New York, March 18, 2004—Imprisoned freelance journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi is scheduled to appear at a court hearing tomorrow in the southwestern city of Quetta, Pakistan. According to local journalists, the court will consider whether Rizvi’s upcoming trial on sedition charges will be held in anti-terrorism court or regular court. The charges against Rizvi stem…
March 18, 2004, New York—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that Ruslan Soltakhanov, a fixer and driver working for Atlanta-based Cox Newspapers, was released from captivity on March 12 after being abducted in February. On February 13, several unidentified men abducted Soltakhanov from his home in Mozdok, just west of Chechnya in North…
March 17, 2004, New York—Uzbek authorities have allowed imprisoned journalist Ruslan Sharipov, who has been jailed since May 2003, to complete his sentence under house arrest. On Friday, March 12, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced that Sharipov would be moved from Tavaksay Prison in Tashkent Region to a low-security prison near Kibray District, also in…
New York, March 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today sent more than 600 appeals—including more than 50 from some of the most renowned journalists in Latin America—to Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz calling for the release of jailed Cuban journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, a recipient of CPJ’s 2003 International Press Freedom Award, and…
New York, March 15, 2004—Last week, Pakistan’s Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, acknowledged that the government had suspended advertising in newspapers belonging to the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications, including the English-language daily The Nation and the Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt. He denied, however, that an official ban had been issued. In February, the government effectively stopped…
New York, March 12, 2004—Judes Zossé, publication director of the private daily newspaper L’Hirondelle (The Swallow) in the Central African Republic (CAR), was sentenced today to six months in prison and fined 200,000 CFA francs (US$375). He was charged with “insulting the head of state.” “This harsh sentence belies the CAR government’s stated commitment to…
PREFACE By Ted Koppel INTRODUCTION by Ann Cooper REGIONAL ANALYSES Africa | Americas | Asia | Europe and Central Asia | Middle East and North Africa AFRICA Africa Analysis | Angola | Burundi | Cameroon | Central African Republic | Democratic Republic of Congo | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Gabon | The Gambia | Ivory Coast |…
By Ted KoppelThis is not a good day. As I write, pop star Michael Jackson has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sexual misconduct with a minor. His residence cum theme park, “Neverland,” has been invaded by police, sheriff’s deputies, and a team of forensic specialists. I am not empathizing with Michael Jackson, although this…
By Ann CooperIn real-time images, the war in Iraq splashed across television screens worldwide in March, with thousands of journalists covering the U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein and his regime. The conflict and its aftermath had a far-reaching impact on the press and its ability to report the news, with the reverberations felt in some…