Baku, June 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today held a press conference in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to call on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to end his government’s repression of independent and opposition media. In Baku, CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, Europe & Central Asia Program Coordinator Alex Lupis, and Senior Editor Amanda Watson-Boles…
New York, June 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that authorities in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR)—a mountainous enclave in southwest Azerbaijan—have harassed two journalists writing about politics, economics, and social issues, including local government corruption. Melakhet Nasibova, a correspondent for the Azerbaijani news agency Turan and the Azerbaijani Service of the…
New York, June 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s expulsion from Morocco of Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem, a reporter and photographer, respectively, with the Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenbladet. Dommersnes told CPJ that four plainclothes Moroccan security officers woke Refvem and him up in their hotel rooms in Rabat early yesterday…
New York, June 17, 2004—Eliseo (“Ely”) Binoya, a radio commentator with Radyo Natin, was gunned down by unidentified assailants today outside of the port city General Santos, on the southern island of Mindanao, according to international news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to Binoya’s journalistic work.…
New York, June 16, 2004—Mohamed Benchicou, publisher of the French-language daily Le Matin, was sentenced by an Algiers court to two years in prison on Monday, June 14, for violating Algeria’s currency exchange laws, according to Youssef Razzouj, Le Matin’s editor. Benchicou was also ordered to pay a large fine, totaling several hundred thousand dollars…
New York, NY, June 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of Internet journalist Le Chi Quang, who served more than 19 months of a four-year jail term for posting essays critical of the government online. According to international news sources, Quang was released on Monday, June 14, from Nam Ha Prison…
Dear Mr. Salazar Mendiguchía: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide, condemns Chiapas’ recent enactment of penal code reforms that impose severe criminal penalties for defamation.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based independent organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is concerned that Uzbek authorities have failed to meet their commitment to review the case of Ruslan Sharipov, an independent journalist and human rights activist. He is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for sodomy and having sexual relations with minors.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores the government-controlled Media and Information Commission’s (MIC) June 10 decision to suspend the private weekly The Tribune for one year. The Tribune is the second newspaper to be shuttered under Zimbabwe’s repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).