Attacks on the Press 2006: China
CHINA In President Hu Jintao’s fourth year in power, his administration effectively silenced some of the best journalists in China by sidelining independent-minded editors, jailing online critics, and moving to restrict coverage of breaking news. The government drew international criticism for its actions against foreign news agencies and their employees–including convictions of Zhao Yan, a…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Iran
IRAN With world attention focused on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad turned the screws on press freedom and intimidated critical journalists into silence or self-censorship. Ahmadinejad, who has pursued the conservative parliament’s policy of relentlessly stifling independent journalism since his election in August 2005, used the nuclear debate to deflect…
Attacks on the Press 2006: United States
UNITED STATES After consuming the press freedom landscape for more than two years, an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s name wound down with a whimper. News organizations reported in August that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently knew from the day his investigation began in December 2003 that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Countries That Have Jailed Journalists
ALGERIA: 2 Djamel Eddine Fahassi, Alger Chaîne III IMPRISONED: May 6, 1995 Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station Alger Chaîne III and a contributor to several Algerian newspapers, including the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Forqane, was abducted near his home in the al-Harrache suburb of the capital, Algiers, by four…
Video blogger ordered back to jail
New York, September 20, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that a freelance video blogger has been ordered back to jail after losing an appeal in a U.S. federal court in San Francisco. Joshua Wolf spent 30 days in prison after refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury unaired videotape…
U.S. blogger freed after 30 days in jail; case still looms
New York, September 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gratified that a federal appeals court in San Francisco has agreed to release a video blogger on bail while the journalist’s appeal is pending. Joshua Wolf spent 30 days in prison after refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a videotape of a…
Judge jails freelancer over videotape
New York, August 2, 2006—A U.S. judge in San Francisco ordered a video blogger to jail after holding him in contempt for refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a videotape of a 2005 protest. Ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ordered Joshua Wolf held without bail and denied a…
Chinese filmmaker, blogger Wu Hao released
New York, July 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of blogger and documentary filmmaker Wu Hao, who was detained without charge for more than four months. Authorities had denied him access to a lawyer and withheld information on his whereabouts and the allegations against him. “We’re relieved that Wu Hao has been…