New York, August 16, 2005—A popular Tamil broadcaster and her husband, a political activist, were killed by unidentified gunmen in Colombo on August 12, the day Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated. Political leaders blamed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for all three killings, charges the LTTE denied. The attackers…
New York, August 16, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the criminal defamation charges filed by two state-owned firms against the editor of the English-language daily Bangkok Post, Kowit Sanandang, and the newspaper’s parent company, Post Publishing Plc. The charges, announced today, carry penalties of up to two years in prison and a fine of…
AUGUST 15, 2005 Updated: October17, 2005 Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, L’ObservateurGarondé Djarma, freelance IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Chadian journalist Sy Koumbo Singa Gali was sentenced to one year in prison for “inciting hatred,” the fourth reporter jailed in a month in what local journalists called a growing crackdown on the independent press.
AUGUST 2005 Posted September 8, 2005 Eddy Péhé, Le Nouveau RéveilTHREATENED Péhé, editor of pro-opposition daily Le Nouveau Réveil, told CPJ that he had received death threats over the phone from anonymous callers who accused him of supporting the rebels that have controled the northern half of Ivory Coast since 2002. Péhé said he believed…
AUGUST 12-15, 2005 Updated: December 1, 2005 Andrew Mwenda, Monitor Publications IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION An independent radio and print journalist was arrested on August 12 in connection with a talk show on KFM radio focusing on the July helicopter crash that killed southern Sudanese leader John Garang. Andrew Mwenda, a journalist with Monitor Publications, was…
AUGUST 15, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 El Informador ATTACKED Attackers hurled a grenade at the offices of El Informador. The newspaper said police believed a motorcycle passenger lobbed a fragmentation grenade which exploded outside the newsroom where three journalists and a designer were working. The blast damaged the building but caused no injuries.
AUGUST 15, 2005 Posted: August 18, 2005 Kowit Sanandang, Bangkok Post Post Publishing LEGAL ACTION Two state-owned firms filed criminal defamation complaints against the editor of the English-language daily Bangkok Post, Kowit Sanandang, and the newspaper’s parent company, Post Publishing Plc. The charges carry penalties of up to two years in prison and a fine…
New York, August 15, 2005—A Chadian journalist was sentenced to one year in prison today for “inciting hatred”, the fourth reporter jailed in a month in what local journalists called a growing crackdown on the independent press. A court in the capital N’Djamena convicted Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, publication director of the privately-owned weekly L’Observateur,…
New York, August 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction of a French television soundman on Sunday in the Gaza Strip and demands his immediate release. Mohamed Ouathi of France 3 Television was forced into a car by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel with colleagues in Gaza City,…
New York, August 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the sedition charge brought today against radio talk show host Andrew Mwenda for remarks last week on the independent KFM radio station. The station also remained off the air today, four days after the government forced its closing in retaliation for the show, which focused…