Mexican news editor abducted in Acapulco
New York, June 10, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Mexican authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the abduction of news editor Marco Antonio López Ortiz, who appears to have been kidnapped on Tuesday in Acapulco, Guerrero state.
A friend remembers Saleem Shahzad
When I received an unexpected call early Monday morning from Saleem Shahzad’s wife, I knew I was in for some bad news.”Saleem has not come home since Sunday evening, when he was on his way to a television studio,” she said. She told me that she then remained as composed as possible until she received…
After bin Laden, a warning to foreign journalists
Security is always risky in Kabul, as it is in the entire Afghanistan-Pakistan theater. But the May 2 U.S. raid into Pakistan and killing of Osama bin Laden has raised the risk of retaliation against international representatives, including journalists.
Umar Cheema: ‘Their efforts to intimidate me backfired’
On September 4, 2010, Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema was abducted as he was going home after a dinner with friends near Islamabad. He was held captive for more than six hours, during which he was tortured by masked individuals. He was told to stop criticizing the government in the articles he wrote for the English-language…
China seizes critics as domestic media avert eyes
The Chinese security apparatus is kidnapping government critics, unchallenged by the domestic press. Writer Yang Hengjun, who went missing in March and has since reappeared, criticized the Chinese press this week for failing to report on his enforced disappearance. While state media are accusing the missing artist and social critic Ai Weiwei of plagiarism and…
Pro-opposition journalist abducted, beaten in Azerbaijan
New York, March 28, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the abduction and beating in Baku this weekend of Seimur Khaziyev, a reporter for the pro-opposition daily Azadlyg (Freedom), and called on Azerbaijani authorities today to thoroughly investigate the incident and bring all the assailants to justice.
Pakistani journalist abducted, released in Karachi
New York, March 22, 2001–The Committee to Protect journalists joins with colleagues in Pakistan in calling for an immediate investigation into Monday’s abduction and abuse of senior journalist and vice president of the Karachi Union of Journalists, Mohammad Rafique Baloch.
Updates on Wali Khan Babar and Umar Cheema in Pakistan
Here are two quick updates on prominent Pakistani cases we’ve been following: Despite police claims made soon after the assassination-style killing of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar on January 13, there have been no arrests made in his case, and there is little reason to expect that there will be any. Babar was one…
At Attacks launch: What if governments are perpetrators?
When we launched the new edition of Attacks on the Press at the United Nations today, I was hit with questions about Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Both dealt with what amounts to the same problem: What do you do when you’re asking a government to investigate a crime in which it might have been the…