MARCH 22, 2005 Posted: March 23, 2005 Ahmed Suleyman Dhuhul, Radio Hargeisa Hoodo Axmed Qarbooshe, Radio Hargeisa HARASSED Dhuhul and Qarbooshe, reporters for government-owned Radio Hargeisa in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, were fired from their jobs after they were accused of working for Horyaal Radio, a pro-opposition station based in the United Kingdom. Horyaal…
Your Excellency: One year after the Committee to Protect Journalists conducted a fact-finding mission to Bangladesh in response to a pattern of violence against the press, death threats and deadly attacks against journalists continue at an alarming rate. You offered assurances last year that the press in Bangladesh “enjoys full press freedom,” but that freedom is at great risk today. We are deeply concerned about this press freedom crisis, and join with our Bangladeshi colleagues in calling for swift and decisive action to stanch this relentless tide of violence against journalists.
New York, March 22, 2005—The Pentagon will not reopen a military investigation that cleared U.S. troops of allegations that they abused three Reuters employees in Fallujah in January 2004, the news agency said today. Lawrence Di Rita, special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said in a letter to Reuters dated March 7 that the…
New York, March 22, 2005—A Rwandan appeals court today stiffened the sentence against a newspaper editor as it upheld his conviction on charges that he defamed the deputy speaker of parliament in a 2004 article. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the ruling, saying it reflected the ongoing harassment of editors and reporters for Umuseso,…
New York, March 22, 2005—An appeals court in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, today upheld a one-year prison sentence imposed on the editor of an opposition weekly that published opinion pieces harshly critical of the government’s fight against a rebel cleric. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the ruling and called for the editor’s release. Abdelkarim al-Khaiwani,…
New York, March 21, 2005—Facing international pressure, President Ilham Aliyev pardoned the imprisoned editor of an opposition newspaper yesterday as part of a decree ordering the release of dozens of political prisoners, according to local and international press reports. Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat, had been jailed for 17 months after his arrest during…
New York, March 21, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s High Court conviction of seven editors, publishers and reporters from the Bangla-language daily Prothom Alo and the Bangla-language daily Bhorer Kagoj for publishing disputed reports about a judge’s educational background. Samaresh Baidya, senior reporter for Bhorer Kagoj, faces two months in jail and a…
New York, March 21, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today wrote to Somalia’s president, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, urging him to investigate the continuing detention of Abdirisak Ahmed Absuge by forces loyal to faction leader Mohamed Dhere. Absuge is editor of www.guulane.com, Dhere’s official website. According to local sources, Absuge was arrested on March 5…
New York, March 18, 2005—One of the few foreign journalists in Turkmenistan, the Ashgabat correspondent for the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, has been forced to leave the country under circumstances that remain unclear. Viktor Panov was seen in handcuffs at Ashgabat’s airport accompanied by several men in civilian cloths who led him to…