French journalist kidnapped in Puntland
New York, December 18, 2007—CPJ is concerned for the safety of award-winning French journalist Gwen LeGouil, who was kidnapped just outside the port town of Bossasso on Sunday by five unknown gunmen in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland. LeGouil is being held hostage in a mountainous area with no access to medicine or clean…
FSB bars journalist from re-entering Russia
New York, December 18, 2007—Authorities at the Moscow Domodedovo airport barred Natalya Morar, a Moldovan citizen and an investigative reporter for the Moscow-based independent newsweekly The New Times, from re-entering Russia when she returned from her business trip to Israel on Sunday. Referring to a secret Federal Security Service (FSB) order, passport control officers said…
Killings of Journalists Hit High in 2007
Glenn Kessler The Washington Post December 18, 2007 Reprinted with permission from Washingtonpost.com, Newsweek Interactive Company and The Washington Post The number of journalists killed worldwide spiked to the highest number in more than a decade, with nearly half killed in Iraq, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based…
The Year of Reporting Dangerously – Death Toll for Journalists Rises in 2007
Joel Simon Published in The Huffington Post December 18, 2007 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-simon/the-year-of-reporting-dan_b_77208.html Do you know the names Salih Said Aldin, Khalid W. Hassan, or Namir Noor-Eldeen? All three were reporters for international media outlets who were killed in Iraq in the last year.
KRG President Barzani opposes new press billIRAQ: KRG President Barzani opposes new press bill
New York, December 17, 2007—The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said today that he will reject a restrictive new press bill that was approved by the regional parliament on December 11. President Masoud Barzani told a delegation from the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate (KJS) on Monday that he would not sign the bill once…
Comoros Islands: Journalist goes into hiding
New York, December 17, 2007—The manager of the former local branch of the national Comoros Islands broadcaster Radio Télévision des Comores went into hiding on December 1, fearing for his safety. Journalist Kamal Ali Yahoudha told CPJ in a phone interview that he fled from his house in Mutsamudu, the capital of the separatist island…
Independent Belarus newspaper faces closure
New York, December 17, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply worried about a defamation lawsuit by a Belarusian senior government official against the independent weekly Novy Chas in the capital, Minsk. A ruling against the paper would bankrupt Novy Chas and force it to shut down, according to local CPJ sources. In late October,…
Case Lays Bare the Media’s Reliance on Iraqi Journalists
By Tim Arango The New York Times December 17, 2007 Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who had a hand in The Associated Press’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize for photography before being jailed without charges by the United States military, finally had a day in court last week. But his story, which highlights the unprecedented role that…
Editor detained, charged over editorial
DECEMBER 14, 2007 Posted January 14, 2008 Nadjikimo Bénoudjita, Notre TempsIMPRISONED, LEGAL Armed policemen on board four pick-up vehicles arrested Bénoudjita, the director of the private weekly Notre Temps, at his home office in the capital, N’Djamena, shortly after 5 a.m., according to local journalists and news reports.