Belarus jails prominent journalist and adds new charge
New York, April 12, 2011–Belarusian authorities must drop politicized libel and insult charges against Andrzej Poczobut, a Grodno-based correspondent for Poland’s largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and release him immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
More journalists held in Libya; blogger jailed in Egypt
New York, April 11, 2011–Continuing a weeks-long pattern of seizing journalists covering the Libyan conflict, the government of Muammar Qaddafi is detaining two more television journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. And in Egypt, in a serious setback for press freedom under the transitional government, a court has sentenced a blogger to a…
Journalist missing in Libya; 1 killed in Iraq
New York, April 8, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the fate of American freelance journalist Matthew VanDyke, who has been missing in Libya since mid-March, according to his family and news reports. He is among 15 reporters either missing or in government custody in Libya.
Ending dark era, Cuba frees last jailed journalist
New York, April 8, 2011–The Cuban government on Thursday released the last journalist remaining in its prisons, ending a dark, eight-year-long era in which the island nation was one of the world’s worst jailers of the press, at one time imprisoning nearly 30 independent reporters and writers. The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed relief today…
Cuban journalist Fernández Saínz: I was a reporter in prison
I went to prison for practicing independent journalism in Cuba. As soon as you get there, you must prepare yourself to narrate the horrors of the hellhole you’ve ended up in. And Cuban prisons are horrendous. But the horrors start not one step back in the penal tribunal, not two steps back with the police…
U.S. should press China on rights crackdown, Ai detention
New York, April 7, 2011–With China in the midst of a sweeping crackdown on public dissent, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should follow the example of Britain and Germany and call for the immediate release of detained artist and social critic Ai Weiwei and other detained journalists and dissidents, the Committee to Protect Journalists…
CPJ alarmed by wave of anti-press attacks in Honduras
New York, April 6, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on law enforcement in Honduras to stop attacking or prohibiting journalists from covering social unrest in the country. The attacks have come amid a national teachers’ strike that has turned violent.
European Parliament must speak out on China abuses
New York, April 6, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on members of the European Parliament to strongly criticize the Chinese government’s apparent detention of artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The European Parliament is convening an emergency debate Thursday on Ai’s disappearance, which may be the latest unlawful detention in the government’s onslaught against…
Journalists detained in Libya, Syria, Yemen; 1 dead in Iraq
New York, April 1, 2011–Al-Jazeera said today that Libyan authorities re-arrested four of its journalists just hours after they had been released. A Syrian journalist who spoke critically of Libyan government policies was also reported in state custody. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing attacks on the press in Libya, and calls on…