In DRC, police disrupt photojournalists’ march honoring slain colleague
New York, August 16, 2007—A peaceful march today led by photojournalists in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, to demand justice for last week’s assassination of freelance photojournalist Patrick Kikuku Wilungula was interrupted and dispersed by police, according to press freedom group Journaliste en Danger and local journalists.
Writer forcibly hospitalized in Russia
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the illegal psychiatric confinement in the northern city of Apatity of opposition activist Larisa Arap. Arap’s forced hospitalization on July 5 came soon after the publication of a story she coauthored on the treatment of patients at the Murmansk regional psychiatric hospital in Apatity–the same hospital where she is being held today.
In DRC, photojournalist assassinated
New York, August 10, 2007— A respected freelance photojournalist in eastern DRC was gunned down on Thursday evening as he returned home from covering a local conference on environmental protection, local journalists told CPJ. CPJ is investigating whether Patrick Kikuku Wilungula—the second journalist killed in Congo’s volatile east this year after Serge Maheshe—was murdered for…
In Comoros, government targets critical TV station
New York, August 3, 2007—Journalists in Africa’s Comoros islands say they were prevented from traveling to the separatist island of Anjouan to cover Independence Day celebrations Friday. Local reporters say travel agencies refused to sell them airline tickets. Editor Ibrahim Ali Saïd Félix and cameraman Ismael Kassim of Djabal Télévision, a private station based on…
In Russia, Putin signs restrictive amendments on ‘extremism’
New York, July 26, 2007—Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law today a package of amendments that expand the definition of extremism to include public discussion of such activity, and give law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that do not comply with the new restrictions, according to local press reports. The package,…
Police in Malaysia interrogate popular Internet journalist
New York, July 25, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists expresses its grave concern about today’s police interrogation of popular Internet-based writer Raja Petra Kamarudin, founder of the Malaysia Today news Web site. According to Malaysia Today, Raja Petra was summoned to the Dang Wangi Stadium police station in Kuala Lumpur in response to a police…
To mark Press Day, CPJ urges release of jailed Azerbaijani journalists
New York, July 20, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to mark the country’s National Press Day on Sunday by releasing the seven journalists jailed in the nation’s prisons. Azerbaijan is the region’s leading jailer of journalists and one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom, CPJ research shows.
Without legal hearing, Rwanda shutters privately owned newspaper
Dear Minister Nkusi: We are alarmed by the government’s sudden closure of the privately owned English-language newspaper The Weekly Post without a fair hearing, as is guaranteed by Rwandan law. We are also concerned that the paper was the second private newspaper summarily closed down by the government in the last three months, according to CPJ research.
In Russia, legislation on ‘extremism’ poses new press freedom threat
New York, July 11, 2007—The upper house of the Russian parliament today approved a package of amendments that would expand the definition of extremism to include public discussion of such activity, and give law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that do not comply with the new restrictions. The package, proposed by deputies…
Appellate court ratifies prison sentence of Senet journalists
New York, July 9, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Friday’s decision by an Azerbaijani appellate court in Baku to uphold the convictions of two independent journalists on charges of insulting Islam in a November commentary. On May 4, Judge Yusif Kerimov of Sabail District Court in Baku convicted Editor-in-Chief Samir Sadagatoglu and writer Rafiq…