Legal Action

New York, February 26, 2009–The Egyptian judiciary should overturn today’s court decision to impose a fine on five journalists for violating a ban on media coverage of a murder trial, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The trial involves an influential businessman who is a member of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party.

An appeals court in the Senegalese capital of Dakar upheld a three-year prison sentence against imprisoned editor El Malick Seck on February 23, 2009, according to international and local news reports. The case involved an editorial implicating President Abdoulaye Wade and his son Karim in an alleged money-laundering scandal.

New York, February 23, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from a Thai detention facility of Australian writer Harry Nicolaides but calls upon authorities to reform the draconian lese majeste laws under which he was sentenced.  

New York, February 13, 2009–Charges against the Calcutta-based editor and publisher of Indian newspaper The Statesman for republishing an article about religion from a British newspaper should be dropped, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, February 13, 2009–China’s decision to establish a list of reporters who break reporting rules and prevent them from continuing to report or edit news is a cause for concern, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The decision to create a blacklist was reported in an article on the Web site of the…

New York, February 9, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the increasing use of draconian lese majeste charges to harass journalists and commentators and stifle free expression in Thailand; at least one writer has gone into exile because of the charges.

New York, February 2, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a Cairo appeals court decision to strike down a one-year jail term against four editors, but condemns that the conviction stands for criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and his top aides.

The Nicaraguan attorney general’s office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organization headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as politically motivated. 

New York, January 30, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about mounting government threats to media and Internet freedom in Thailand, including legal action against community radio stations and censoring thousands of Web sites.

New York, January 27, 2009–The editor of an independent newspaper in the West African nation of Niger was jailed Monday in connection with an investigative story alleging corruption in the finance ministry, according to local journalists.