January 2006

New York, January 31, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing harassment of journalists and assault on freedom of expression in Nepal one year after King Gyanendra seized absolute power.

"In the past 12 months the authorities in Nepal have detained more than 275 journalists and stripped the independent press of many of the legal rights and protection it has acquired since 1990," said Ann Cooper, CPJ's executive director. "We call on the government of King Gyanendra to release all journalists and immediately stop its disastrous campaign of intimidation of the media."

New York, January 31, 2006—Rebel soldiers have forced a radio station in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo off the air by looting equipment and terrorizing journalists, local press freedom organizations and United Nations radio said.

Radiotélévision La Colombe (RTC), the only radio station in the town of Rutshuru, closed on Sunday. Fighting broke out in the area, which is north of Goma, on January 20 between government troops and soldiers loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that regional prosecutors in Russia continue to use criminal libel laws to stifle independent news reporting that is critical of government officials and policies.

JANUARY 19, 2006
Posted January 31, 2006

Bill Dunphy, The Hamilton Spectator
LEGAL ACTION

Police asked a judge to order Dunphy, a senior reporter for the Hamilton, Ontario, daily, to turn over all records of his interviews with a convicted criminal. Police are investigating a 1998 murder of a local lawyer and her husband. They are seeking Dunphy's interviews because they believe the convicted criminal to be involved in the murder, The Hamilton Spectator reported.

 UPDATE:  JANUARY 31, 2006
Original Alert: January 18, 2006

Mom Sonando, Sambok Khmum (Beehive Radio)
Kem Sokha, Cambodian Center for Human Rights
Pa Guon Tieng, Cambodia Center for Human Rights

JANUARY 24, 2006
Posted January 30, 2006

Nagham Abdul-Zahra, Al-Jawra'a
ATTACKED

Abdul-Zahra, a TV presenter working for Iraqi TV channel al-Jawra'a, jumped off her second-floor balcony to escape a kidnapping in southeastern Baghdad.

New York, January 30, 2006—A U.S. news anchor and a cameraman wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq were flown to Germany today where doctors described their injuries as very serious. ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff, 44, and ABC cameraman Doug Vogt, 46, were evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany after being attacked on patrol with an Iraqi army unit north of Baghdad on Sunday.

New York, January 30, 2006—Ethiopian security forces have detained a correspondent for the U.S.-based Web site Ethiopian Review, its publisher Elias Kifle said today. Journalist Frezer Negash has been held without charge in Addis Ababa since Friday, Kifle told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"We are disturbed that Frezer Negash has joined at least 16 other journalists in jail in Ethiopia," said Ann Cooper, executive director of CPJ. "We call on Ethiopian authorities to release her immediately."

New York. January 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the January 20 arrest of Internet writer Yang Tongyan (known by his pen name Yang Tianshui) on suspicion of "subversion of state authority." Relatives received formal notice of the arrest from the Zhenjiang city public security bureau last week, according to CPJ sources.

Authorities have not specified the reasons for their accusation, but colleagues believe that he is being held in connection with online writings criticizing the government.

New York, January 30, 2006—Belarusian police stopped a Ukrainian television crew at a border checkpoint on Friday and seized video footage they described as "antistate," according to local and international press reports.

A crew with the independent Inter network was returning to Kyiv from assignment in the Gomel region of Belarus when a border patrol searched their car at the Novaya Huta checkpoint and seized three videotapes containing interviews with Gomel residents, local reports said.

New York, January 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff and ABC cameraman Doug Vogt who were seriously wounded in a bomb attack while traveling with the Iraqi army today near Baghdad.

The two journalists were embedded with the U.S. military's 4th Infantry Division accompanying an Iraqi army unit near Taji, 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device detonated, ABC News President David Westin said. Both men were in a serious condition and being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq, Westin said in a statement. ABC News reported that Woodruff and Vogt had suffered head injuries from shrapnel.

JANUARY 27, 2006

Aleksandr Sveshnikov, Bogatei
THREATENED
Yuri Smirnov, TVTs-Saratov
ATTACKED

Sveshnikov, deputy editor of the newspaper Bogatei, was threatened and Smirnov, cameraman with the television station TVTs-Saratov, was assaulted. The incidents came as the journalists tried to cover the government's seizure of a building hosting the institute Saratovpromproekt in the Volga region city of Saratov. A Volzhky district court had ruled that the building was in violation of fire safety rules, according to local press reports.

