Zambia continued to be one of southern Africa’s worst press freedom offenders. Under the repressive government of President Frederick Chiluba, local journalists faced illegal and arbitrary detention, abuses of the judicial process, and a dearth of proper media laws. A severe crackdown on Zambia’s biggest independent newspaper, The Post, came in the context of increasingly…
Beset by economic problems and controversy over its military involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo civil war, President Robert Mugabe’s government increasingly clamped down on independent media and their efforts to question his rule. The most egregious attack on press freedom in Zimbabwe last year was the illegal arrest and torture in January of…
New York, March 20, 2000 — Jagdish Bhattarai, editor of the Nepali-language weekly Nava Janachetana (“New Public Conscience”), was released yesterday from Palpa Jail, where he had served one week after being found guilty of contempt of court. The charge stemmed from an editorial about corruption in the local judiciary, headlined “Saviors of Justice Corrupt,”…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent illegal closure of the privately-owned stations Star Radio and Radio Veritas. During the morning of March 15, heavily armed police officers under the command of Director of Police Paul Mulbah occupied the Star Radio compound in Monrovia and sealed its gate. Star Radio’s Internet-based news service was also interrupted. Meanwhile, police also sealed the compound housing Radio Veritas, which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese.
New York, March 17, 2000 — CPJ is deeply concerned by the legal action currently being brought against the Lima-based newspaper, El Comercio, which threatens to transfer ownership of the paper to its minority shareholders. El Comercio is charged with the misuse of government-provided funds. The paper is also being sued by its former general…
New York, March 17, 2000 — Nebojsa Ristic, head of an independent television station in Serbia, was released from prison today after serving almost 11 months of a one-year sentence imposed last April, according to CPJ’s sources in Belgrade. Ristic was arrested in April, 1999, and charged with disseminating false information under Article 218 of…
New York, March 15, 2000 — After a seven year wait, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA) has obtained a certificate of legal recognition from the Ethiopian government, according to CPJ sources in Addis Ababa. Justice Minister Worede-Wolb Wolbe signed the certificate on March 13. It sanctions the EFJA’s work, which includes documenting press…
Read CPJ’s protest letter to President Charles Taylor of Liberia. New York, March 15, 2000 — Citing public security concerns, the Liberian government shut down the privately owned Star Radio station and suspended Radio Veritas, a religious station owned by the Catholic Church. A statement from the office of President Charles Taylor defended the decision…
New York, March 14, 2000 — Francisco “Pacho” Santos Calderón, editor of Colombia’s largest daily newspaper, El Tiempo, fled the country on March 11 after an apparent attempt was made on his life. According to one of Santos’ colleagues, the assassins were hired by members of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s…
New York, March 14, 2000 — A leading reformist newspaper publisher who was shot in the face on March 12 is battling for his life in a Tehran hospital. Saeed Hajjarian, 47, an advisor to President Mohammad Khatami who also publishes the newspaper Sobh-e Emrooz, which has consistently criticized Iran’s hard-line religious rulers, may have…