Third attack against press in four months
New York, September 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced outrage today at the attempted murder of Lebanese news anchor May Chidiac, a strong critic of Syria. Chidiac, a political talk show host with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in her car near the port city of Jounieh on…
CHAD
SEPTEMBER 25, 2005 Posted October 13, 2005 Tchanguis Vatankah, Radio Brakos IMPRISONED Chadian authorities arrested community radio station director Tchanguis Vatankah in southern Chad and announced they would expel him from the country, according to local sources. A native of Iran who had been living in Chad for several decades, Vatankah is the founder and…
CHINA
SEPTEMBER 25 2005 October 17, 2005 All journalists CENSORED China’s State Council and the Ministry of Information Industry issued severe restrictions for online news. Under the new regulations, any individual or organization that posts news or commentary must first be approved by the State Council Information Office. Bulletin board systems (BBS), a widely used medium…
LEBANON
SEPTEMBER 25, 2005 Posted October 11, 2005 May Chidiac, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation ATTACKED Lebanese news anchor May Chidiac, a strong critic of Syria, was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in her car near the port city of Jounieh. She was the third journalist who has criticized Syrian influence in Lebanon to be attacked since…
CPJ concerned about health of jailed journalist on hunger strike
Victor Rolando Arroyo New York, September 23, 2005—The Committee to P rotect Journalists is concerned about the health of jailed independent journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo who went on hunger strike two weeks ago and is now in the prison hospital, his sister Blanca Arroyo told CPJ. Arroyo refused food to protest mistreatment at the Guantánamo…
Tunisian journalist wages second hunger strike in five months
New York, September 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the health of imprisoned Tunisian journalist Hamadi Jebali, who has been on a hunger strike for eight days to protest 14 years of unjust imprisonment. CPJ today called for his immediate release. His wife, Wahida Jebali, told CPJ that the journalist’s health…
Jail sentence for online writer, the third this year
New York, September 22, 2005— The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the conviction of freelance journalist Zheng Yichun, the third Internet journalist this year to be sentenced to jail by Chinese authorities. A court in the northeastern port city of Yingkou on Tuesday handed Zheng a seven-year jail term to be followed by three…
Iraqi TV engineer killed in Mosul
New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the shooting of an engineer working for al-Iraqiya television in Mosul, the third killing of an Iraqi media employee in the northern city in less than a week. Ahlam Youssef was shot to death on Wednesday while driving with her husband, who was also…
Inquiry names Kuchma as mastermind in Gongadze murder
New York, September 22, 2005—A Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating the 2000 kidnapping and beheading of journalist Georgy Gongadze has accused former President Leonid Kuchma and three senior officials of plotting the murder. In an announcement to parliament on Tuesday the commission named Kuchma, late former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin, and Leonid…
CPJ demands end to Uzbek government’s crackdown on media
New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Islam Karimov to stop scapegoating the press and to end his government’s campaign of intimidation and repression against the independent media. The government crackdown, which has targeted several international news organizations in dozens of incidents over four months, is part of a…