TV anchor stabbed to death outside his Kabul home
New York, September 7, 2010–A well-known TV anchor was found stabbed to death outside his home in Kabul on Sunday, according to international news reports. Sayed Hamid Noori worked for the state network Radio Television Afghanistan and was active in the National Union of Afghan Journalists. In 2004, he served as the spokesman for an opponent…
Video: Who is killing Honduran journalists?
With another journalist murdered in Honduras on Tuesday, bringing the total killed since March to eight, the country’s press is understandably jittery. In a new documentary jointly produced by the Inter-American Press Association and the Video Journalism Movement, Carlos Mauricio Flores, the executive director of Tegucigalpa-based El Heraldo newspaper says, “We journalists are living in uncertainty and fear.”
Despite fatal shootout, Philippines officials meet with CPJ
About 18 hours after eight hostages and the gunmen holding them in a tourist bus were killed in a shootout with police in the heart of Manila, officials broke away from the demands of the moment to meet with a CPJ delegation in the president’s offices at Malacañang Palace. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was…
CPJ meets Philippine officials, urges anti-impunity policies
Manila, August 24, 2010–Nine months after the killing of 32 journalists and media workers in the southern Philippines, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met today with justice officials in Manila and called on the government of President Benigno Aquino to address pervasive impunity in the recurring murders of journalists in the country.
Colombia nabs alleged mastermind in Sambrano murder
New York, August 23, 2010–The alleged mastermind in the 2009 murder of Venezuelan journalist Orel Sambrano, at left, was arrested Thursday in Colombia and is now facing extradition to Venezuela, local and international press reported.Colombian authorities arrested Walid Makled García in the city of Cúcuta, near the border with Venezuela, according to news reports. A warrant was issued in…
From grief of Maguindanao, a ‘family’ emerges
Today marks nine months since the Maguindanao massacre, the deadliest event for the press that CPJ has ever recorded. On November 23, 2009, at 10 a.m., a convoy traveling to the provincial capital of Shariff Aquak to file gubernatorial candidacy papers stopped at what appeared to be a routine military checkpoint. Hours later, authorities would…
‘Litmus test’ begins in Maguindanao prosecution
A judge’s decision today to set a September 1 trial date for several defendants in the Maguindanao massacre highlights a positive development in what has been a very ugly story. The judge appeared determined to move the case forward and, for now, seemed able to keep the large legal teams in line. Quezon City Regional Trial…
Trial date set in Philippines massacre of 57
Manila, August 17, 2010–The opening trial date for 17 men accused of murder and other crimes in the killing of 57 people–32 of them journalists or media workers–in southern Philippines in November 2009 has been set for September 1. Quezon City Regional Trial Court Justice Jocelyn Solis-Reyes set the date in a pre-trial hearing in the…
Puntland editor jailed after airing rebel leader interview
New York, August 16, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland to immediately release jailed radio journalist Abdifatah Jama, who was sentenced on Saturday to six years in prison on charges related to an interview with Islamic rebel leader Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom.
In Honduran murders, a flawed government response
In a letter to the editor published Sunday in The New York Times, Honduran minister on human rights Ana Pineda took issue with the findings of CPJ’s recent special report on the murders of seven local reporters this year. Our report, which the Times detailed in a July 27 story, found a pattern of botched…