I am writing once again to express CPJ’s ongoing concern about the deterioration of press freedom conditions in Serbia, and about the continued harassment and prosecution of journalists there. I last wrote on September 30, to remind you of the commitment you made during our September 20 meeting in Belgrade to investigate a number of press freedom abuses. In your October 6 response, you objected to statements I made to the Serbian press regarding the April 23 bombing of Radio and Television Serbia (RTS). As you well know, the concerns I raised about RTS officials not taking sufficient action to safeguard the security of their employees prior to the NATO attack have been voiced repeatedly in the local press, and by the families of the victims.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by a murder attempt and series of death threats against Sergei Zhubinsky, a reporter with the privately-owned local XXI Vek television station in Achinsk, in the Krasnoyarsk region.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the health of Nizar Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement at Mezze military prison in Damascus. Our organization has recently received reports that Nayyouf continues to suffer from Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, and that his life may be in jeopardy unless he receives proper treatment.
New York, November 4, 1999 — Reuters stringer Henry Romero, kidnapped by the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) on October 26 as punishment for having published a photo of a rebel commander’s unmasked face, was freed near the town of Suárez. He reached his hometown of Cali at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening after walking and…
New York, November 3, 1999 — Seven cameramen and reporters kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were released yesterday. The journalists were set free in the afternoon of November 2 near Barrancabermeja, an important oil-refining center. Concern for the journalists’ safety had been running high since heavy fighting erupted on October 16…
New York, November 3, 1999 — Jerry Needam, acting editor of the bimonthly Ogoni Star newspaper in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, was arraigned and released on bail yesterday. Needam had been held since October 11 in connection with the publication of a police operational order that detailed a planned clampdown on ethnic Ijaw…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the press freedom situation in Cote d’Ivoire. While we welcome the release from prison today of Le Populaire publisher Raphael Lakpe, threats and attacks against opposition media have intensified alarmingly in recent weeks. In a September 10 letter to Your Excellency, CPJ expressed its deep concern that the prolonged detention of Lakpe and Le Populaire editor Jean Khalil Sylla (who remains in prison) would negatively affect press freedom in Cote d’Ivoire.
New York, October 29, 1999– Leftist guerrillas who kidnapped a Colombian journalist on October 26 say they will only release him if a rebel communiqué is made public. But local journalists have rejected the demand, saying they only broadcast the rebel’s message once the kidnapped journalist is set free. Henry Romero, a freelance photographer who…