UPDATE November 29, 2006Original Alert: November 28, 2006Honoré Kabongo, Radiotélévision Kintuadi (RTK)IMPRISONED Kabongo, the host of a news talk show with the religious TV station, was released without charge after four days in detention, according to local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and RTK administrative director Adelin Mboma. He had been arrested in his…
New York, November 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists demands that three radio journalists jailed in Burundi in the past week, including Matthias Manirakiza detained today, be released immediately. “This looks more and more like a campaign to silence respected independent broadcasters who have spearheaded investigative reporting on human rights abuses and corruption,” said CPJ…
NOVEMBER 28, 2006 Posted December 19, 2006 Robinson Ruz Ruz, Radio Piragua THREATANED After reporting on links between the local government and right-wing paramilitary leaders, Ruz, director and host of the news program “Noticiero del Medio Día” on local Radio Piragua, received condolence cards for his own death in the city of Sincelejo, 613 miles…
New York, November 28, 2006—Yemen’s leading state-run newspaper Al-Thawra attacked independent editor Jamal Amer upon his return from the United States where he received the Committee to Protect Journalists 2006 International Press Freedom Award. The daily ran a front-page article on November 26 suggesting that he was a U.S. agent and warning of possible legal…
New York, November 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the one-year jail sentence handed down to a Yemeni editor for reprinting Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. A court in the capital Sana’a sentenced Kamal al-Aalafi, editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language weeklyAl-Rai Al-Aam on November 25. It also banned him from practicing journalism for six…
New York, November 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that the DRC’s newly elected authorities have been holding two journalists for the past week, while arresting a third on Saturday. All three are being held incommunicado by police in the capital, Kinshasa, after reporting on the aftermath of presidential elections. Clément…
New York, November 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats against two colleagues of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The independent Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta said in a statement yesterday that two of its leading journalists received anonymous death threats on November 24. Deputy Editor Sergei Sokolov told the independent radio…
November 27, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Kalum Express CENSORED Guinea’s National Communications Council (known by its French acronym CNC) suspended the private weekly, which is based in the capital Conakry, for two months over an editorial critical of the government, according to local journalists and the Media Foundation for West Africa.
November 27, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Radio France Internationale CENSORED Authorities stopped FM transmission of French broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI) after a French judge accused President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi former rebel leader, of involvement in the death of his predecessor in 1994, according to international media reports. Kagame denied any involvement, but…
UPDATED: November 27, 2006 Original Case: August 31, 2006 Ching Cheong, The Straits Times LEGAL ACTION The Beijing Higher People’s Court upheld Ching’s espionage conviction in a closed hearing on November 24. Ching, a Hong Kong reporter for The Straits Times, was sentenced to five years in prison in August.