upon the government of Bangladesh to vigorously investigate and prosecute all those who murder, assault, or threaten the country’s journalists, in order to end a long cycle of violence against the media and enable journalists to do their jobs safely. During a press conference…
Journalist attacked
New York, March 5, 2004—Vakhtang Komakhidze, a reporter for the well-respected “60 Minutes” investigative journalism program on independent television station Rustavi-2 was brutally attacked today in the autonomous republic of Ajaria in southern Georgia. According to Akaki Gogichaishvili, the host of “60 Minutes,” Komakhidze had spent the last two weeks reporting in Ajaria and was…