Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the recent jail sentence given in absentia to two journalists who reported on alleged corruption in the gendarmerie. On April 20, a court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s Far North Province, sentenced Guibaï Gatama, publication director of the independent weekly L’Oeil du Sahel, and Abdoulaye Oumaté, a journalist for the paper, to five months in prison and fined them 5 million CFA francs (approximately U.S. $9,782) in a criminal defamation case.
New York, May 10, 2005 – CPJ condemns the closure of the leading opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye (Republic Business Review) by The Kazakh Culture, Information, and Sports Ministry. Last Thursday in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital, Galina Dyrdina, the weekly’s deputy editor told a press conference that editorial staff will not publish the paper’s next…
May 10, 2005 The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the police investigation of independent documentary filmmaker Martyn See who is being questioned under Singapore’s stringent Films Act. On May 6, Assistant Superintendent of Police Chan Peng Khuang called See to inform him that police had received a copy of his film…
MAY 9, 2005 Posted: May 10, 2005 Honoré Sepe, Le Front HARASSED Three armed gendarmes came to Honoré Sepe’s house at 4 a.m. and demanded to be let in, although they admitted they had no warrant, according to the journalist. Sepe refused to let them in and instead called his lawyer. As he was on…
Your Majesty: Nearly 100 days after Your Majesty dismissed the government and curtailed civil liberties, press freedom has not been restored. Your Majesty has not lifted a ban on reporting that goes “against the letter and spirit” of your February 1 proclamation. A ban on FM radio news broadcasting remains in place, depriving rural citizens of their only source of independent news. And your government continues to harass and intimidate journalists.
MAY 8, 2005 Posted: June 10, 2005 Zéphirin Kaya, Radio Ndeke Luka Patrick Akibata, Radio Ndeke Luka Maka Gbossokotto, Le Citoyen THREATENED Kaya, Akibata and Gbossokotto received death threats following critical coverage of the second round of presidential and parliamentary elections on May 8. Reinhard Moser, head of independent station Radio Ndeke Luka, and Le…
MAY 8, 2005 Posted: June 15, 2005 Al-Majd CENSORED Fahd al-Rimawi, editor of the weekly newspaper Al-Majd, told CPJ that publication of his May 8 edition was delayed by the printer under pressure from security officials. Authorities objected to Al-Majd’s planned interview with a member of parliament who said he supported the Iraqi insurgency and…
MAY 7, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 All Journalists CENSORED Burma’s military rulers restricted coverage of casualties from bomb blasts at two shopping malls and a trade center in the capital Rangoon. Exiled Burmese news sources reported that the government censored blast-related stories in the local media, while medical workers told international reporters that authorities…