Penn’s video camera briefly seized
New York, June 13, 2005—Iranian authorities briefly seized the video camera of actor-turned-journalist Sean Penn as he was recording a demonstration in Tehran on Sunday, The Washington Post reported. Penn, accredited as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, is providing coverage of the Iranian presidential election for the newspaper. “While this incident was not…
French journalist, Iraqi interpreter freed after five months in captivity
New York, June 13, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of a French journalist and her Iraqi interpreter who had been held captive in Iraq for more than five months. Florence Aubenas, a veteran foreign correspondent for the French daily Liberation, and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, were freed on Saturday. Hanoun…
More journalists arrested as protests continue in Nepal
New York, June 13, 2005—Dozens of Nepalese journalists were arrested today in the capital, Kathmandu, and the neighboring district of Kavre as protests against media restrictions continued across the country. More than 40 journalists were still being held in police stations in Kathmandu this evening, according to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and other…
SUDAN
JUNE 12, 2005 Posted: June 21, 2005 The Khartoum Monitor CENSORED Sudanese justice officials canceled the license of Sudan’s English-language daily, The Khartoum Monitor. Alfred Taban, the paper’s chairman, said he was notified in a letter from the National Press Council, the government agency that regulates the press. Taban told CPJ that a criminal court…
UNITED STATES
JULY 6, 2005 Posted: July 7, 2005 Judith Miller, The New York Times IMPRISONED U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered reporter Miller jailed immediately for refusing to reveal her confidential source to a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. He ordered her held on a contempt of court charge…
BANGLADESH
JULY 6, 2005 Posted: July 18, 2005 Rafiqul Islam, Amar Desh ATTACKED Rafiqul, a correspondent for the daily in the northwestern town of Rajshahi, was assaulted by a group of men he identified to local reporters as activists of the ruling party’s student wing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD). As many as 10 attackers entered the…
SERBIA and MONTENEGRO
JUNE 11, 2005 Posted: June 30, 2005 Grujica Spasovic, Danas Danas THREATENED An anonymous telephone threat was made to the Belgrade-based independent daily after Danas reported that the Serbian government had identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic was hiding.