Derakhshan case: When keeping quiet does not work
The severity of the nearly 20-year jail sentence handed down to veteran Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, left, has shocked many exiled Iranian journalists and bloggers with whom I’ve spoken. It’s also reinforced their belief that the best way to help jailed colleagues is not through quiet diplomacy but by making a lot of noise.
For Pakistani journalists, flood coverage poses challenges
As most of the nation lay paralyzed and submerged in flood water, Pakistani journalists traveled in four-wheel drives and rickety boats to bring tidings from some of the hardest hit areas of the country. The Pakistani Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) compiled a list of journalists directly affected by the flood, many of whom had…
Ecuador, facing police revolt, censors news coverage
New York, October 1, 2010–As a police rebellion threw Ecuador into chaos on Thursday, the government of President Rafael Correa ordered local radio and TV stations to interrupt programming and carry state news broadcasts. A dozen reporters were injured covering the police revolt. Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the government’s censorship of broadcast…
Ugandan station still closed, an ill omen for election
More than a year has passed since the government-influenced Broadcasting Council summarily closed the popular Central Broadcasting Service, or CBS. The council closed the station in September 2009 as riots were erupting in response to the government’s decision to block the traditional Buganda king from attending a youth celebration north of the capital, Kampala. Its…
Cleric’s threat forces Seattle cartoonist into hiding
Molly Norris, a political cartoonist for Seattle Weekly, went into hiding in September 2010 because of threats made after her tongue-in-cheek call for an “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” according to Seattle Weekly. The call was included in a cartoon Norris drew to protest a decision by the cable television network Comedy Central not to broadcast…
CPJ asks Indonesian president to intervene in Playboy case
Dear President Yudhoyono: We are greatly concerned about the case of Erwin Arnada, the editor of Indonesia’s defunct version of Playboy magazine, who was sentenced to two years in prison for indecency by the Supreme Court. The court tried the case on an appeal from the attorney general’s office in July 2009 and some time after that sentenced Arnada to two years in prison for public indecency for publishing purportedly indecent pictures in a 2006 issue of the magazine. The magazine closed in mid-2007 after printing 10 issues.