Côte d’Ivoire: Journalists harassed for covering coup attempt
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the continued harassment of independent journalists in your country under the pretext of investigating the failed coup attempt of January 8, 2001. Most recently, on February 10, as many as thirty armed men and three uniformed police officers broke into the printing press where the independent Abidjan daily Le Jour is produced. The intruders forced a security guard to lie prone while they searched the premises for “arms and mercenaries.” A police helicopter hovered over the factory while the search was being performed. The men all claimed to be law enforcement officers, but did not have a search warrant. They claimed to be acting on an anonymous phone tip, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Venezuela: Preocupan al CPJ amenazadoras declaraciones de Chàvez
Su Excelencia: El Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) se encuentra alarmado por los numerosos casos de acoso e intimidación contra la prensa venezolana que hemos documentado durante las últimas seis semanas.
Internet publisher’s trial adjourned for health reasons
February 13, 2001—Internet publisher Huang Qi, whose Web site carried articles about human rights and political corruption, went on trial for subversion today in a closed courtroom in Chengdu, in the western province of Sichuan. Court officials told reporters that the trial had been adjourned due to Huang’s poor health. A CPJ source said that…
Sierra Leone grills editor for report on President’s security fears
February 6, 2001 — Police yesterday detained Pius Foray, owner and editor of the independent Freetown daily Democrat, after his newspaper ran a story suggesting that President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah feared for his life following the postponement of elections. He was released later the same day. The article was written by Foray and ran on…
Pakistan: Journalists arrested for blasphemy
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed by the recent arrests of at least a dozen employees of the English-language newspaper The Frontier Post and its sister publication, the Urdu-language daily Maidan. District officials in Peshawar, where both newspapers are published, ordered the arrests and sealed The Frontier Post’s printing press without having conducted any investigation into allegations of blasphemy against the daily.
Indonesia: Foreign Minister seeks to limit journalists’ access to trouble spots
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by a proposal announced last week by Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab that could severely restrict foreign journalists from traveling to a number of crisis-prone regions in Indonesia.
Zimbabwe: “Unpatriotic” newspaper bombed
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns yesterday’s early-morning bombing of the printing press of the independent Daily News in Harare. Sunday’s attack is the second such bombing of the private daily in less than a year. These violent attacks appear to be part of a deeply disturbing campaign against the Daily News and its staff, which have suffered frequent and ongoing harassment at the hands of police and top-ranking officials of the ruling ZANU-PF.
CPJ Press Freedom Award Winner Held for “Dangerousness”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes yesterday’s release of independent journalist Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, who was imprisoned for two years because of his work, in clear violation of international law. We urge Your Excellency to release the two other journalists who remain behind bars, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Manuel Antonio González Castellanos.
Independent journalist released after two years in jailCPJ Press Freedom Award Winner Held for “Dangerousness”
New York, January 18, 2001 — Independent journalist Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández was released from a Cuban prison yesterday, after serving two years of a four-year term for practicing independent journalism. He had been convicted on the charge of “dangerousness.” Díaz Hernández, the executive director of the independent news service Cooperativa Avileña de Periodistas Independientes…