Journalist’s prison sentence commuted
New York, April 27, 2004-The prison sentence of Kazakh journalist Vladimir Mikhailov, director of Rifma Ltd. media company and founder of the opposition weekly Diapazon, was commuted yesterday into 180 hours of community service, according to the Almaty-based media foundation Adil Soz.
Journalist detained
New York, April 27, 2004–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the ongoing detention of Sami Yousafzai, a stringer for the magazine Newsweek who was arrested last week at a military checkpoint in Bannu, a town in the North West Frontier Province near the tribal areas in western Pakistan, according to local news reports. Yousafzai…
CPJ WELCOMES COURT RULING ON PRESS ACCREDITATION
New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice yesterday overturning a sweeping government ban on press accreditation for Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The court ruled on Sunday, April 25, that Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) could not impose a…
Parliament removes defamation article from Criminal Code
New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased by the Moldovan Parliament’s decision to remove Article 170 from the country’s Criminal Code. Article 170 called for up to five years imprisonment for defamation. Moldova’s authoritarian president, Vladimir Voronin, sponsored the initiative in March after European officials called on countries within the…
Two journalists detained
New York, April 26, 2004—CPJ is deeply concerned about reports that two journalists have been detained in separate incidents in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, editor-in-chief of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper in Bossasso, Puntland, was arrested on April 21, because of an article…
Journalist killed by unidentified gunman
New York, April 23, 2004—An unidentified gunman killed Alberto Rivera Fernández, a host of a radio show and a political activist, in Peru’s eastern Ucayali Department, on Wednesday, April 21. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to Rivera’s journalistic work. Rivera, 54, hosted the morning show “Transparencia” (Transparency),…
AL-JAZEERA CORRESPONDENT IMPRISONED
New York, April 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the one-month prison sentence handed down by a Sudanese criminal court on April 10 to Islam Salih, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Sudan. Salih’s lawyer, Abdel Salam Al-Gizouly, told CPJ that Salih was found guilty of several charges, including spreading false news and obstructing a…
Journalist killed in mine explosion
New York, April 22, 2004—A journalist was killed in a mine explosion in India-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, April 20. Asiya Jeelani died en route to the hospital after the van she was traveling in, which was being used by an elections monitoring team sent by a local umbrella organization, the Coalition of Civil Society, detonated…
President vetoes restrictive draft media bill
New York, April 22, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s decision to veto a controversial media bill passed by both chambers of Kazakhstan’s Parliament earlier this year. In a speech today at the Third Eurasian Media Forum—a three-day summit of about 400 journalists, analysts, politicians, researchers, and scientists from more than…
Coalition official confirms that U.S. troops killed journalist
New York, April 21, 2004—Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of operations for coalition forces in Iraq, confirmed yesterday that U.S. troops killed an Iraqi journalist and his driver near the Iraqi city of Samara, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, on Monday. Asaad Kadhim, a correspondent for the U.S.…