Hu Jintao and Bill Gates will have had a lot to talk about Tuesday, when the Chinese president visited Microsoft’s Redmond campus. With the mainstream Chinese media heavily censored, the Internet has become a vital outlet for independent journalism, critical writing and information. The authorities are ruthless in their suppression of criticism of their rule in any medium. China has jailed more writers and journalists than any other country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the rights of journalists worldwide, is deeply concerned about the fate of Mario Spezi, a veteran crime journalist imprisoned in the central Italian city of Perugia.
New York, April 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a Moroccan appeals court decision to uphold record damages against the independent magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire in a defamation suit brought by a Belgian think tank. The magazine, which said it was prevented from mounting a proper defense, now faces bankruptcy. The weekly,…
New York, April 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an attempt by authorities in the Belarusian capital Minsk to close the weekly Nasha Niva, one of the country’s last independent newspapers. Local and international media reported that city officials informed Editor-in-chief Andrei Dynko that they did not want his paper based in Minsk…
APRIL 18, 2006 Posted: April 21, 2006 Arthur Tshimanga Kaputu, Lubilanji Expansion IMPRISONED Kaputu, director of the small private newspaper Lubilanji Expansion was detained for three days without charge by the public prosecutor in the capital, Kinshasa. According to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), which sent a representative to meet with…
Dear President Hu: The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned that your government’s media-control policies have led to the unjust imprisonment of journalists and the stifling of press freedom in China. Chinese journalists tell CPJ that they are under growing intimidation from propaganda authorities to adhere to government censors’ rules.
New York, April 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the destruction of the studios of a private Bethlehem television station critical of the Palestinian Authority. Masked gunmen believed to be from the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization stormed the offices of Al-Roa television on the night of March 23 and…