Ethiopian managing editor arrested
New York, August 26, 2008—The Committee to Protect journalists calls for the immediate release of Amare Aregawi, managing editor of the English- and Amharic-language newspaper Reporter, whohas been detained since August 22 in northern Ethiopia. Policemen from Ethiopia’s former capital of Gonder arrested Aregawi at his office in the capital, Addis Ababa, at 2 p.m.…
Protesters seize Thai state television station
New York, August 26, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns an attack led by anti-government protesters against state-run National Broadcasting Service of Thailand (NBT) television news station. The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest group ambushed and seized control of the station’s headquarters in Bangkok early this morning as part of several ambush-style attacks…
Q & A: An Ethiopian speaks from exile
Feleke Tibebu, deputy editor of private Ethiopian newspaper Hadar, was arrested in a 2005 government-led crackdown on dissidents and the private media. Tibebu (right) and 13 other journalists were charged with “outrages against the constitution or constitutional order,” “impairment of the defensive power of the state,” and “attempted genocide,” after the publication of editorials critical…
Press freedom in the news 8/26/08
Agence France-Presse is covering the abduction of two foreign journalists, their fixer, and driver in Somalia. Australian Nigel Brennan and Canadian Amanda Lindhout, along with their Somali support staff were kidnapped outside Mogadishu as they traveled to report on local humanitarian aid camps. We released an alert urging their release yesterday. AFP quotes Africa Program…
SOMALIA: Three journalists and driver kidnapped
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of three journalists and their driver who were abducted by an unknown armed group two days ago. Somali photojournalist Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi and two foreign freelance journalists, Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan, along with a driver identified only…
Three journalists detained by security forces across Somalia
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…
Sri Lankan journalist indicted on terrorist charges
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Colombo high court’s indictment of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam today on terrorism charges for articles he published in 2006. Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division arrested Tissainayagam, the editor of news Web site OutreachSL, and five of his colleagues within a few days in March 2008.…
Local journalists assaulted, censored in Kashmir
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns restrictions on the media by security forces trying to quell unrest in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Central Reserve Police Forces beat at least 10 journalists for reporting on Sunday during a strict curfew imposed indefinitely on major towns in the Kashmir…
Iraq: U.S. military releases APTN cameraman
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Saturday’s release of an Associated Press Television News cameraman who had been held by U.S. forces in Iraq for nearly three months without charge, but it expressed alarm over the U.S. military’s continuing practice of detaining journalists without charge in Iraq. Ahmed Nouri Raziak,…
Journalists wounded by security forces
August 25, 2008 Irshad Akhtar, Aaj TV and Asaap Aslam Jahangir, ARY TV and Nawa-e-Waqat Gulzar Baloch, Samaa TV and Bakhabar Saleem Buzdar, Geo TV ATTACKED The four journalists sustained minor injuries after Pakistani paramilitary forces fired on a rally they were covering in the town of Turbat, Baluchistan province.