Confronting the suffering in Vietnam’s prisons
Dinh Dang Dinh, a former Vietnamese schoolteacher and blogger, died on April 3 from cancer of the stomach. Near death, he had been released from his six-year prison sentence on March 21, and allowed to return home to die in Dak Nong province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. His crime, to which he had pled not…
Ukraine must allow entry to Russian journalists
New York, April 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Ukrainian border guards have denied entry to the country to several Russian journalists over the past few days. Reports say that journalists with the newly reshuffled RIA Novosti news agency, TV channels Rossiya and Russia Today, the business daily Kommersant, and…
Journalist murders silence the press
CPJ to launch 2014 Impunity Index New York, April 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists will release its 2014 Impunity Index, a global tally of countries with the highest number of unsolved press murders. The index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population, shows that authorities are often unwilling or…
Turkey should reverse all anti-press measures and laws
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: We are writing to express our concern about the Turkish government’s recent steps to restrict the independent Turkish media. In the recent past, your country was hailed as a model for a region aspiring for freedom, democracy, and tolerance. But today Turkey is being criticized as a country that is drifting away from the principles and practices that define true democracy.
Costa Rican court strikes down tracking of daily’s calls
The constitutional chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled on March 21, 2014, that the government’s secret monitoring of phone records of the San José-based daily Diario Extra as part of a leak investigation was unconstitutional, according to news reports.
CPJ welcomes court ruling against EU data retention
Phoenix, April 8, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists hails today’s decision by the European Court of Justice invalidating the European Union’s mandatory data retention directive. The court found that the indiscriminate collection of metadata poses a “particularly serious” and disproportional interference with the right to privacy. Mass metadata surveillance is “likely to generate in the…
Alabama blogger released after five months in jail
Roger Shuler, whose blog, Legal Schnauzer, specializes in allegations of corruption and scandal in Republican circles in Alabama, was released from jail on March 26, 2014, after spending more than five months in prison on contempt of court charges. Shuler was arrested on October 1, 2013, for failing to comply with a preliminary injunction prohibiting him from…
Somaliland authorities shut down independent papers
Nairobi, April 8, 2014–Police in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland on Thursday raided the Hargeisa offices of the independent Somali-language paper Haatuf and its sister English-language weekly, Somaliland Times, and suspended them indefinitely, according to local journalists and news reports.
Peru court gives journalist suspended jail term
Peruvian journalist César Quino Escudero was sentenced on March 21, 2014, to a six-month suspended prison sentence for defaming the governor of the northeastern state of Ancash, according to news reports. Quino was also fined US$8,400 in damages and sentenced to 120 days of community service.