Newspaper director imprisoned over critical editorials FEBRUARY 26, 2008 Posted March 14, 2008 Aboubacar Gourouza, L’Eveil Plus IMPRISONED, LEGAL Police in the capital, Niamey, arrested Aboubacar Gourouza, director of the bimonthly L’Eveil Plus, and took him into custody over two separate complaints triggered by critical editorials published on January 29, according to news reports…
New York, February 26, 2008—U.S. authorities should disclose evidence and specify charges against Afghan journalist Jawed Ahmad, who has been held by the military since late October, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In a February 22 letter to CPJ, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Ahmad had been designated an “unlawful enemy combatant” but…
MEXICO: New York, February 25, 2008—Members of the Mexican Federal Preventive Police (PFP) detained and assaulted photographer Gabriel Huge Córdoba after he sought to cover a fatal Sunday afternoon car accident involving police in the eastern port city of Veracruz, the journalist said today. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Mexican federal authorities to…
New York, February 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an assassination attempt in Baghdad on Saturday against Shihab al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate. Unidentified gunmen in a white Opel intercepted and opened fire on a car carrying al-Tamimi, his son and driver, Rabie, and an unidentified colleague riding in the backseat. The…
BELARUS: New York, February 25, 2008—The Belarusian Supreme Court has ordered the early release of Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, former deputy editor of the now-shuttered independent newspaper Zgoda, who was sentenced in January to three years in a high-security prison for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Posted March 14, 2008 Original alert: January 29, 2008Faustin Bambou, Les Collines de l’OubanguiIMPRISONEDDirector Faustin Bambou of the private biweekly Les Collines de l’Oubangui was released from prison on a partial presidential pardon, according to news reports and local journalists. Bambou told CPJ he contracted the flu and malaria while sharing a cell…
FEBRUARY 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Miguel Ramírez, El Comercio THREATENED Ramírez, a well-known investigative journalist for the Peruvian national daily El Comercio, was threatened with death after reporting on a local drug kingpin, the reporter said in an interview with CPJ. Ramírez, who has investigated the kingpin for over a decade, said he…
Dear Mr. President, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the lack of progress in the investigation into the October assassination of Alisher Saipov, editor of the independent Uzbek-language weekly Siyosat (Politics). Four months after this brazen crime, Kyrgyz officials in charge of the probe announced–amid conflicting press reports–that the investigation was suspended. The Saipov family was not informed of the suspension in time to seek reconsideration.
New York, February 22, 2008—Cameroon’s government summarily closed on Thursday a leading private television station on alleged regulatory violations, according to local journalists and news reports. The station in Douala was distinguished for its leading coverage of a national debate over a bid by President Paul Biya to scrap a constitutional clause that limits presidential terms.…
SERBIA: New York, February 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces yesterday’s siege in Belgrade of the independent radio and television station B92. Threats have been waged against the broadcaster since violence flared as a result of Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Saturday. Also, CPJ is appalled by a graphic video that appeared on YouTube…