2010
Journalist given 15 years for espionage in Transdniester
New York, December 17, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the 15-year prison sentence given to independent journalist Ernest Vardanian, who has been held on falsified espionage charges in the unrecognized separatist Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) since April. The PMR is commonly known as Transdniester, and broke away from Moldova proper in 1990.
Indonesian editor dead under suspicious circumstances
New York, December 17, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with Indonesian journalist groups in calling for a full and vigorous investigation into the death of an editor on Kisar, one of the eastern Maluku Islands. Alfrets Mirulewan, chief editor of the Pelangi Weekly, was found with bruises on much of his body at 3…
Pakistan deadliest nation for journalists
Reuters was one of several wire services and many news outlets from around the world who covered CPJ’s year-end analysis of killed journalists. Reuters quotes CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon: “The deaths of at least eight journalists in Pakistan are a symptom of the pervasive violence that grips the country, much of it spilling over from…
Committee sees sharp rise in jailed journalists
The Associated Press ran a story about CPJ’s 2010 prison census on December 8 along with several other media outlets around the world. CPJ’s analysis concludes Iran’s sustained crackdown on critical voices and China’s brutal suppression of ethnic journalism have pushed the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to its highest level since 1996. Click here…
Tajik journalist arrested on defamation, insult charges
New York, December 16, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists today denounced the imprisonment in northern Tajikistan of Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the Dushanbe-based independent weekly Nuri Zindagi. Ismoilov was arrested in Sogd region on November 23, but the regional press first reported on the case on Monday. Ismoilov is currently being held in a pretrial facility in the city…
Movement in Umar Cheema’s case ‘frustratingly slow’
On Wednesday, we identified Pakistan as the country where the most journalists–eight–have been killed for their work in the past year. Six of them were on the job when they were killed in crossfire or a suicide bombing. Two others were assassinated.I’ve been posting reports on one journalist–Umar Cheema–who wasn’t killed, but whose case represents…
In Iraq, bomb kills one journalist; another denied access
New York, December 15, 2010–Omar Rasim al-Qaysi, an anchor working for Al-Anbar TV, was killed on Sunday in a car bombing in central Ramadi, al-Anbar province. His brother, a fellow staffer at the station, was injured in the attack. Security forces then detained a journalist for the daily Al-Anbar, preventing him from covering the explosion’s aftermath.