Syria detains, reportedly tortures videographer
New York, April 2, 2012–A prominent Syrian videographer who ran the media center in Baba Amr where two foreign journalists were killed in February has been detained since Wednesday, according to news reports. Ali Mahmoud Othman was initially held at a military intelligence unit in Aleppo and is believed to have been tortured, Paul Conroy, a…
Uganda police truck hits journalist filming Besigye
New York, April 2, 2012–A Ugandan reporter who was knocked off a motorcycle by a police tow truck on Saturday while covering the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been hospitalized for his injuries, according to local journalists. He was the sixth journalist attacked by security forces in the last 10 days, according to…
Wary about Burma? So are others
Amid the rush to see changes in Burma as an inexorable move toward full democracy–Aung San Suu Kyi’s electoral victory over the weekend is certainly cause for hope–CPJ has maintained a healthy skepticism about media reform in Burma. Shawn Crispin’s “In Burma, press freedom remains an illusion,” posted on Friday, is the most recent example…
In Azerbaijan, crackdown on press as contest nears
Dear President Aliyev: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the recent wave of journalist imprisonments in Azerbaijan. With at least six journalists currently behind bars, Azerbaijan is now among the top 10 global jailers of the press, ahead of Uzbekistan and just behind Ethiopia, according to CPJ research. This crackdown comes in the run-up to Eurovision, the international song contest that Baku is hosting in May, which will gather journalists from more than 40 participating countries and fix the world’s eyes on Azerbaijan.
In Vietnam, wife convicted in deadly attack on journalist
On March 29, 2012, Tran Thi Thuy Lieu was convicted of the murder of her husband, journalist Le Hoang Hung, after a one-day trial in southern Long An province. Hung died January 30, 2011, after he was set ablaze while sleeping in his home in Tan An, news reports said. Reports said Lieu, who had…
Syrian cartoonist, attacked in August, returns to drawing
Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat is wielding his pen once more. According to news reports, the famous cartoonist, who suffered a severe beating in August, has regained 90 percent of the movement in his hands, which were deliberately targeted by his attackers before they dumped him on the side of a road.
Chinese journalist, a Bo Xilai critic, reportedly jailed
New York, March 30, 2012–Authorities in Chongqing must clarify the status of a journalist who reports say was secretly sentenced to prison in 2010 for criticizing a government official in a personal blog, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ has not been able to independently confirm the journalist’s jail sentence or his whereabouts.