Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply alarmed by the death of Canadian-Iranian free-lance photographer Zahra Kazemi. Although you have ordered several government ministries to officially investigate her death, we demand that an immediate, independent inquiry be conducted—including an autopsy—and that the results be made public. According to the official Iranian news…
Journalists who disappeared
CPJ research indicates that the following journalists have disappeared while doing their work. Although some of them are feared dead, no bodies have been found, and they are therefore not classified as “Killed.” If a journalist disappeared after being held in government custody, CPJ classifies him or her as “Imprisoned” as a way to hold…
Crackdown on the Independent Press in Cuba
El escritor y poeta Manuel Vázquez Portal es uno de los 29 periodistas independientes que fueron detenidos, procesados y sentenciados a penas de prisión de entre 14 y 27 años. En las filas de la prensa independiente desde 1995, en enero de 1999 Vázquez Portal, junto a otros periodistas, fundó la agencia noticiosa independiente Grupo…
CPJ mourns the death of Atlantic Monthly editor Michael Kelly
New York, April 4, 2003—Michael Kelly, editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with the Washington Post, was killed today while traveling with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, according to a statement from the Washington Post.
BBC cameraman killed in Iraq
New York, April 2, 2003— Kaveh Golestan, an Iranian free-lance cameraman on assignment for the BBC, was killed today in northern Iraq after stepping on a land mine, the BBC confirmed. Golestan accidentally detonated the mine when he exited his car near the town of Kifri, John Morrissey of the BBC’s foreign desk told CPJ.…
Attacks on the Press 2002: Table of Contents
PREFACE by Serge Schmemann REGIONAL ANALYSES AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA | EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA | MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA AFRICA: Country Summaries Angola | Botswana | Burkina Faso | Burundi | Cameroon | Central African Republic | Chad | Democratic Republic of Congo | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Gabon…
Attacks on the Press 2002: Middle East and North Africa Analysis
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…
Attacks on the Press 2002: North Korea
Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…
Iraqi officials may have detained Newsday journalistsCPJ continues to monitor reports of missing members of the media
New York, March 30, 2003—Newsday correspondent Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman may have been detained by Iraqi authorities, said editors at the U.S.-based daily. McAllester and Saman were last seen in Baghdad on March 24. Meanwhile, four other journalists remain missing. Johan Rydeng Spanner, a free-lance photographer with the Danish daily Jyllands Posten, and…
CPJ sends letter to Rumsfeld about U.S. bombing of Iraqi TV
New York, March 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent a letter today to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld requesting information about the U.S. bombing of Iraqi state television facilities in Baghdad earlier this week. The group expressed concern that the Pentagon may have violated international humanitarian law in targeting these facilities…