New York, May 2, 2008—To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike today to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday. Hormatallah, a journalist with the independent weekly Al-Watan Al An,…
New York, May 1, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of an Al-Jazeera cameraman who was held for six years without charge or trial at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Jazeera reported late this afternoon that Sami al-Haj had been freed and was on a plane that was expected…
New York, May 1, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the latest in a series of anonymous threats received by Radio Free Asia (RFA) investigative reporter Lem Pichpisey in Cambodia. On April 10, Pichpisey’s 11-year-old daughter found six AK-47 rifle bullets placed neatly in a row in front of his family’s house…
New York, May 1, 2008–An amendment that would allow the Russian courts to close media outlets for publishing defamatory statements has made its way through the parliament’s lower house, according to local press reports. On April 25, the State Duma approved on a first reading a restrictive bill that would add the dissemination of “deliberately…
New York, April 30, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today about reports of growing hostility toward foreign journalists in China 100 days before the start of the Beijing Olympics. At least 10 correspondents have reported receiving anonymous death threats, according to a Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) report released today. The group…
APRIL 29, 2008 Posted May 5, 2008 Paul Rafael, Steve Dupont, Smithsonian Magazine ATTACKED Rafael, a freelance writer, and photographer Dupont, both from Australia, were on assignment for the U.S.-based Smithsonian Magazine when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb a few meters from where they stood as part of a crowd in a small eastern…
Dear Mr. Darmp, The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about libel lawsuits Tesco Lotus has initiated against journalists who reported and wrote opinion pieces on your company’s growing operations in Thailand. While we recognize the right of corporations to take civil legal action to protect their reputation, we view the complaints and the monetary damages Tesco Lotus is seeking in these cases as punitive and a direct threat to press freedom and free public commentary.
New York, April 28, 2008—A story on claims of torture at alleged secret government-run detention centers led authorities in Uganda to arrest three top journalists and seize materials and documents on Saturday, according to local journalists and news reports. The journalists, including top political journalist Andrew Mwenda, are free on bail in the capital, Kampala,…