Puntland radio station hit by grenade attack
New York, October 19, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Tuesday’s grenade attack on a Puntland radio station and calls for authorities to take immediate steps to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. This was the third local radio station hit with a blast in three months, CPJ research showed.On Tuesday evening, a grenade was hurled…
In Sri Lanka, anti-government website blocked
New York, October 19, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that access to anti-government news website Lanka eNews has been blocked inside Sri Lanka, according to the site’s exiled editor and users inside the country. All three language versions of the site, English, Sinhala, and Tamil, have not been available since Tuesday.
A personal side to Anna Politkovskaya’s legacy
Internationally renowned for her work, respected for her courage and still mourned by thousands around the world five years after her murder, Anna Politkovsakya has become an iconic symbol in the global human rights struggle. But Sunday night, family, friends, colleagues and others came together to share a more personal picture.
Laura Pollán Toledo, who rallied the wives of jailed Cuban dissidents, dies at 63
The CPJ remembers Cuban human rights advocate Laura Pollán Toledo who died in Havana on Friday. Founding the Ladies in White after the arrest of her husband, journalist Hector Maseda Gutiérrez during the Cuban government’s 2003 Black Spring crackdown on the press and dissent, Pollán worked endlessly for justice. Earlier this year she was rewarded…
Iranian students barred for beliefs, say campaigners
In May 2007 the CPJ expressed outrage over the arrest of four student editors, including Puyan Mahmudian, in the run up to student elections at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. This article from CNN.com describes how despite spending months in prison and confessing to charges against him, Mahmudian and hundreds of others are blacklisted…
Egypt military takes over inquiry of Coptic unrest
At least 26 civilians, mostly Coptic Christians, were killed in clashes with the military last week in what has become the worst violence seen in Egypt since the uprising earlier this year. The Associated Press reiterates the CPJ’s call on Egyptian authorities to investigate the death of Coptic broadcaster Wael Mikhael, who was killed after…
Liberian media outlets targeted in post-election violence
New York, October 18, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday’s arson attack against a Liberian radio station and threats made against another radio station’s journalists in response to their coverage of Liberia’s presidential elections.