Journalist released from rebel captivity
New York, May 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of Fery Santoro, a cameraman for Indonesia’s privately owned Rajawali Citra Televisi (RCTI) television station, on Sunday, May 16. Santoro was taken hostage by the Free Aceh Movement (known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM) in June 2003 along with RCTI senior reporter…
Imprisoned journalist transferred
New York, May 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that Sami Yousafzai, a stringer for Newsweek who was detained in late April, has been moved from a detention facility in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province to North Waziristan Agency in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal areas. The tribal areas, which are not…
JUDGE ALLOWS NY TIMES CORRESPONDENT TO CONTINUE TO WORK IN BRAZIL
New York, May 14, 2004—A Brazilian judge has allowed New York Times Brazil correspondent Larry Rohter to continue working in Brazil while a government decision to revoke his visa is reviewed. Rohter’s visa was revoked earlier this week after he wrote an article about the drinking habits of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.…
CPJ condemns harassment and detention of journalists
New York, May 14, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the harassment and detention of several Pakistani journalists in connection with the Tuesday, May 11, return of exiled politician Shahbaz Sharif to Lahore. Zaffar Abbas, a producer with the BBC, and Ali Faisal Zaidi, a cameraman with the BBC, accompanied Sharif on his flight…
RFE/RL programming aired despite crackdown
New York, May 14, 2004—Two months after U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) broadcasts were pulled off the air in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a radio station in central Ukraine has begun carrying news from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. Radio Takt, an independent station based in the city of Vinnitsya, began broadcasting RFE/RL programming on its…
BRAZIL TO EXPEL NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT
New York, May 12, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Brazilian Ministry of Justice’s decision to revoke the visa of New York Times Brazil correspondent Larry Rohter. The move came after Rohter wrote an article about the drinking habits of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as “Lula.” Rohter is currently…
Turkmen journalist brutally beaten in his Moscow apartment
New York, May 12, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is appalled by the brutal April 30 attack on Mukhamed Berdiyev, a correspondent for the Turkmen Service of the U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), who was beaten by unknown assailants in his apartment in Moscow. He was discovered lying unconscious three days later…
Journalist sentenced to two years administrative detention
New York, May 11, 2004—Freelance journalist Liu Shui has been sentenced to two years’ administrative detention in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. CPJ is very concerned that authorities may have arrested Liu in retaliation for his recent writing on sensitive political topics. On May 2, police in Shenzhen detained Liu and a friend on charges of “soliciting…
Police beat journalists
New York, May 11, 2004—Police officers beat and detained journalists who were covering a student-organized mock political referendum on May 7 in Butwal, a town about 174 miles (280 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Kathmandu. The demonstration was held as part of ongoing protests against King Gyanendra’s assumption of executive powers, which occurred after the…
REUTERS JOURNALIST KILLED IN CHECHNYA BOMBING
New York, May 10, 2004—Adlan Khasanov, a cameraman working for the British news agency Reuters, was killed by a bomb yesterday morning in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, according to local and international press reports. The powerful bomb exploded at approximately 10:35 a.m. in the Dynamo Stadium in the Chechen capital of Grozny, where Khasanov…