Editor dies of gunshot wounds
New York, April 4, 2005 – A critically wounded Nepali editor died last Friday, according to local news reports. Khagendra Shrestha, editor and publisher of Dharan Today newspaper, was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen just over two weeks ago. The assailants overtook him in his Dharan office, 335 miles east of Kathmandu. Shrestha,…
British journalists face trial on accreditation charges
New York, April 4, 2005—Zimbabwean government prosecutors are pushing ahead with a criminal trial of two journalists from the London-based Sunday Telegraph on accreditation charges that could bring two years in prison, the journalists’ lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said today. Toby Harnden, the newspaper’s chief foreign correspondent, and photographer Julian Simmonds have been jailed since their…
MEXICO
APRIL 2, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 Alfredo Jiménez Mota, El Imparcial MISSING Jiménez, a crime reporter for the Hermosillo-based daily, disappeared from his home in the city of Hermosillo in the northwestern state of Sonora at about 9 p.m. on April 2. That night, he called a colleague at El Imparcial to say that…
ZIMBABWE
APRIL 1, 2005 April 7, 2005 Fredrik Sperling, Sveriges Television (STV) HARASSED, EXPELLED Sperling, a reporter for Sweden’s public broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), was arrested in central Harare and deported to South Africa, despite having been accredited to cover Zimbabwe’s March 31 parliamentary elections.
AFGHANISTAN
APRIL 1, 2005 Posted: April 11, 2005 Abdul Jabbar Bazar, Aina TV ATTACKED, THREATENED Government officials in the city of Shibirghan in the northern Jawzjan Province threatened and attacked reporter Bazar after his story exposing local corruption aired on the private television channel. Local sources tell CPJ that officials threatened to attack Bazar again if…
IRAQ
APRIL 2005 Posted: June 29, 2005 Ahmed al-Rubai’i, Al-Sabah KILLED—CONFIRMED Al-Rubai’i, a reporter and editor at the U.S.-backed daily Al-Sabah who also worked in the media department of the Iraqi National Assembly, was abducted and apparently murdered by unknown perpetrators in Baghdad mid-April. The circumstances of his abduction and apparent murder are not clear. No…
IRAQ
APRIL 1, 2005 Posted: November 29, 2005 Ahmed Jabbar Hashim, Al-Sabah, Baghdad KILLED—CONFIRMED Hashim, a reporter working for the Baghdad-based daily Al-Sabah, part of the U.S.-backed Iraq Media Network, was kidnapped on March 25 by an unidentified armed group. His decapitated body was discovered on April 1.
Doctor says journalist in Iranian custody was tortured and raped before her death
New York, April 1, 2005—Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and raped during her detention in Iran, claims a former Iranian army doctor. The doctor, Shahram Azam, says that he was the first to examine Kazemi in a Tehran hospital before her death on July 10, 2003. His allegations were presented yesterday at a press…
ZIMBABWE
MARCH 31, 2005 Posted: May 10, 2005 Toby Harnden, The Sunday TelegraphJulian Simmonds, The Sunday Telegraph IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Harnden, chief foreign correspondent for the London-based Sunday Telegraph, and photographer Simmonds were arrested at a polling station in Norton, a town near the capital, Harare, according to a statement from the newspaper. The journalists were…
CPJ protests arrests of journalists
Your Majesty: In the Royal Proclamation of February 1, Your Majesty dismissed the government, declared a state of emergency and curtailed civil liberties. In early February, we visited Nepal’s ambassador to the United States, Kedar Bhakta Shrestha, who assured us that restrictions on the press were temporary and that Your Majesty was committed to democracy and free expression.