Attacks on the Press 2001: Afghanistan
In recent years, it had become common for people who care about Afghanistan to worry about its growing invisibility. The all-encompassing burqa gown, which the ruling Taliban forced women to wear, seemed a metaphor for the militia’s efforts to hide Afghanistan’s people and problems from the world. Visits by foreign correspondents were restricted; taking pictures…
Attacks on the Press 2001: Bangladesh
In 2001, the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International ranked Bangladesh the most corrupt country in the world. The almost complete collapse of law and order in the country was seen as one of the prime reasons behind the fall from power of the Awami League. The year began with a brutal attack on a young…
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,…