New York, March 20, 2003— International journalists evacuated the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad this morning after receiving reports that the hotel was a likely target of a U.S. air strike. One journalist received a phone call from a Western government official warning journalists to leave the hotel immediately. At least one U.S. media outlet was…
New York, March 19, 2003— In a harsh crackdown on the political opposition and independent media, Cuban authorities have arrested at least 10 independent journalists and 20 political activists throughout the country. The government has vowed to prosecute the detainees but has not yet specified under what charges. The arrests, which began on Tuesday, March…
New York, March 19, 2003— With a U.S.-led military attack against Iraq imminent, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) remains extremely concerned about the safety of reporters currently operating in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. Although many international journalists have left Baghdad, dozens remain in the city poised to cover the conflict. Most are confined to the…
New York, March 19, 2003- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s violent attack on Olga Kobzeva, a journalist with GTRK Don-TR television, a local branch of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. According to Russian sources, an unknown assailant wielding a broken bottle slashed…
March 18, 2003, New York—Journalist Jiang Weiping, a recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalist’s (CPJ) 2001 International Press Freedom Award, has had his prison sentence reduced by two years. He could now be eligible for parole in January 2004. In January 2002, the Dalian Intermediate Court sentenced Jiang to eight years in prison on…
Bogotá, Colombia, March 18, 2003—Gunmen shot and killed a radio news host early this morning in a volatile northeastern region of the country. The journalist, who had been threatened previously by members of a right-wing paramilitary army, was also a free-lance reporter for Colombia’s most widely read daily. Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada, 33, was shot…
New York, March 17, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the violent attack against Aleksandr Krutov, a journalist with the independent weekly newspaper Bogatei in the city of Saratov, in southern Russia. According to Russian news reports, three unknown assailants attacked the journalist on the evening of Thursday, March 13, outside his home. One…
New York, March 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that under the state of emergency declared in Serbia on Wednesday, March 12, following the assassination that day of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, restrictions have been placed on the media. Natasa Micic, president of the Serbian National Assembly and currently acting president…
New York, March 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the detention of Sudanese journalist Edward Terso Lado, a reporter for the English-language daily Khartoum Monitor. Nial Bol, editor of the Khartoum Monitor, told CPJ that agents from the General Security Service took Lado into custody on Tuesday, March 11, at around noon at…
March 12, 2003, New York—On the eve of a major leadership change in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on the Chinese government to release all journalists who have been jailed for their work. China currently holds 39 journalists in prison, making the country the world’s leading jailer of journalists for the fourth…