Journalist convicted and imprisoned on criminal defamation charges
New York, August 20, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns a district court’s conviction of independent journalist German Galkin on criminal defamation charges in the southern city of Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Ural mountains. According to local and international press reports, on August 15, following a trial that was closed to the public, the…
CPJ believes journalist’s imprisonment is politically motivated
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) believes that the arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of journalist and human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov are part of a politically motivated campaign to suppress press freedom in Uzbekistan.
CPJ calls for full and public investigation into journalist’s death
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the death of Reuters television cameraman Mazen Dana, who was killed by machine gun fire from a U.S. tank near Baghdad yesterday. We demand a full, public investigation into this incident. According to several press accounts, Dana was struck in the chest while filming near Abu Ghraib Prison outside Baghdad, late in the afternoon on August 17. Dana had been reporting near the prison after a mortar attack had killed six Iraqis there the previous night. Eyewitnesses quoted by international media said that several journalists had been near the prison at the time of the incident and that a soldier in the tank fired on Dana as he filmed it approaching him from about 50 meters (55 yards).
Dana was recipient of CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2001
New York, August 17, 2003—Mazen Dana, a veteran television cameraman for Reuters, was killed in Baghdad on Sunday while filming outside the city’s Abu Ghraib prison. According to wire service reports, Dana was shot by U.S.soldiers riding on a tank in the Iraqi capital. The 43-year-old Palestinian was honored by CPJ two years ago for…
Les autorités haïtiennes donnent leur consentement à examiner les dossiers du CPJ sur la liberté de la presse
Version française Port-au-Prince, August 15, 2003—Top officials of the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have agreed to report to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the status of judicial investigations into press freedom abuses documented by CPJ. The agreement came during a five-day visit to Haiti by members of a CPJ delegation, who met…
Oficiais haitianos concordam em analisar casos de liberdade de imprensa apresentados pelo CPJ
Porto Príncipe, 15 de agosto de 2003 – Oficiais do alto escalão do governo do Presidente Jean-Bertrand Aristide concordaram em informar ao Comitê de Proteção aos Jornalistas (CPJ) sobre o andamento das investigações judiciais sobre abusos cometidos contra a liberdade de imprensa documentados pelo CPJ. A decisão foi obtida em um visita de cinco dias…
Journalist briefly detained and handcuffed
New York, August 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed that U.S. forces forcibly detained Hassan Fattah, editor of the English-language daily Iraq Today, on Monday, August 11, after preventing him from attending a press conference. In an e-mail to CPJ, Fattah described the incident, which occurred at Baghdad’s conference center when he…
Newspaper offices attacked; correspondent threatened
New York, August 13, 2003—Armed men claiming to be supporters of Harold Keke, a rebel leader in the Solomon Islands, attacked the Bougainville offices of the daily English-language Papua New Guinea Post-Courier and threatened Gorethy Kenneth, the newspaper’s correspondent in Bougainville, on Friday, August 8. Bougainville is an island in Papua New Guinea, across the…
CPJ TROUBLED BY RESULTS OF PALESTINE HOTEL INQUIRY
New York, August 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is troubled by a news release summarizing the results of a U.S. Central Command (Centcom) investigation into the April 8 shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The release, which was published yesterday on Centcom’s Web site, failed to answer vital questions about the incident,…
Moscow court upholds denial of travel passport to Grigory Pasko
New York, August 12, 2003—The Moscow City Court upheld an earlier July 24 district court ruling today denying a foreign passport to Russian journalist Grigory Pasko. Ivan Pavlov, Pasko’s attorney, told CPJ in a telephone interview today that Pasko plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Pasko was convicted…