New York, April 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the disappearance of French-Canadian freelance journalist Guy-André Kieffer, one of the few foreign investigative reporters still based in Ivory Coast. Kieffer had been receiving death threats in recent weeks, according to his family and friends, who fear that he has been…
New York, April 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about deteriorating press freedom conditions in Nepal. According to local and international press reports, security forces have harassed, physically attacked, and briefly detained hundreds of journalists since authorities banned protests in the capital, Kathmandu, and neighboring towns earlier this month. According to…
New York, April 19, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that prosecutors in Belarus’ capital, Minsk, have suspended their criminal inquiry into the July 7, 2000, abduction of Dmitry Zavadsky, a 29-year-old cameraman for the Russian public television network ORT, who disappeared in July 2000. Ivan Branchel, deputy head of the prosecutor’s organized…
New York, April 19, 2004—Mathurin Constant Momet, publication director of the independent daily Le Confident, and Le Confident Editor-in-Chief Patrick Bakwa, were granted provisional release from police custody on April 17 after being held for about 24 hours. However, the two were today charged with criminal defamation, after Pierre Ouadda-Diale, a local lawyer, filed suit…
New York, April 19, 2004—A Japanese freelance journalist abducted near Baghdad last week has been released. Jumpei Yasuda, of the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, and activist Nobutaka Watanabe were freed on Saturday, April 17, three days after they were abducted by an armed group outside Baghdad while driving to Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, to…
New York, April 19, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about reports that a correspondent for a U.S.–backed television station and his driver were killed today by U.S. fire in the central Iraqi city of Samara, north of Baghdad. Asaad Kadhim, a correspondent for the U.S.–funded Al-Iraqiya TV, and his driver, Hussein Saleh,…
New York, April 16, 2004—Mathurin Constant Momet, publication director of the independent daily Le Confident, and Le Confident Editor-in-Chief Patrick Bakwa were detained today by police in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), and held for questioning. Local sources said the two were summoned to the police station at about 11 a.m.…
New York, April 16, 2004—Three Czech journalists abducted on Sunday, April 11, outside Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, have been released, according to several new sources. Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima, both of the public network Czech Television, and Vit Pohanka, of the public station Czech Radio, were kidnapped while en route from Baghdad to Amman,…
New York, April 15, 2004—Three Japanese civilians, including one photographer, abducted in Iraq last week were released today. However, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about reports that armed gunmen abducted another Japanese journalist and an activist from Japan near Baghdad yesterday. The Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera reported today that Japanese journalist…