Bangkok, Thailand, January 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Thai government's recent moves to disrupt the signal of the satellite-based television news station Asian Satellite TV (ASTV) and to block access to a popular news Web site. Both actions appeared to be aimed in part at veteran journalist and media owner Sondhi Limthongkul, who has been critical of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government.

New York, January 26, 2006—A Polish journalist convicted in a rare criminal libel prosecution has been freed two days into his prison term after the country's top constitutional court ordered the suspension of his sentence, according to news reports.

Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie in the town of Police, was released from a municipal prison in the northwestern city of Szczecin on January 18. The criminal libel charge stemmed from two February 2001 articles alleging that Piotr Misilo, speaker of the promotion and information unit of the Police City Council, had obtained his post through blackmail and used the position to promote his private advertising business.

New York, January 26, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of freelance Internet journalist Nguyen Khac Toan but deplores the continued imprisonment of two other online reporters in Vietnam. Authorities in Hanoi freed Toan on Tuesday, according to Doan Viet Hoat, a prominent U.S.-based dissident, and international news reports.

Toan had been sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 20, 2002, after a one-day trial. He was arrested for reporting on demonstrations outside the National Assembly in December 2001 and January 2002 during which peasants demanded compensation for land seized by the government for redevelopment.

Sana'a, Yemen, January 26, 2006—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at the deterioration of press freedom in Yemen. Over the last several months, a growing number of Yemeni journalists have been the victims of brutal assaults, arrests, intimidation, and government-sanctioned newspaper closures. They now also face the prospect of a new press law that would impose harsh restrictions on the media.

New York, January 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Caracas judge's decision on Monday to issue a gag order prohibiting news outlets from reporting on the investigation into the 2004 murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson.

Judge Florencio Silano, acting at the request of Attorney General Isaías Rodríguez, barred the "publishing, spreading or exposition" of any information about the Anderson case. Among other things, Rodríguez said he wanted to protect the prosecution's primary witness, Giovanny Vásquez de Armas, from what he called a media campaign of harassment and psychological pressure.

New York, January 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the United States military today to investigate the killing of an Iraqi television correspondent during clashes between U.S. forces and Sunni rebels in Ramadi. Mahmoud Za'al, 35, a correspondent for the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV was shot in the insurgent stronghold, 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Reuters quoted witnesses as saying Za'al was covering an insurgent attack on two U.S.-held buildings when he was wounded in the legs and then killed moments later in a U.S. air strike. The U.S. military denied it had launched an air strike in Ramadi on Tuesday and declined comment on the clashes or Za'al's death, the agency reported.

New York, January 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a continuing crackdown on free expression in China. The Communist Party management of the Beijing-based China Youth Daily scrapped the paper's influential supplement, Bing Dian (Freezing Point), on Tuesday amid a dispute with editors known for challenging free-expression boundaries. And the U.S.-based Internet company Google said today that it agreed to comply with China's free-speech restrictions by censoring results on its new Chinese search engine.

New York, January 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the three-year jail sentence given to Chinese journalist Li Changqing on Tuesday. The Gulou district court in southern China's Fuzhou city convicted Li of "spreading false and alarmist information," defense lawyer Mo Shaoping told CPJ.

The charge was linked to an article published on the banned Chinese-language Web site Boxun News exposing an outbreak of dengue fever in Fujian province before the authorities officially announced it.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by your government's recent efforts to influence journalists' coverage of Uganda. Government officials have recently said that the accreditation of foreign journalists--previously an apolitical process--is tied to an official evaluation of the journalists' work. This attempt to deter foreign reporters from filing critical reports is particularly troubling in the run-up to the February presidential election, an event deserving of full international attention.

New York, January 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the dropping of charges of "insulting Turkishness" against an acclaimed author but is appalled that journalists still face jail under the same draconian statute.

A court in Istanbul dismissed Monday the prosecution under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code of novelist Orhan Pamuk who made reference in a Swiss newspaper interview to the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. The European Union, which Turkey is attempting to join, hailed the decision as good news for freedom of expression but called on Turkey to close loopholes in its penal code.

New York, January 24, 2006—Six trustees of the independent news production company Voice of the People were charged today with broadcasting without a license, which carries a potential two-year prison penalty. Defense lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said her clients appeared in court this morning in the capital, Harare, after learning that police were seeking their arrest.

Police had visited trustees' houses and had detained two household staff employed by trustee Arnold Tsunga, who is also director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

New York, January 24, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the decision by Prime Minister Hun Sen Tuesday to drop criminal defamation charges against journalists Mom Sonando, Kem Sokha, and Pa Guon Tieng. The three were released on bail on January 18 after being jailed for criticizing a new border treaty with Vietnam. Similar charges were also dropped against union leader Rong Chhun.

