Polish journalist to be jailed in rare criminal libel prosecution
New York, January 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the imminent jailing of Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Wiesci Polickie in the northwestern town of Police. Convicted of libeling a local official in articles published in 2001, Marek is due to begin serving a three-month sentence on Monday, according to…
Radio station censored
December 28, 2005 Radio Kasumai CENSORED Police entered the studios of Radio Kasumai, a community radio station in the northern town of Saõ Domingos, and ordered employees to stop broadcasting. The police also threatened several journalists. According to local journalists, the threats stemmed from a recent program in which callers complained on-air that police were…
Journalists harassed
DECEMBER 15, 2005—JANUARY 5, 6, 2006 Yarl Thinakkurl Joy Jeyakumar, Veerakesari Namathu Eelanaadu HARASSED The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance said Tamil journalists were targeted several times for official harassment. The claims came at a time of rising tensions between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatist groups.
CPJ protests 30-year jail term for Kurdish writer on defamation conviction
New York, January 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the authorities in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region to overturn the conviction and 30-year prison sentence handed down to Kurdish writer Kamal Karim for defamation. Karim, whose name is also given as Kamal Sayid Qadir, was convicted by a state security court in the…
India: Journalist killed in Assam after writing about corruption
New York, January 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in India’s northeastern state of Assam to fully investigate the death of Prahlad Goala, who was apparently murdered on January 6. Goala had recently written a series of articles on corruption in the Assamese-language daily Asomiya Khabar that linked local forestry service officials…
Police seize second print run this month of opposition daily
New York, January 10, 2006—Police have seized the entire print run of Belarus’ largest opposition daily for the second time this month, the paper said today. Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), which has been harassed by authorities for criticizing President Aleksandr Lukashenko, lost all 30,000 copies on January 9. The paper has been forced to print…
In Klebnikov case, opening hearing held in closed court
New York, January 10, 2006—Three ethnic Chechens charged in connection with the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov went on trial today in a Moscow court that was closed to the public, according to local and international press reports. Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev are charged with killing Klebnikov, an American journalist…