New York, January 26, 2004—After authorities denied holding freelance journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi for weeks, on Saturday, January 24, Pakistan police formally charged him with sedition, conspiracy, and impersonation, senior police officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The maximum penalty for the charges is life imprisonment. Two other individuals were also charged with Rizvi, Allah Noor…
New York, January 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the verdict delivered yesterday by a military court in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, sentencing an Ivoirian police officer to 17 years in prison for the October 2003 murder of Radio France Internationale (RFI) correspondent Jean Hélène. The court found Sgt. Théodore Séry Dago…
New York, January 22, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s raid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on the home and newspaper office of Juliet O’Neill, a reporter for the daily Ottawa Citizen, in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Police authorities, who were operating with a search warrant, attempted to locate the source of…
New York, January 22, 2004—The Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, resumed publication today after police closed it on September 12, 2003, following a Supreme Court declaration that the newspaper was operating illegally. Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the company that owns the Daily News, had refused to register the newspaper with the government’s Media…
New York, January 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the guilty verdict handed down to Koran Tempo in a defamation suit brought by businessman Tomy Winata. In a verdict delivered January 20, the South Jakarta District Court ordered Koran Tempo to pay US$1 million in damages to Tomy (who is referred to by…
Bangkok, January 21, 2004—A court in northern Thailand today declared four soldiers not guilty in the April 2000 attempted slaying of newspaper publisher Amnat Khunyosying. Despite testimony from Amnat (who is referred to by his first name) and others naming the four soldiers, the Chiang Mai Court said there was insufficient evidence in the long-running…
New York, January 20, 2004–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns this weekend’s attack on Tomas Nemecek, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Respekt, which is based in the Czech Republic’s capital, Prague. On Saturday, January 17, two unidentified men in their early 20s assaulted Nemecek while he was leaving a grocery store near his home…
New York, January 15, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the brutal murder of Manik Saha, a veteran journalist and press freedom activist, who was targeted and killed today in a bomb attack in the southwestern city of Khulna. Saha, a correspondent with the daily New Age and a contributor to the BBC’s Bengali-language…
New York, January 14, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by this week’s attack against a radio transmission plant in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The attack, which forced eight radio stations and one television station off the air, came in the wake of violent street clashes between government supporters and opponents. According to local…
New York, January 14, 2004—Itai Dzamara, a reporter with the Harare-based independent weekly The Independent, and the paper’s general manager, Raphael Khumalo, were arrested today after presenting themselves to police at Harare Central Police Station. Both were summoned yesterday to appear at the station for questioning this morning. The arrests followed the publication of a…