Sri Lanka: Veteran Tamil journalist feared abducted
New York, August 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that veteran Sri Lankan journalist Nadarajah Guruparan is missing and feared abducted in Colombo today. The Free Media Movement, a local press group, reported that Guruparan, a producer, left for work at the privately owned Tamil-language radio station Sooriyan, or Sun…
Update Journalist faces lesser charge of insubordination
August 28, 2006 Original Alert: May 2, 2006 Viktor Shmakov, Provintsialnye Vesti LEGAL ACTION The regional prosecutor in the republic of Bashkortostan charged Shmakov, 63, founder and editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Provintsialnye Vesti (Provincial News), with the lesser charge of “calling for insubordination to legal authorities.”
CPJ urges Sudan to release Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express grave concern about the detention and criminal prosecution of Paul Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune, who was charged on Saturday with espionage and two other criminal counts in a Sudanese court.
Colombian radio commentator gunned down in his home
New York, August 28, 2006—Colombian radio commentator Atilano Segundo Pérez Barrios was murdered last week in his apartment in the northern city of Cartagena in the Bolívar province, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether Pérez’ murder is related to his journalistic work. An unidentified assailant forced…
Two killed in car bomb attack on Iraqi newspaper
New York, August 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Sunday’s deadly car bomb attack on the state-run daily newspaper Al-Sabah. The blast killed two people, injured 20 others, and caused severe damage to the newspaper building in Baghdad’s northern Waziriya district. The newspaper published on Monday despite the attack.
In Gaza, Israeli missile strikes Reuters vehicle and wounds two
New York, August 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the apparent targeting of two Palestinian cameramen by Israeli forces in Gaza City late Saturday. A missile struck their armored car in the densely populated Shijaiyah neighborhood, seriously wounding Fadel Shana, a freelance cameraman for Reuters, and Sabbah Hmaida, a cameraman with a…
In Vietnam, dissident writer Pham Hong Son to be released
New York, August 28, 2006—A Vietnamese government spokesman said today that Internet writer Pham Hong Son, who has been jailed for more than four years, would be included in an amnesty of more than 5,000 prisoners. The announcement at a Hanoi press conference comes as Vietnam seeks accession to the World Trade Organization and follows…
Abducted journalists freed in Gaza
New York, August 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release in Gaza today of Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who had been held by kidnappers since August 14. Centanni and Wiig were dropped off at Gaza City’s Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials, according to news reports. The pair,…
CYPRUS: TV crew arrested at Nicosia crossing
August 25, 2006 Posted: September 25, 2006 Adonis Pallikarides, Sigma TV Nikitas Dalitis, Sigma TV IMPRISONED Police in northern Cyprus arrested reporter Pallikarides and cameraman Dalitis of the private television network, Sigma TV, who were interviewing Turkish Cypriot shopkeepers on Ledra Street in the capital Nicosia, local and international press reported.