ATR

TURKMENISTAN The December 21 death of Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-proclaimed president-for-life, ended a two-decade rule that plunged Turkmenistan into a dark abyss in which the state maintained absolute control over information. His sudden death from heart failure at age 66 left the nation with an indelible legacy of repression. Niyazov’s eccentric personality probably won’t be…

UNITED STATES After consuming the press freedom landscape for more than two years, an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s name wound down with a whimper. News organizations reported in August that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently knew from the day his investigation began in December 2003 that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard…

UZBEKISTAN President Islam Karimov continued his crackdown on the independent press, political opponents, and civil-society groups. As his foreign policy shifted away from the West, Karimov’s regime expelled dozens of foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations, including those supporting local media. The few remaining independent journalists were forced to choose whether to sever ties to foreign-funded media or…

VENEZUELA President Hugo Chávez Frías, who has outlasted a coup and a recall, swept to victory in the December 3 presidential election amid tense relations with the press. Chávez threatened to withhold licenses from broadcast outlets critical of his administration, while the attorney general quashed coverage of a prosecutor’s assassination amid press reports that exposed…

ALGERIA: 2 Djamel Eddine Fahassi, Alger Chaîne III IMPRISONED: May 6, 1995 Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station Alger Chaîne III and a contributor to several Algerian newspapers, including the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Forqane, was abducted near his home in the al-Harrache suburb of the capital, Algiers, by four…

BRASIL Versão em inglês Embora a liberdade de expressão esteja sacramentada na Constituição brasileira de 1988, a capacidade dos jornalistas de cobrirem as notícias foi limitada por juizes cujas interpretações legais restringiram efetivamente a imprensa. Durante a disputa para a eleição geral de 1º de outubro, tribunais eleitorais proibiram meios de comunicação de cobrirem alegações…

New York, February 1, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the indefinite closure today of an independent Sudanese daily for publishing an article about the beheading of an editor last September. A state prosecutor imposed an immediate ban on the prominent Arabic-language Al-Sudani which carried an article on January 31 discussing the murder of Mohammed…

New York, January 31, 2007—Thailand’s army-appointed government should fully investigate a grenade attack on the Thai-language Daily News, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A grenade exploded in the office compound of the mass circulation newspaper around 1:30a.m. on Tuesday, local media reported. Another explosive device went off in the parking lot of an…

New York, January 25, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Haitian authorities today to fully investigate the murder of photographer Jean-Rémy Badio, who was gunned down outside his home in Port-au-Prince on Friday after receiving several death threats from local gang members. CPJ is investigating whether Badio’s murder is linked to his professional work.…

New York, January 16, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Thai government’s efforts to block broadcast news coverage of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, including the censoring this week of a CNN interview with the ousted leader. Officials with the military-appointed interim government instructed local cable provider UBC to block the interview, which first…