At the time of their release on bail Hun Sen said the journalists would still face trial, but on Tuesday he told reporters he had dropped the charges after the journalists apologized.

New York, January 24, 2006—An unidentified gunman killed Tamil journalist Subramaniyam Sugitharajah as the reporter was on his way to work this morning in the eastern port town of Trincomalee. Colleagues believe he was killed for his journalism.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which is investigating the motive for the attack, called on Norwegian peace envoy Eric Solheim to raise issues of journalist security in meetings with government and Tamil rebel leaders this week. Recent violence between security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has put the media, particularly Tamil journalists, at great risk. Solheim is in Sri Lanka in hopes of arranging peace talks between recently elected President Mahinda Rajapakse and LTTE leader Vallupillai Prabhakaran.

New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at the Ethiopian government's weekend expulsion of The Associated Press correspondent in the country. Anthony Mitchell, who reported news on Friday of renewed clashes between police and protesters in the capital, Addis Ababa, left on Sunday after government officials gave him 24 hours to depart.

"Anthony Mitchell is a respected and experienced reporter, and he should not be expelled for doing his job," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "The Ethiopian government, which has imprisoned 16 journalists since November, is demonstrating yet again that it is bent on silencing independent reporting."

New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats made against journalist Diro César González after his newspaper reported on a murder investigation in northeastern Santander province and the detention of a paramilitary fighter in connection with the killing. The journalist told CPJ that he and his wife have been forced to flee to Bogotá, and he has suspended publication of his weekly newspaper.

New York, January 23, 2006—The U.S. military freed an Iraqi television cameraman on Sunday after holding the journalist without charge for nearly eight months. Samir Mohammed Noor, a freelancer working for Reuters, was released from detention in Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.

The military continues to hold without charge at least one journalist in Iraq and another at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the U.S. military to disclose evidence of criminal wrongdoing against the journalists still in custody or release the two immediately.

New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention on Sunday of Khem Bhandari, editor and publisher of the daily newspaper Abhiyan in the western city of Mahendranagar. The government gave no reason for Bhandari's arrest.

Shyam Shrestha, editor of the monthly magazine Mulyankan who was detained last Wednesday in Kathmandu, remained in custody without charge. More than 250 people have been arrested in a renewed crackdown by the government of King Gyanendra. The government's decision to block a protest scheduled for last week has triggered widespread street demonstrations.

New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists appealed today to Pakistani authorities to answer inquiries about the fate of abducted reporter Hayatullah Khan and to stop harassing journalists in the tribal areas.

On the eve of a White House meeting between Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and U.S. President George W. Bush, CPJ called on the Islamabad government to ensure the safe release of Khan who was seized by unidentified gunmen in North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan on December 5, 2005.

New York, January 23, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Philippine authorities to fully investigate the killing of newspaper columnist Graciano Aquino, who was shot by unidentified gunmen on Saturday. Aquino was shot twice in the back of the neck at a cockfight in the town of Morong, 52 miles (84 kilometers) north of Manila.

CPJ is investigating to determine whether Aquino was killed because of his work as a journalist.

New York, January 23, 2006—The Kyiv Court of Appeals moved today to close to the public significant portions of the trial of three men charged in the 2000 abduction and murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze. Journalists and a lawyer representing Gongadze's family criticized the decision, saying it would keep the case out of the public eye, local and international press reports said.

The appellate panel headed by Judge Irina Grigoryeva barred the press and public from attending the testimony of the defendants and government security agents. The public is also barred from proceedings at which materials containing state secrets are to be considered. The court will decide what hearings will be accessible as the case proceeds, local reports said.

New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at an attempt by Venezuela's attorney general to prevent media from reporting on the high-profile murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson.

Attorney General Isaías Rodríguez said in a statement Wednesday he had asked a local court to ban media from covering the judicial proceedings of the Anderson case. The ban covered particular print media and television stations but Rodríguez's office did not name them.

New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed a conviction today by a Mozambican court in the murder of Carlos Cardoso but called on authorities to pursue those behind the killing of Mozambique's leading investigative reporter.

A court in the capital, Maputo, convicted Anibal dos Santos Jr. for the second time of recruiting Cardoso's killers. Dos Santos, better known as Anibalzinho, was sentenced to almost 30 years in prison. The conviction ended a two-month retrial. Anibalzinho, who escaped twice from custody, was convicted in absentia in 2003 of involvement in the 2000 murder. Anibalzinho, who has Portuguese citizenship, successfully appealed to the Supreme Court in December 2004 for a retrial.

