Independent radio station remains closed
New York, July 25, 2005—Radio Publique Africaine remained off the air today after police in Burundi closed the independent broadcaster’s offices on Friday night, briefly detaining eight journalists and continuing a standoff over the station’s news coverage. RPA Deputy Director Jean-Marie Hicuburundi told CPJ that he and seven colleagues were taken to a police station…
CPJ concerned about health of imprisoned Internet writer
New York, July 25, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that the health of imprisoned writer Pham Hong Son is deteriorating. Son, imprisoned since 2002 for distributing pro-democracy writings, has been coughing up blood, a U.S.-based Vietnamese dissident group, the People’s Democracy Party (PDP), reported last week. Family members have requested…
Police shutter independent radio station
New York, July 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply shocked about today’s closure of independent radio station Radio Publique Africaine. The closure took place despite an earlier compromise deal between the authorities and RPA, local sources said. RPA fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as a large group of police broke into…
ZIMBABWE
JULY 13, 2005 Posted: July 21, 2005 The Tribune CENSORED The government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) refused to allow the independent weekly The Tribune to reopen, after suspending it for one year in June 2004 for allegedly violating Zimbabwe’s repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (known as AIPPA).
ZIMBABWE
JULY 18, 2005 Posted: July 21, 2005 Daily News and Daily News on Sunday CENSORED The government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) refused, once again, to license the banned independent Daily News and its sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday, both of which were shut down in September 2003 for violating the country’s draconian…
Government raids several newspaper offices
New York, July 20, 2005—Police in Karachi cracked down on Islamic fundamentalist publications in the past week, raiding the offices of several newspapers, arresting four journalists and several newspaper vendors, and confiscating copies of the publications. On Saturday, police raided and shut down the offices of the fundamentalist Urdu-language weekly Zarb-i-Islam, arresting editor Nasir Ali…
Banned independent radio station stops broadcasts for two days
New York, July 19, 2005—Independent station Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) went off air yesterday, after a compromise was reached with the National Communications Council, according to local sources. RPA agreed to a 2-day suspension, on the understanding that Thursday, the council—known by its French acronym CNC—will lift its original ban, which would have required the…
Newspaper employees dragged from offices
New York, July 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the violent removal of 31 employees from the offices of the Oaxaca-based daily Noticias. The employees had been confined to their offices for the last several weeks, due to a blockade erected by a striking, pro-government union. Around 8 p.m. Monday night, dozens…
CPJ condemns threats to media freedom in Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand, July 19, 2005—Thailand’s cabinet today imposed emergency rule empowering the prime minister to censor the media in the country’s three Muslim-dominated, insurgency-hit southern provinces. The measure also gives the government power to detain suspects without trial, tap telephones, monitor e-mail exchanges, and confiscate suspects’ property in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces.