Bogotá, August 9, 2002—The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detained two newspaper journalists and their driver in Colombia on Tuesday, August 6, freeing them unharmed two days later, CPJ has learned. Iván Noguera and Héctor Fabio Zamora, a correspondent and photographer, respectively, for El Tiempo, Colombia’s largest daily, and their driver, Henry Gómez, were…
August 9, 2002, New York—A court in the Turkish breakaway region of northern Cyprus yesterday sentenced two editors from the opposition daily Afrika to six months in prison for criticizing a Turkish Cypriot leader, according to international press reports and CPJ sources. On Thursday, August 8, Afrika editor-in-chief Sener Levent and editor Memduh Ener were…
New York, August 9, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s court–ordered closure of two Iranian newspapers. This latest ruling brings to 52 the total number of publications that authorities have banned in Iran since April 2000. Tehran’s conservative Press Court yesterday banned the newly launched daily Ayineh-e-Jonoub (formerly a weekly), citing more than…
New York, August 9, 2002—Three journalists who had been sentenced to 30 days of “preventative detention” were released on Wednesday, August 7, on the condition that they remain in the capital, Kigali, and report regularly to the police. However, it is unclear whether the charges against them have been dropped. Robert Sebufirira, Elly MacDowell Kalisa,…
New York, August 7, 2002—In a fresh series of actions against Cuba’s independent press corps, Cuban state security agents have harassed, detained, and threatened several independent journalists during the last 10 days. Journalist detainedÁngel Pablo Polanco, 60, director of the independent news agency Noticuba, was detained on July 30. According to Polanco’s wife, at around…
New York, August 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the investigation ordered yesterday by a state prosecutor in Lebanon into accusations that Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), a private television station, is responsible for “inciting sectarian strife” and “disturbing general peace.” Under investigation are LBCI’s news editor, Jean Feghali, and…
New York, August 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent 11-year sentence handed down to activist Li Dawei for downloading and printing materials from the Internet. This is the longest sentence CPJ has documented for Internet-related activities in China. On July 24, 2002, the Intermediate Court in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, sentenced…
New York, August 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today confirmed that Eritrean journalist Simret Seyoum, a writer and general manager at the banned private weekly Setit, has been in Eritrean government custody since early January. This puts the total of jailed Eritrean journalists at 14, although government sources recently acknowledged holding only “about…
New York, August 2, 2002—During a recent fact-finding mission to Eritrea, a presidential official told a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that eight independent journalists are currently imprisoned and held incommunicado. Although the official, presidential spokesperson Yermane Gebremesken, cited eight journalists, CPJ puts the total number of journalists jailed in Eritrea at…
New York, August 2, 2002—On July 31, Abdullah Keskin, a Turkish publisher charged with “separatist propaganda” for publishing a U.S. journalist’s book about Turkey’s Kurdish minority population, was convicted and sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, which the court converted to a fine of about US$500. An Istanbul State Security Court ruled on Wednesday that…