New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the detention of Zimbabwean journalist Sydney Saize who has been held since Wednesday in the eastern town of Mutare. Police accused Saize of working without accreditation and filing a "false" story for the U.S.-funded radio Voice of America, according to the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) and a local CPJ source. He has not been charged.

New York, January 20, 2006—Unidentified gunmen killed radio broadcaster and political publicist Rolly Cañete today in the southern Philippine city of Pagadian. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether he was killed in connection with his work as a journalist

International news reports said the attackers fled on a motorcycle. Police are investigating the motive for the attack.

Cañete was a part-time broadcaster on three radio stations, two of which are controlled by congressman Antonio Cerilles and his wife provincial governor Aurora Cerilles, the reports said. Both politicians employed Cañete as their publicist.

New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at Tajikistan's suspension of the BBC's FM radio broadcasts. The British broadcaster said it filed a complaint with the Tajik authorities on January 19 protesting the suspension since January 10 of FM programming in the capital Dushanbe and the northern city of Khujand.

"We are deeply troubled by the suspension of the BBC's FM broadcasting and call on the authorities in Tajikistan to ensure that the BBC can resume its programming," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "Tajikistan has an abysmal press freedom record. Its citizens need access to a broad array of news and opinion in the run-up to the presidential election in November."

CPJ Update December 2006 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Return to front page | See previous Updates

New York, January 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes calls by prominent Muslims around the world for the release of U.S. reporter Jill Carroll who faces death at the hands of her Iraqi kidnappers. A brief video aired on Tuesday showing the 28-year-old freelancer in captivity has prompted an outpouring of appeals for her safe return by groups ranging from leading Sunni Arabs in Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to Muslims in the United States.

New York, January 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the long jail sentences given to two journalists who reported on rural unrest in China's southeast province of Zhejiang. Zhu Wanxiang and Wu Zhengyou were convicted of illegal publishing, fraud, and extortion after covering land disputes, and sentenced on January 17.

"We are deeply concerned for our colleagues and call for their immediate release," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "But we are also gravely concerned about what their imprisonment says about the Chinese media. The fact that journalists are prevented from reporting on such critical matters of public interest as rural unrest makes clear that the Chinese government remains fully committed to a policy of information control."

New York, January 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prosecution of Chinese journalist Li Changqing, who went on trial today on charges of "deliberately fabricating and spreading false and alarmist information," defense lawyer Mo Shaoping said.

The charges stemmed from a report on an outbreak of dengue fever on banned news Web site Boxun News but Li's colleagues said that authorities also targeted him for writing in support of whistleblower Huang Jingao, according to The Washington Post.

New York, January 19, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention Thursday in Kathmandu of Shyam Shrestha, editor of the monthly news magazine Mulyankan, in a wave of arrests of opposition activists ahead of a planned pro-democracy rally.

The Nepalese authorities arrested scores of activists, cut phone services and ordered a daylight curfew for Friday when opposition parties planned to demonstrate in capital in defiance of ban on marches.

New York, January 19, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that Kazakhstan's biggest printing company, which is run by a relative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has refused to print seven Almaty-based opposition newspapers.

Local press freedom groups said that the company, Dauir, told the editors of the weeklies Svoboda Slova, Epokha, Apta.kz, Soz, Pravda Kazakhstana, Pravo.Ekonomika.Politika.Kultura, and Azat that it would not renew their contracts which expired January 1, 2006, because it was changing equipment.

JANUARY 19, 2006
Posted January 31, 2006

Bill Dunphy, The Hamilton Spectator
LEGAL ACTION

Police asked a judge to order Dunphy, a senior reporter for the Hamilton, Ontario, daily, to turn over all records of his interviews with a convicted criminal. Police are investigating a 1998 murder of a local lawyer and her husband. They are seeking Dunphy's interviews because they believe the convicted criminal to be involved in the murder, The Hamilton Spectator reported.

January 19, 2006
Original alert: December 23, 2005

Klem Ofuokwu, Rhythm 93.7 FM
Cleopatra Taiwo, Rhythm 93.7 FM
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION

On January 3, two radio journalists were released from prison after paying bail in the southern city of Port Harcourt. Ofuokwu and Taiwo, both of whom work for the private radio station Rhythm 93.7 FM, were jailed on December 23, 2005 over a report aired by their station that a local bridge had collapsed.

