Government bars Indian journalists
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned by your government’s apparent refusal to process visa applications from journalists of Indian descent. Indian journalists, as well as journalists of Indian origin holding citizenship from Western countries, have told CPJ that visa applications submitted in mid-September are still awaiting approval. Officials at Pakistan’s High Commission in London have informed journalists of Indian origin that the Information Ministry office in Islamabad must clear their applications before they can be approved. Meanwhile, non-Indian journalists typically receive visas within days, if not hours, of submitting their applications.
Journalists arrested without charges
Dear Governor Shah: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) respectfully asks you to order the immediate release of Rifatullah Orakzai, a reporter for the Peshawar-based English-language newspaper Khyber Mail; Muhammad Iqbal Afridi, a district correspondent based in Bara, Khyber Agency, who contributes to the national Urdu-language daily Al-Akhbar; and Syed Karim, a stringer for the national Urdu-language daily Khabrain.
CPJ protests harassment of journalists covering West Bank celebrations of U.S. terrorist attacks
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests recent acts of censorship and intimidation carried out by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) against journalists covering celebrations among some Palestinians of last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Editor charged with “promoting disharmony”
Dear Chief Minister Chamling: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by last week’s arrest of Rajesh Bhattarai, editor and publisher of the Nepali-language daily Aajo Bholi. Although Bhattarai has been granted interim bail on medical grounds, he must appear by August 31 before a judge in Sikkim’s capital, Gangtok, to face a criminal charge.
JOURNALIST ON ALLEGED GOVERNMENT DEATH LIST SUMMONED BY POLICE
New York, August 21, 2001—Two days after a Harare newspaper reported that prominent local journalist Basildon Peta topped an alleged government “hit list,” police summoned the journalist for questioning. Peta is the news editor of the weekly Financial Gazette and a stringer for the Independent of London and The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa. He…
Jailed Internet publisher tried in secret
New York, August 16, 2001—Jailed Internet publisher Huang Qi was tried Tuesday, August 14, on charges of subversion, according to CPJ sources in China and the United States. The trial was held in secret in the Chengdu Intermediate Court in Sichuan Province. Family members were not allowed to attend and no verdict or sentencing date…
Journalist in hiding after local authorities threaten his arrest over coverage of tribal clashes
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the safety of Hayat Ullah, a correspondent for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mirali, North Waziristan Agency. Hayat Ullah is currently in hiding after North Waziristan authorities ordered his arrest for reporting on clashes between local tribal groups.
CPJ condemns attacks on journalists at G-8 conference in Genoa
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, strongly condemns the brutal attacks by police officers and demonstrators on journalists covering the Group of Eight (G-8) summit of the world’s industrialized nations in Genoa from July 20 to July 22.
CPJ urges inquiry into prosecution of Frontier Post editor
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that the prosecution on drug charges of Rehmat Shah Afridi, owner and chief editor of the English-language newspaper The Frontier Post and the Urdu daily Maidan, may be politically motivated. On June 27, a special anti-narcotics court in Lahore convicted Afridi on drug smuggling charges and sentenced him to death.