New York, December 8, 1999 — The Belgrade daily newspapers Blic and Danas and the Studio B television station have been fined a total of 970,000 dinars (about $32,333 at the official rate of exchange) in a defamation case brought against them under the Serbian Information Law. The fines were announced Wednesday afternoon following a…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about recent death threats against Sunday Standard reporter Ray Choto. The threats began in November, shortly after Choto returned to Zimbabwe after collecting an international press freedom award in Canada, along with his colleague Mark Chavunduka, editor of the Sunday Standard. On November 21 a package arrived at Choto’s home in Harare, containing a teddy bear, two live bullets, and a note threatening him and his family. Two other independent journalists, Basildon Peta of the Financial Gazette and Ibbo Mandaza of the Zimbabwe Mirror, received anonymous threats at around the same time.
New York, December 3, 1999 — Pablo Emilio Medina Motta, a cameraman with the regional television station, TV Garzón, was killed by multiple shots to the head and back when more than 100 leftist guerrillas stormed the town of Gigante in Huila department. Six other people died and twenty were wounded in the attack. Medina…
New York, N.Y., December 6, 1999 — Three Egyptian journalists jailed for libel in August were freed late Sunday night after an Egyptian appeals court overturned their sentences. Magdy Hussein, editor in chief of the opposition biweekly Al-Sha’b, Saleh Bedeiwi, a reporter for Al-Sha’b, and Essam Eddine Hanafi, a cartoonist for the paper, were convicted…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about a series of recent attacks on journalists covering the conflict in Chechnya. Two Chechen cameramen have been killed in recent weeks, while a Russian reporter and a French photojournalist have disappeared.
New York, December 1, 1999 — In a major step forward for press freedom in Panama, the country’s Legislative Assembly approved a bill repealing some of the more onerous provisions of the country’s “gag laws.” The new bill, passed last night with the approval of 70 of the Legislative Assembly’s 71 members, repeals part of…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to condemn the three-year prison sentence handed down on Saturday against Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, editor of the reformist daily Asr-e-Azadegan. We are also greatly alarmed by the conviction and jailing of Abdullah Nouri, the former Interior Minister and publisher of the daily Khordad, which also took place on Saturday.
New York, November 30, 1999 — CPJ is deeply concerned about the November 28 murder of cameramen Alberto Sánchez Tovar and Luis Alberto Rincón Solano outside the town of El Playón, in the north-eastern department of Santander. On the morning of November 28, the two cameramen left Bucaramanga, capital of Santander Department, to shoot a…
New York, November 29, 1999 –Rafael Marques, a freelance journalist and Angola representative of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, was released on bail on November 25, after spending 40 days in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin on December 15. Marques had been in police custody since October 16. Angolan police informally…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the closing and continued harassment of the Baku independent station Sara TV and Radio. At 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 9, some 15 police officers, along with officials from the Baku City Prosecutor’s Office, the Baku and Yasamal district police departments and the Ministry of the Interior entered the offices of Sara TV, halting all broadcast transmissions and demanding that staff evacuate the office immediately.