New York, January 10, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of our colleague Vikram Singh Bisht, who died yesterday from internal injuries after falling from his wheelchair. On December 13, 2001, a suicide squad shot Bisht, a cameraman for the New Delhibased news agency Asian News International, while he was covering an…
New York, January 8, 2003—Journalist and human rights activist Shahriar Kabir, who had been detained for one month on suspicion of conducting “anti-state activities,” was released yesterday. However, another journalist, Saleem Samad, who was also accused of conducting “anti-state activities,” remains in custody despite a High Court order to release him on bail. Samad was…
Manila, January 7, 2003—Philippine media organizations renewed protests against the stalled investigation into the murder of journalist Edgar Damalerio by calling for the immediate arrest of the chief suspect. National police authorities and representatives from the office of Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo promised a group of journalists in the capital, Manila, today that action would…
New York, January 6, 2003—The Gaza correspondent for the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, who was apprehended early this morning by Palestinian security forces, was released this evening. According to sources at Al-Jazeera, Saifeddin Shahin was detained this morning at his Gaza office several hours after Al-Jazeera’s Sunday night news bulletin from Doha, Qatar, aired. During…
New York, January 2, 2003—A total of 19 journalists were killed worldwide for their work in 2002, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This number marks a sharp decrease from 2001 when 37 journalists were killed, eight of them while covering the war in Afghanistan. Of the 19 journalists killed in 2002, most…
New York, December 30, 2002–Tigran Nagdalian, the 36-year-old head of the state-owned Armenian Public Television, was shot in the head as he was leaving his parents home in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, on Saturday, December 28. The journalist was rushed to a hospital, where he died during emergency surgery, according to press reports.
New York, December 27, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the Christmas day attack on the home of Michèle Montas, news director of Port-au-Prince-based Radio Haïti-Inter. A bodyguard was killed in the apparent assassination attempt. Montas is the widow of Jean Dominique, a renowned journalist and radio station owner, who was gunned…
New York, December 24, 2002—Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Russian military journalist Grigory Pasko’s four-year prison sentence. “The imprisonment of Grigory Pasko one year ago was a politicized effort by military and security officials to silence him for writing articles about environmental dangers that jeopardized the health of the Russian people,” said Ann Cooper,…
New York, December 23, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of French television reporter Patrick Bourrat, who was killed in an accident while covering U.S. military exercises in northern Kuwait. Bourrat, a veteran 50-year-old reporter with France’s TF1, died yesterday of injuries sustained on December 21, 2002 when he was struck by…
New York, December 2, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about growing threats against Haitian journalists in the wake of anti-government protests in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien that began on November 17 and continue to rattle the country. On November 21, seven journalists from four private media outlets—including the director and…