New York, August 12, 2004—Radio journalist Fernando Consignado was found dead in his home this morning in the town of Nagcarlan, 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of Manila, according to local news reports. Consignado, a correspondent for the Manila-based Radio Veritas, died of a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police investigators. The…
New York, August 12, 2004—The director of the shuttered Kyiv radio station Kontinent has arrived in Washington, D.C., after gaining refugee status from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In a telephone interview with CPJ, Sergey Sholokh said he fled Ukraine five months ago and applied for refugee status through the U.S. Embassy in Poland.…
New York, August 11, 2004—A Chinese high court today rejected the appeal of Internet essayist Du Daobin, who was convicted in June on charges of subversion. The Supreme People’s Court of Hubei Province in Xiaogan City upheld charges of “overtly instigating and subverting state power,” according to Xinhua state news agency. Today’s ruling upheld a…
New York, August 11, 2004—More than seven months after escaping from the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, two of the men charged in the April 2000 killing of prominent journalist Jean Léopold Dominique have been recaptured. Dymsley Millien was arrested August 1 in Port-au-Prince, and Jeudi-Jean Daniel was captured August 8 in the southern city of Jacmel,…
New York, August 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned by a U.S. federal judge’s ruling to hold a journalist in contempt of court for refusing to testify before the grand jury probing the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s name. Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan of U.S. District Court in Washington,…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the continuing use of Indonesia’s outdated criminal defamation laws to punish journalists who criticize public figures. This disturbing trend is having a chilling effect on local journalists and poses a direct threat to press freedom in Indonesia. We call on you to do everything in your power to uphold Article 28 of Indonesia’s Constitution, which guarantees press freedom, and to fight for the removal of defamation laws from your country’s Criminal Code.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the Iraqi interim government’s closure of the Iraq offices of the Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. On August 7, the interim government barred Al-Jazeera from working in Iraq for 30 days, accusing the station of incitement to violence and hatred, according to news reports. Your Excellency announced the decision at a press conference, noting that an Iraqi media monitoring body had produced a report “on the issues of incitement and the problems Al-Jazeera has been causing.” You also said the ban was implemented to “protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq.”
New York, August 10, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes a Hong Kong court decision today setting aside a search warrant issued in a July 24 raid on the daily newspaper Sing Tao. The newspaper was one of seven raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation. Justice Michael…
Your Excellency: The July 9 slaying of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov in the capital, Moscow, is a grim reminder of the years-long pattern of deadly, unchecked violence against journalists in Russia that is damaging your nation’s international reputation and depriving your citizens of the independent reporting essential to democracy. Eleven journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings during your tenure–and four others have died as a result of other violent, work-related circumstances–yet no one has been brought to justice for these killings.
New York, August 9, 2004—A court in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, today sentenced Maka Gbossokotto, publication director of the private French language daily Le Citoyen, to a 12-month suspended jail term and a 500,000 CFA franc (US$960) fine for printing “public insults” against businessman Jean-Serge Wafio. Gbossokotto was also charged with defamation, but…