CPJ urges Azerbaijan to halt its crackdown on the press
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to bring to your attention the deteriorating climate of press freedom in Azerbaijan, which undermines your government’s commitments to press freedom and human rights, mars the country’s international image, and obstructs the transparency of the upcoming October presidential vote in which you reportedly plan to seek re-election. We call on you to start reversing this trend and allow the press to report freely without fear of imprisonment, attacks, or politicized lawsuits.
In tense climate, Kenyan press can draw on solidarity
Amid a tense presidential election, Kenyans have avoided a repeat of the deadly violence that followed the vote in 2007, when half a million people were uprooted and more than 1,000 people were killed. Still, the situation today is fraught. Ethnic identity dominates the nation’s political divisions–and those same loyalties can undermine solidarity in the…
Brazil officials back OAS human rights system
“Leave me in peace. Wallow in your garbage,” Brazilian Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa said in a rage when a reporter with one of the leading national newspapers, O Estado de Sao Paulo, tried to ask him a question Tuesday at a meeting of the National Council of Justice in Brasilia, the capital. Stunned by Barbosa’s…
Gunmen shoot at offices of two news outlets in Mexico
Gunmen shot at the offices of the daily El Diario de Juárez and the television station Channel 44 in Ciudad Juárez early in the morning of March 6, 2013, according to news reports. The attacks resulted in slight material damage to the buildings, but no injuries.
Journalists relieved, wary amid Kenyan elections
Journalists could be seen rushing from polling station to polling station Monday to see long queues of determined Kenyan voters in what was apparently a largely peaceful election, according to the Deputy Director of Kenya’s statutory media council, Victor Bwire. But leading up to the vote, many journalists worked in a climate of fear; and…
Iran arrests another journalist in campaign against the press
New York, March 4, 2013–Iranian authorities arrested another journalist this weekend as part of a broad crackdown aimed at intimidating the press before Iran’s presidential election in June. Mohammad Javad Rouh, editor for the reformist monthly magazine Mehrnameh, was arrested in his home in Tehran on Sunday, according to news reports.
Zimbabwe police raid station studios, detain journalist
Nairobi, March 1, 2013–Authorities in Zimbabwe have stepped up their crackdown on independent news coverage in the country by raiding the production studios of a radio station and confiscating radios distributed by nongovernmental organizations, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Turkmenistan opens up media–in name only
Turkmenistan is trying to burnish its image by passing its first law on press freedom. On January 4th, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a law that bans press censorship, bars the government from monopolizing news outlets, and grants the public access to all forms of information, including independent and foreign reporting. Unfortunately, reform appears to be…