Daily News directors cleared of publishing illegally
New York, September 21, 2004—On Monday, September 20, a magistrate’s court in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, acquitted four directors of the independent, banned newspaper the Daily News, who had been charged with publishing the newspaper illegally. The court ruled that the state had “failed to show a prima facie case against the accused,” according to international…
Joint letter to the president of Eritrea
Your Excellency: We are writing to express alarm over the deteriorating human rights situation and growing repression of freedom of expression in Eritrea. In particular, we are concerned about the ban that your government has imposed on all independent non-governmental press since September 2001, when an unknown number of critics of your government were detained. Those detained include more than a dozen journalists who have been incarcerated for over three years without being formally charged.
CPJ demands investigation into journalist’s murder
Dear Sir: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to request an immediate and thorough investigation into the murder of Venezuelan journalist Mauro Marcano, who was killed by unidentified attackers while he was leaving his home on September 1 in the city of Maturín, the capital of eastern Monagas State.
CPJ makes joint call for release of jailed journalists
New York, September 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists and nine other nongovernmental organizations today wrote to Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki expressing alarm at his government’s growing repression of press freedom and calling for the release of 17 jailed journalists. The letter marks the three-year anniversary, on September 18, of a brutal clampdown in which…
Reporter killed in ambush after broadcast about crime wave
New York, September 16, 2004—A Dominican reporter was ambushed and killed by gunmen this week, moments after a radio broadcast in which he reported on a bloody crime wave that has pitted gang members against police in the southern town of Azua, according to local news reports. Juan Emilio Andújar Matos, host of Radio Azua’s…
CPJ condemns guilty verdict in libel case
New York, Sept. 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores today’s guilty verdict and sentencing of Indonesia’s Tempo magazine Chief Editor Bambang Harymurti. The journalist received a one-year prison sentence for publishing an allegedly libelous article in the weekly last year. “Today’s ruling is a disturbing setback for Indonesia’s hard-won press freedoms,” said CPJ Executive…
Four years later, case of murdered journalist Gongadze remains unsolved
New York, September 16, 2004—Four years after the disappearance and death of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze, the Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by the lack of progress in the government’s inquiry into the case. CPJ also remains concerned that journalists are being harassed in the run-up to October elections. “It is reprehensible that President…
Editor arrested and detained
New York, September 15, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the continued detention of Isaac Umunna, an editorial consultant to the private, Lagos-based weekly Global Star as well as the general editor of Africa Today, a monthly news magazine based in London. On September 8, members of Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS)…