Russian newspaper founder arrested, criminally charged
New York, April 1, 2009–Police in the western city of Kaliningrad should drop trumped-up bribery charges against Arseny Makhlov, the founder of the independent weekly Dvornik, and allow him to work without fear of harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
A legal victory for press freedom in Bility case
Testifying at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Liberian journalist Hassan Bility described a harrowing 1997 reporting trip to Sierra Leone in which he documented Liberian government support for the brutal RUF rebels. His testimony was undoubtedly damaging to defendant Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president on trial for war crimes and…
Black Spring of 2003: A former Cuban prisoner speaks
March 18, 19, and 20 will mark the sixth anniversary of the detention of 75 peaceful journalists and librarians, as well as human rights activists, convicted weeks later to up to 28 years in jail during summary trials. Fifty-four of these innocent people, who demanded a democratic society and respect for human rights, remain imprisoned…
Remarks from Cuban journalist Alejandro Gonzalez Raga
Exiled Cuban journalist Alejandro Gonzalez Raga spoke to reporters in Madrid on Monday as part of CPJ’s launch of our book, Attacks on the Press. He talked about the brutality of life in a Cuban prison, the torture he and other journalists who were jailed for their writing endured. Here are his remarks, in Spanish:
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Preface
By Carl Bernstein When the Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981, the prevailing threats to freedom of the press around the world were still from juntas, dictators, authoritarian regimes, and social systems determined to dominate the media as a means of maintaining control over citizens, usually within the boundaries of the nation-state. Toward…