New York, July 1, 2003–A Czech court yesterday convicted the former general secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Karel Srba, of plotting to murder Sabina Slonkova, an investigative reporter for the independent Prague daily Mlada Fronta Dnes. According to local and international press reports, a regional court in the southern city of Ceske Budejovice convicted Srba…
New York, June 30, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent expulsion of Pavel Selin, a correspondent with the Russian television network NTV based in Belarus’s capital, Minsk. On Saturday, June 28, Selin was summon to the Internal Affairs Ministry, where he was told to leave the country within 24 hours, according to…
New York, June 30, 2003—Japanese photographer Takagi Tadatomo was released and deported from Indonesia’s war-torn Aceh Province on Sunday, June 29, after being held for two days. The 25-year-old photographer left Medan, the capital of neighboring North Sumatra Province, on a morning flight to Singapore. Indonesian military authorities in northern Aceh detained Tadatomo last Thursday,…
New York, June 30, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged that two journalists and their American translator were convicted today by a Laotian court in Phonesavan, a town in the northeastern Xieng Khuang province. Although it is unclear what the charges were, CPJ has confirmed that Belgian journalist Thierry Falise, French cameraman Vincent…
New York, June 27, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent violent attack on Abul Bashar, the local correspondent for the Bengali-language national daily newspaper Janakantha (The People’s Voice) in Shariatpur district, which is located in southern Bangladesh. According to several local sources and Bashar, himself, members of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal…
New York, June 26, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disappointed that the upper house of Russia’s Parliament, the Federation Council, approved a series of legal amendments on Wednesday, June 25, that could severely restrict the media’s ability to report on the December 2003 parliamentary elections and the March 2004 presidential elections. The lower…
New York, June 25, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of two journalists from prison today in Afghanistan. However, CPJ remains deeply concerned about government threats to prosecute the journalists for blasphemy in connection with articles published that were critical of Islam. Sayeed Mirhassan Mahdawi, the editor of the weekly newspaper Aftab,…
Bangkok, June 25, 2003—Indonesian police have formally detained American free-lance journalist William Nessen after two days of questioning in the troubled province of Aceh and charged him with violating two sections of Indonesia’s immigration law. Nessen, who voluntarily turned himself over to military authorities on Tuesday, June 24, after spending several weeks with separatist rebels…
New York, June 25, 2003—Jailed Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet has ended the hunger strike he began on May 6 to protest his harassment and subsequent imprisonment by Moroccan authorities. According to press reports, Lmrabet ended the hunger strike after a visit by Moulay Hichem al-Aloui, a cousin of King Muhammad VI, who convinced him to…
New York, June 25, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the continued imprisonment of three Togolese journalists on charges of “publishing false information and disturbing public order.” Dimas Dzikodo and Philip Evégnon, editor-in-chief and publication director, respectively, of the private weekly L’Evenement, and Jean de Dieu Kpakpabia, journalist at the private…