With new head, how will UNESCO fare on press freedom?
Irina Bokova is the quintessential diplomat—elegant, gracious, and fluent in five languages. But she must have a sharp elbow or two to have emerged victorious in the rough-and-tumble battle last September to lead UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. agency that promotes culture, education, science, and, occasionally, press freedom around the world.
In meeting, delegation presses for Fatullayev’s freedom
Washington, January 20, 2010—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met today with Azerbaijani Charge d’Affaires Khazar Ibrahim at the Azerbaijani Embassy to deliver a letter carrying the names of more than 500 international journalists petitioning for the immediate release of imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award.…
Petitioners urge Azerbaijan to free Eynulla Fatullayev
President Aliyev: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to open a new page in your government’s policies toward the independent and opposition press, one that would demonstrate tolerance for the critical role of media in a democracy. No other action would contribute to this goal as much as the immediate release of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the now-closed independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, who has been imprisoned since April 2007 on charges that range from defamation to terrorism.
In China, new Gmail attacks are latest in a long series
New York, January 19, 2010—Foreign correspondents in Beijing told the Committee to Protect Journalists that they are aware of recent hacker attacks on colleagues’ Gmail accounts, and said they have long assumed that their e-mail is monitored and vulnerable to attack.
Yemeni court gives journalist 3 months in jail
New York, January 19, 2010—A journalist at a Yemeni weekly was sentenced on Saturday, in absentia, to three months in jail and was banned from writing for a year. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Sana’a court’s decision and calls on the Yemeni judiciary to reverse the sentence on appeal.
Missing reporter found dead in Mexico
New York, January 19, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Mexican authorities today to thoroughly investigate the killing of José Luis Romero, a Mexican crime reporter who had been abducted on December 30. Romero, at left, was found dead on Saturday near the city of Los Mochis, in the state of Sinaloa, according to local…
How to help journalists in Haiti
The scenes from Port-au-Prince are horrifying, and the needs are staggering. There is no food, no water, no place to bury the dead. And there is also no information. According to CPJ’s Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauria, who spoke with Haitian journalist Guylar Delva today, only a handful of Creole-language radio stations are operating. Journalists are unable to work…
Haitian journalist describes scenes of death and destruction
At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, prominent Haitian journalist Joseph Guyler Delva, 43, was driving his car on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Delva, the country’s leading press freedom advocate, was on his way to pick-up his 7-year-old daughter from school when he heard a loud bang. “I thought I was hit by a truck,” he said. After…
In Tunisia, a journalist is sentenced to four years in prison
New York, January 15, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Tunisian judiciary to reverse on appeal the Wednesday decision of a Tunisian court in the southern town of Gafsa to sentence Fahem Boukadous, correspondent for the satellite television station Al-Hiwar Al-Tunisi, to a four-year prison term.