Attacks on the Press 2001: India
India’s free press is perhaps the strongest pillar of its democracy, but Indian journalists continued to face numerous challenges in 2001, including physical threats, legal harassment, and more subtle pressures applied by the central government. In the disputed territory of Kashmir, where fighting between local separatists, foreign fighters, and Indian security forces has long forced…
Attacks on the Press 2001: Journalists in Prison
There were 118 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2001 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is up significantly from the previous year, when 81 journalists were in jail, and represents a return to the level of 1998, when 118 were also imprisoned.
Influential editor resigns under pressure
CPJ is alarmed by the resignation of Shaheen Sehbai, the influential editor of The News, one of Pakistan’s leading English-language newspapers. Sehbai said today in a resignation letter addressed to his boss but circulated among colleagues and friends that he was leaving his post under pressure from the government, warning that Pakistani officials were sending…
Background and Analysis:”Daniel Pearl’s Essential Work,” by Ann Cooper”He Took a Risk in Pursuit of Truth,” by Terry Anderson
Dear Little Pearl: By the time you read these words, God willing, you will not be a “Little Pearl” anymore. As I write these words, you are not yet born. It is March and you are due in May. Last weekend President Bush mentioned you at the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club. The 117-year-old…
Updated news from the South Asian Journalists Association
New York, February 14, 2002—CPJ remains hopeful that kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is alive, despite today’s statement by a key suspect in the abduction that he thinks the reporter has been killed. Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man investigators say is responsible for Pearl’s kidnapping, told an anti-terrorism court in Karachi today…
APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF WSJ REPORTER DANIEL PEARL
[Statement from the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists – issued February 2, 2002] From the Pakistani newspaper DAWN — 2.4.02 PFUJ’s concern over kidnap of newsman By Our Reporter LAHORE, Feb 3: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has expressed grave concern over the disappearance and fate of American journalist Daniel Pearl of The…
JOURNALISTS PETITION FOR RELEASE OF WSJ REPORTER
We, the undersigned, are colleagues of Daniel Pearl, who has become a captive while reporting for The Wall Street Journal in Pakistan. Like Daniel himself, we are journalists. As he used to, we report on events in the Middle East. We are Americans, Arabs, and others, who have spent many years, in some cases lifetimes,…
Urgent Appeal to Captors for Reporter’s Release
Pakistan: CPJ urges kidnappers to release Daniel Pearl (January 28, 2002) New York, January 30, 2002—In response to his captors’ demands and threats against Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s life, CPJ called again for the reporter’s release in a statement today. “We appeal to the captors of Danny Pearl to release him immediately,…
CPJ urges kidnappers to release Daniel Pearl
New York, January 28, 2002—CPJ is deeply concerned about Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who has been missing in Pakistan since January 23. A previously unknown group stated in an e-mail to news organizations that they had abducted Pearl and accused him of working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “Daniel Pearl is a…