CPJ Newsletter: March edition
Landmark conviction in 2000 attack on Colombian journalist A Colombian court on February 26 convicted a former paramilitary fighter in the kidnapping and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The fighter, Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco, was also ordered to pay a fine of around US$17,500.
79 cases and counting: Legal challenges pile up for Daily Star editor who admitted error in judgment
When Mahfuz Anam, editor of one of Bangladesh’s most respected newspapers, admitted recently to a lapse in editorial judgment several years ago, he could not have predicted the legal backlash that would ensue. Anam’s admission that he published unsubstantiated information accusing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of corruption has led to a barrage of defamation and…
Last critic standing: How El Nacional defies challenges to keep publishing
Patricia Spadaro, news editor at the Caracas daily El Nacional, faces daunting challenges in putting out the newspaper. Her boss, El Nacional’s president and editor Miguel Henrique Otero, has been living in exile since May 2015 after a top government official accused him of defamation. Amid the country’s deep economic crisis, half of Spadaro’s reporters…
Jordanian journalist held incommunicado in Abu Dhabi for two months
New York, February 12, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that Abu Dhabi has detained Jordanian journalist Tayseer al-Najjar for two months without disclosing any charges against him or allowing him contact with the outside world.
CPJ condemns Equatorial Guinea’s decision to ban state media coverage of Gbagbo trial
New York, February 2, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the decision of the government in Equatorial Guinea to ban state television from covering the trial of former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, which opened at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on January 28. “We’ve been forbidden from airing Laurent Gbagbo’s…
CPJ Newsletter: January
Turkey releases jailed Iraqi journalist Following months of advocacy by VICE News, CPJ, and other groups, Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool was released from Turkish prison on January 5. Rasool was arrested in August along with his VICE News colleagues, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, while they were reporting from southeastern Diyarbakir province. The three…
CPJ urges Putin to ensure Chechen officials cease harassing journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to Russian President Vladimir Putin to express its deep concern at the menacing language employed on social media and in the press by officials in Chechnya against critical journalists and rights activists.
Coalition calls for release of two journalists in Chhattisgarh, India
A coalition of free expression and human rights advocacy groups led by the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Chief Minister Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh to ask him to intervene to ensure that police and prosecutors swiftly release journalists Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav.