Sitting on death row in Afghanistan
The BBC published an interview today with imprisoned Afghan journalism student Parwez Kambakhsh in Kabul’s main prison. The interview was also broadcast on the BBC’s “Today” program. Kambakhsh told BBC journalist Alastair Leithead: “The whole trial was unfair from the beginning.” Security officials detained Kambakhsh in October 2007 on blasphemy charges and a closed court…
Sri Lankan journalist charged with terrorism
A couple of weeks ago we reported on Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who was detained by Terrorist Investigation Division forces in March. At first glance, his arrest seemed related to a Tamil news site he edits. But local journalists tell us the site was innocuous and as the months passed, no charges were forthcoming.…
Josh Wolf redux: A once-jailed indy blogger joins a free daily with no Web site
The self-described anarchist-activist seemed like an unlikely press freedom martyr. But a video blogger named Josh Wolf ended up serving more time in jail for defying a court order than any other journalist in U.S. history. Wolf, then 24, was held for 226 days at a federal penitentiary in Dublin, Calif., for refusing to testify…
Cuban journalists continue to report from jail
Two articles on the labor exploitation of prisoners in Havana’s Güanajay Prison appeared over the weekend on the Miami-based news Web sites CubaNet and PayoLibre. The articles detailed the use of prisoners as free labor in a local shoe factory, and described the terrible conditions under which the 28 men work. Though not written by…
Olympics: Talking tough, much too late
During the war in Vietnam, the daily press briefings by the American military were called the “Five o’clock Follies” by the foreign press corps that was on the receiving end of the military’s damage control aimed at controlling the story from Vietnam. The Beijing Games have their own daily press meeting, at 10 am, hosted…
Finding light in a dark prison
On July 21, CPJ welcomed the release of Tunisian Internet journalist Slim Boukhdhir from prison. A contributor to Tunisian and Arab news Web sites, Boukhdhir was serving a one-year term in Sfax Prison because he had written articles critical of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the country’s first family. CPJ sent a mission…
Olympics: Dissidents’ spouses face great strain
Amid the fanfare of the Olympic opening ceremony today, a press release from Human Rights in China highlights pressure on dissidents and their families as Chinese authorities try to quash anything that threatens to disturb the long-awaited Games. Police are watching jailed journalist Lu Gengsong’s wife and daughter, and they told the wife of recently…
UPDATED: In Manneh case, Gambia silent as questions mount
Considerable international press coverage arose from U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin’s statements on the Senate floor last week, calling on the Gambian government to release imprisoned journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh. But Durbin’s request has not drawn a response from the Gambian Embassy in Washington. Ambassador Abdul R. Cole told CPJ today that his government would not…
Olympics: CPJ urges Bush to highlight jailed journalists
CPJ wrote an open letter to President Bush today, calling on him to raise the issue of China’s jailed journalists when he gets to Beijing. We put the current number of journalists behind bars at 26, which makes China the largest jailer of journalists in the world, the dubious distinction it has held since 1999.…