In Azerbaijan, editor sentenced to prison in defamation case
New York, August 10, 2006-A judge in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, today convicted the editor of an Azeri-language independent newspaper on a charge of criminally defaming a leader of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party, according to international news reports. Shakhin Agabeili, editor-in-chief of Milli Yol, was sentenced to a year in prison in connection with…
CPJ seeks lifting of travel ban in Tyre
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Israeli military actions that sharply restrict the ability of the press to cover the current conflict in Lebanon and that endanger the lives of civilians, including members of the press. We are particularly concerned about the safety of an estimated 250 journalists in Tyre, who are hunkered down in hotels and unable to move because of Israel’s threats to target all vehicles on the roads.
In Cuba, one reporter is freed and 24 others are still jailed
New York, August 9, 2006—Independent journalist Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández was released on Saturday after a year in prison on a spurious charge of “disrespecting” a local police chief. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Cuban authorities to free the other 24 journalists imprisoned throughout the island. Du Bouchet was released on…
Four slain, two wounded in vicious attack at Guyanese printing plant
New York, August 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a murderous attack against the Kaieteur News printing plant that came amid a series of violent episodes in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, on Tuesday night. Masked assailants with automatic weapons killed four printing staff employees execution-style, the newspaper’s owner told CPJ today. A fifth printing plant…
Newspaper editor goes into hiding
New York, August 9, 2006—The editor of the private newspaper Umuco has gone into hiding following official criticism of articles in his paper and a police summons, according to several local sources. Bonaventure Bizumuremyi also complained of receiving threatening phone calls, the sources said. The incidents come days after another Umuco journalist, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, was…
Reporter attacked by a group of protesters
AUGUST 8, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 Oscar Rodríguez, Milenio ATTACKED Rodríguez, the Oaxaca correspondent for the Mexico City-based daily Milenio, was attacked by a group of protesters while reporting on the abduction of two police officers in the city of San Bartolo de Coyotepec.
Two Iraqi journalists found murdered
New York, August 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murders of two Iraqi journalists who were discovered dead on Monday by police in Baghdad. At least four Iraqi journalists have been slain in the past 10 days as murder continues to drive up the record death toll of journalists in Iraq. Unidentified gunmen…
CPJ condemns jailing of two journalists in Niger
New York, August 7, 2006—The director and editor of the private weekly Le Républicain have been held in police custody since Friday and questioned over a July opinion piece suggesting that Prime Minister Hama Amadou was “deserting the West for Iran.” Director Maman Abou said that he and Editor Oumarou Keita have been accused of…
CPJ condemns harassment of Burundian radio director
New York, August 4, 2006—A prominent radio journalist went into hiding for fear of arrest after police searched his home on Thursday. Alexis Sinduhije, founder and director of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) and a 2004 recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award, said authorities sought to arrest him in retribution for…