Panamanian journalist sentenced to two years in prison
New York, April 30, 2009–A Panama City court has sentenced leading Panamanian journalist Jean Marcel Chéry to two years in prison on trespassing charges stemming from a years-long series of complaints filed by a Supreme Court justice. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Justice Winston Spadafora to end his politically motivated harassment.
Life and liberty: Press freedom’s fight on two fronts
The leading indicators of press freedom–journalists killed and journalists jailed for their work–have headed in the wrong direction for much of this decade, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said during a Capitol Hill conference on press security hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy, the Center for International Media Assistance, and the Congressional Press Freedom…
Saberi remains on hunger strike in Iranian prison
Iranian-American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, left, who was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Iranian Revolutionary Court on charges of spying for the United States, remains on a hunger strike that she started a week ago. Her father, Reza Saberi, told Agence France-Presse after visiting her in Tehran’s Evin Prison on her 32 birthday…
Truth beyond bars: Jiang Weiping on being jailed for work
Jiang Weiping, a 2001 CPJ Press Feedom Award winner, spoke on Tuesday on a panel organized by the Ford Foundation in Washington, along with CPJ board member Clarence Page and Executive Director Joel Simon. The panel addressed the concerning number of journalists jailed worldwide–125, according to CPJ’s 2008 census–and discussed how advocacy by CPJ and other…
World press freedom groups call for Saberi’s release
Thirty-five members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) join CPJ and Reporters Without Borders in a letter to the head of Iran’s judiciary calling for the release of imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi, currently held in Iran’s Evin Prison.
CPJ welcomes journalist’s release in Sri Lanka
We issued the following statement today in response to international news reports that a Sri Lankan court released journalist Nadesapillai Vithyatharan without charge after nearly two months in jail for allegedly supporting a terrorist attack on the capital, Colombo…
Syrian journalist held incommunicado, another on trial
New York, April 22, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Syrian authorities to disclose the whereabouts of a journalist who has been held incommunicado since early April after he was ordered to visit the political security office in Aleppo.