Mexico no different than Iraq, reporters tell Wilson Center
On Monday, before a large audience of government officials, representatives of NGOs, reporters, and students, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauría, said that the level of crime violence, and corruption facing the press in Mexico, where more than 30 journalists have been murdered or have gone missing since Felipe Calderón took office…
Mayor Strelchenko, drop your cruel complaint
Dear Mayor Strelchenko: While leading a delegation to Moscow from the Committee to Protect Journalists in late September, I had the opportunity to meet with Mikhail Beketov in the Moscow hospital where he was being treated. Today, I was outraged to learn Beketov is now a convicted criminal because you have pursued a cruel complaint.
Beketov convicted of defamation, his assailants still at large
New York, November 10, 2010–A court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki today convicted Mikhail Beketov, the editor of the independent newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, of criminally slandering Khimki’s mayor, Vladimir Strelchenko, in a 2007 television interview. Beketov, who is in a wheelchair and unable to speak two years after a near-lethal attack, was wheeled into the courtroom for…
Egypt should free blogger held beyond his term
New York, November 10, 2010–Egyptian authorities must immediately release blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, known online as Karim Amer, who completed his four-year prison sentence on November 5, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ also calls on authorities to investigate and punish a security officer who reportedly assaulted Amer on Tuesday.
Lauría interview on CNN Español
CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría was interviewed by CNN Español about the dangers facing journalists in Mexico. The interview took place in Washington where Lauría was participating in the event Silence or Death in Mexico’s Press at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The segment on press freedom in Mexico aired on November 8. Please…
Convictions are what are urgently needed
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon was quoted in an article on CNN.com carried on November 6 about the nearly fatal attack against Russian journalist Oleg Kashin: “By failing to prosecute those who have carried out crimes against journalists in the past — including 19 murders committed in the Putin era — the Russian government has created…
Abdel Dayem quoted in New York Times
The New York Times quotes CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem in the article “Baghdad Studio of Feisty TV Station Shut Down in Dispute With Iraqi Government” carried on November 4:”The arrests and the forced closing are emblematic of the changing news environment, in which journalists are less likely than…
Moroccan authorities impeding Spanish journalists
New York, November 9, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an increasing climate of hostility for Spanish journalists in Morocco, highlighted by official measures to prevent Spanish journalists from covering clashes in the Western Sahara. CPJ calls on Rabat to allow journalists to do their work unimpeded.
Program to protect reporters raises doubts in Mexico
The Mexican government is currently putting together a program, it says, that will help reduce one of the most brutal problems for journalists: their lack of protection from death threats from drug cartels, government officials, and ordinary criminals. Senior officials at the Ministry of Interior told CPJ that they expect to offer at-risk journalists a…
In France, is Sarkozy spying on journalists?
Every Wednesday morning in France, rain or shine, half a million people eagerly wait for the satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchainé. Some wait for it nervously. The old-fashioned broadsheet, a venerable media institution that has no real equivalent in other European countries, posts its motto defiantly on its front page: “Freedom of the press wears…