Kings, queens, and torture in Bahrain
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark visited Bahrain in February at the invitation of King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa. As part of the official program, the queen honored Hamad with the “Storkorset af Dannebrog,” the second highest Danish royal order. Although the visit took place about two weeks before Bahraini authorities began a violent crackdown…
Umar Cheema: ‘Their efforts to intimidate me backfired’
On September 4, 2010, Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema was abducted as he was going home after a dinner with friends near Islamabad. He was held captive for more than six hours, during which he was tortured by masked individuals. He was told to stop criticizing the government in the articles he wrote for the English-language…
Otunbayeva must put words into action in Askarov case
World leaders like to invoke terms such as press freedom, human rights, and the rule of law in their speeches, especially to international audience. But in post-Soviet Eurasia, such high-minded words are rarely accompanied by genuine action. A recent commentary in The Washington Post by Roza Otunbayeva, president of Kyrgyzstan, is a testament to this…
Reporter goes inside Egypt’s Mukhabarat torture regime
When Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Robert Tait was taken into custody by Egyptian authorities at a police checkpoint near central Cairo on February 4, he didn’t know he’d become witness to torture. But, cuffed and blindfolded for 28 hours, Tait heard and saw beatings and electrocutions. “My experience, while highly personal, wasn’t really about…
Nothing: What Pakistan is doing to find Cheema’s abductors
Just in case you were one of the few people in Pakistan or any other part of the world, for that matter, who thought that the six-hour abduction of Umar Cheema over the weekend of September 4 and 5 in Islamabad was going to be investigated and the culprits–men “dressed in police uniform”–brought to justice, here is…
CPJ asks Kyrgyz president to ensure fair trial of reporters
Dear President Otunbayeva: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to call your attention to the politicized prosecution of independent journalist Ulugbek Abdusalomov and human rights reporter and researcher Azimjon Askarov in the southern Jalal-Abad region. Both have been charged with extremism and other serious charges and face lengthy prison sentences, including a life term, if convicted. Their prosecution is in retaliation for their reporting on ethnic discrimination and human rights abuses in southern Kyrgyzstan, according to our research.
The significance of Umar Cheema’s abduction
With all the problems in Pakistan–the flooding in the country that might be the worst ever; the increasingly devastating sectarian and separatist violence that has taken the lives of hundreds of Pakistanis and at least four journalists–focusing on what happened to Umar Cheema, a reporter for The News, might seem almost a sidebar story. But it’s not. It’s something much larger.
Men in police uniforms abduct and beat Pakistani journalist
New York, September 8, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Pakistani government to thoroughly investigate the kidnapping and beating of Umar Cheema, a correspondent of the English-language daily The News in Islamabad. Men in police uniforms seized Cheema while he was driving in a suburb of Islamabad on Saturday, according to local and international media reports.