Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the Cuban government’s latest crackdown on the independent press, during which 27 journalists have been detained and await prosecution. The timing of these actions suggests that the Cuban government has taken advantage of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the U.S.-led war…
New York, April 2, 2003— Kaveh Golestan, an Iranian free-lance cameraman on assignment for the BBC, was killed today in northern Iraq after stepping on a land mine, the BBC confirmed. Golestan accidentally detonated the mine when he exited his car near the town of Kifri, John Morrissey of the BBC’s foreign desk told CPJ.…
New York, April 1, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased that four journalists, who were last seen in Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel on March 24, are now safe in Jordan. Free-lance photographer Molly Bingham; Johan Rydeng Spanner, a free-lance photographer with the Danish daily Jyllands Posten; and correspondent Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman,…
PREFACE by Serge Schmemann REGIONAL ANALYSES AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA | EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA | MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA AFRICA: Country Summaries Angola | Botswana | Burkina Faso | Burundi | Cameroon | Central African Republic | Chad | Democratic Republic of Congo | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Gabon…
Many reporters find themselves in a dilemma when the press comes under attack. Our pride, our institutional and tribal loyalties, all clamor for a retort. We may be the bearers of bad tidings, but we are not their cause. If the truth is inimical to you, we want to argue, assailing us will not alter…
Although the Kenya-based East African Standard, one of Africa’s oldest continuously published newspapers, marked its 100th anniversary in November, journalism remains a difficult profession on the continent, with adverse government policies and multifaceted economic woes still undermining the full development of African media.
Economic and political turmoil throughout Latin America in 2002 had profound implications for the region’s press. Sharp decreases in advertising revenue bankrupted many media outlets, while the failure to consolidate democratic reforms left the media vulnerable to legal and physical assault. Five journalists were killed in Latin America in 2002 for their work.
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
While some governments in Central Asia and Eastern Europe are taking small steps forward regarding the media, 2002 was another dismal year for press freedom in much of the region. In some countries, a growing concern about Western public opinion resulted in a shift from blatant attacks to more subtle, covert tactics to control national…
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…