Honduran decree lifted, but broadcasters still shuttered
Three days after the Honduran interim government led by Roberto Micheletti lifted a September 27 decree that allowed them to shut down Radio Globo and Canal 36, broadcasters loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya, the two stations were still prevented from resuming normal transmissions, according to local and international news reports.
In Pakistan’s frontier, echoes of a 2006 murder
Local reporters like those in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Swat, and Mingora are crucial to accurate, fully formed news coverage. Their importance was evident in August, when reports began to emerge that prominent Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had been killed by a U.S.-launched missile apparently fired from an unmanned drone over South Waziristan in the…
Value, ‘collateral damage’ as journalists embed
During the height of the Pakistani military’s assault on militants, hundreds of local journalists were forced to flee the Swat Valley and neighboring areas. Coverage of the fighting was left in large part to Pakistani reporters from outside the region who had embedded with the military. These journalists faced their own set of challenges.
Journalist killed on a Sunday morning at home in Nigeria
More than two weeks have passed since the cold-blooded killing of Bayo Ohu, assistant news editor and political reporter for the Lagos, Nigeria-based The Guardian. The 45-year-old, soft-spoken workaholic opened the door to his home early on Sunday, September 20, as he prepared for church. According to eyewitnesses and local reports, five gunmen and one female ringleader shot Ohu…
CPJ dismayed by Russian denial of visa to RSF
We issued the following statement after Paris-based press freedom group Reporters without Borders (RSF) said its Secretary General Jean-François Julliard and a staffer were refused Russian visas to attend events marking the October 7, 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya…
It’s an honor
Yesterday, CPJ received the Thomas J. Dodd Prize for International Justice and Human Rights at an outdoor ceremony at the University of Connecticut. It was one of those perfect, crisp fall mornings in New England with a strong wind blowing clouds across the sun and shaking the first leaves from the maples, which have already…
Critical Venezuelan journalist arrested on contempt of court
Venezuelan Judge Fanny Yasmina Becerra ordered the arrest of journalist Gustavo Azócar on July 29, 2009, stating that he violated the conditions of his 2006 parole on charges of illegal acquisition of wealth and fraud by publicly commenting on his case. Táchira state authorities took Azócar into custody at 10:30 p.m., and drove him to…
As combat raged, local reporting was stifled
Yesterday, I reported on the plight of Behroz Khan and Rahman Bunairee, two Pakistani journalists whose homes were destroyed by militants. Many other journalists in the North West Frontier Province, or NWFP, faced grave dangers and were forced to flee, undermining independent reporting in the region. The same early July night that Khan and Bunairee’s homes…