New York, March 20, 2003— Mathurin Momet, publication director of the private daily Le Confident in the Central African Republic (CAR), was released by rebels under the command of General François Bozizé on Saturday, March 15. He had spent more than three weeks in prison. Momet was among a group of prisoners jailed by President…
New York, March 20, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of Kloueu Gonzreu, 51, a regional correspondent for the state-run news wire service Agence Ivoirienne de Presse. According to several local reports, Gonzreu’s body was found and identified on Wednesday, March 19, by a team from the Red Cross, where the…
New York, March 20, 2003— In the second day of a sweeping crackdown on the political opposition and the independent press in Cuba, police arrested nine more independent journalists last night, bringing the total detained to 19. The nine journalists—Manuel Vázquez Portal, Héctor Maseda, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Adolfo Fernández Saínz, Mario Enrique Mayo, Fabio Prieto…
New York, March 20, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to reverse its earlier decision to deny a certificate to the documentary “Aakrosh,” which prevents the film from being shown publicly. “Aakrosh,” or “Cry of Anguish,” is a 20-minute, Hindi-language documentary that features interviews with…
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…