Journalist’s appeal trial scheduled for next week
New York, August 22, 2003—Vietnam’s Hanoi Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the appeal of journalist Pham Hong Son on Tuesday, August 26. Son is serving a 13-year sentence on espionage charges. “Pham Hong Son should never have been imprisoned,” said Ann Cooper, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “We believe…
South Korean journalists arrested for filming refugees
New York, August 21, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the continued detention of South Korean journalists Kim Seung Jin and Geum Myeong Seok in Shanghai. On August 7, Shanghai police arrested Kim and Geum as they were filming North Korean refugees who were attempting to gain asylum by forcibly entering a school run…
Journalist shot dead outside his house
New York, August 21, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns this week’s murder of journalist Noel Villarante in Santa Cruz, a town in the Philippine’s central Laguna Province. At about 6:30 p.m. on August 19, an unidentified gunman shot Villarante as he was standing in front of his house, according to reports in Philippine…
Journalist assaulted
New York, August 21, 2003—Earlier this month, a group of young men brutally assaulted Flata Kavinga, a reporter for Zimbabwe’s English-language weekly The Midlands Observer. According to sources familiar with the incident, on August 8, six men—at least two of whom were members of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF—approached the reporter outside a nightclub in Kwekwe, a…
Journalist convicted and imprisoned on criminal defamation charges
New York, August 20, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns a district court’s conviction of independent journalist German Galkin on criminal defamation charges in the southern city of Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Ural mountains. According to local and international press reports, on August 15, following a trial that was closed to the public, the…
Dana was recipient of CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2001
New York, August 17, 2003—Mazen Dana, a veteran television cameraman for Reuters, was killed in Baghdad on Sunday while filming outside the city’s Abu Ghraib prison. According to wire service reports, Dana was shot by U.S.soldiers riding on a tank in the Iraqi capital. The 43-year-old Palestinian was honored by CPJ two years ago for…
Les autorités haïtiennes donnent leur consentement à examiner les dossiers du CPJ sur la liberté de la presse
Version française Port-au-Prince, August 15, 2003—Top officials of the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have agreed to report to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the status of judicial investigations into press freedom abuses documented by CPJ. The agreement came during a five-day visit to Haiti by members of a CPJ delegation, who met…
Oficiais haitianos concordam em analisar casos de liberdade de imprensa apresentados pelo CPJ
Porto Príncipe, 15 de agosto de 2003 – Oficiais do alto escalão do governo do Presidente Jean-Bertrand Aristide concordaram em informar ao Comitê de Proteção aos Jornalistas (CPJ) sobre o andamento das investigações judiciais sobre abusos cometidos contra a liberdade de imprensa documentados pelo CPJ. A decisão foi obtida em um visita de cinco dias…
Journalist briefly detained and handcuffed
New York, August 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed that U.S. forces forcibly detained Hassan Fattah, editor of the English-language daily Iraq Today, on Monday, August 11, after preventing him from attending a press conference. In an e-mail to CPJ, Fattah described the incident, which occurred at Baghdad’s conference center when he…
Newspaper offices attacked; correspondent threatened
New York, August 13, 2003—Armed men claiming to be supporters of Harold Keke, a rebel leader in the Solomon Islands, attacked the Bougainville offices of the daily English-language Papua New Guinea Post-Courier and threatened Gorethy Kenneth, the newspaper’s correspondent in Bougainville, on Friday, August 8. Bougainville is an island in Papua New Guinea, across the…