New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the politicized prosecution of Cambodian journalists and calls on Prime Minister Hun Sen to drop all criminal defamation charges against Mom Sonando, Kem Sokha, and Pa Guon Tieng. The prime minister ordered the men released on bail Tuesday to coincide with a visit by U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill but his government has made clear that it intends to prosecute them.

New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today that Voice of the People (VOP), an independent Zimbabwean news production company, remains inactive after police confiscated its equipment and files in a December raid. Authorities have continued to hold VOP material for more than a month.

VOP Director John Masuku appeared in court on Friday. He is accused of violating the Broadcasting Services Act, which prohibits the possession or use of radio transmission equipment without a license. Masuku could face up to two years in prison if found guilty. The state-owned newspaper The Herald said Masuku's next court appearance is scheduled for March 30.

New York, January 18, 2006—Hundreds of members of the radical pro-government Young Patriots militia seized control of the state television and radio broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) today, broadcasting calls for protests against the French and U.N. presence in the country, according to local sources. They were also said to ransack a community radio station that refused to allow them on the air.

The Young Patriots, who are loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo, had surrounded RTI's headquarters on Monday in an effort to gain access to its studios, according to the sources. The militia members finally succeeded this morning, despite the presence of government security forces. Those sources said the security forces did not appear to make any effort to halt the Young Patriots. Independent observers consider RTI a public service broadcaster with a professional news operation.

New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a recent series of criminal cases against the Moroccan press, including criminal prosecutions of newspaper editors and the imposition of excessive fines on independent publications. Three journalists face possible imprisonment as a direct result of news or opinions published in their weeklies.

Abdelaziz Koukas, publisher and editor of the independent weekly al-Ousbouia al-Jadida, faces three to five years in prison and a fine up to 100,000 dirhams (US$11,000) for defaming the monarchy under Article 41 of the Press and Publication Law 2002. The weekly also faces possible closure as a result of the trial, which is set to begin March 14. The charges stem from an interview with Nadia Yassin, daughter of Sheikh Abd al-Islam Yassin, head of the outlawed Islamist organization Justice and Charity, which the weekly published in early June 2005. Yassin criticized the monarchial system and stated that Morocco should become a republic. It is a constitutional offense to criticize the monarchy or to advocate a different system of government.

JANUARY 17, 2006
Posted February 1, 2006

Concepción Rodríguez Parra, Radio Lobo
ATTACKED

Rodríguez, who works for "En la mira," a weekly program on Radio Lobo that criticizes local authorities, was attacked by unidentified assailants in the southern state of Veracruz.

New York, January 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the well-being of dissident Internet writer Yang Tongyan (commonly known as Yang Tianshui), who was detained by plainclothes police in Nanjing late last month. Yang's family has not been informed of any details of his case, including where he is being held or whether he has been formally arrested, according to CPJ sources. Yang has been denied access to a lawyer.

New York, January 17, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists today called the jailing of a Polish journalist for criminal libel an affront to Polish democracy and called on the Polish president to pardon him.

"Poland is now part of democratic Europe and democracies do not jail journalists for criticizing officials," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "We condemn the jailing of Andrzej Marek and call on President Kaczynski to pardon him immediately. We also call on the Polish authorities to decriminalize libel and leave redress for defamation to the civil courts as in established democracies."

New York, January 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by news today that Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a restrictive bill regulating the work of nongovernmental organizations, including those dedicated to promoting press freedom and supporting independent media.

Putin signed the bill on January 10, but news of his action was not made public until today when the Moscow-based state daily Rossiskaya Gazeta published the full text of the legislation.

New York, January 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by a report today that kidnappers in Iraq have threatened to kill U.S. reporter Jill Carroll if the United States does not free all female Iraqi prisoners within 72 hours.

The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera aired a 20-second video in which a pale and tired-looking Carroll is shown speaking to the camera, but her voice is not heard. The station said the kidnappers' demand was made in a statement that accompanied the video. Al-Jazeera did not disclose how it received the video and statement, but a producer told The Associated Press that no group's name was attached to them.

New York, January 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of two Iraqi journalists detained by the U.S. military without charge for several months, but calls again for U.S. officials to specify charges against at least three other journalists still in custody or to release the detainees at once. Two journalists are still held without charge in Iraq, and one is imprisoned at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

JANUARY 15, 2006
Posted: March 8, 2006

Bonaventure Bizumuremyi, Umuco
ATTACKED

Four unidentified intruders carrying clubs and knives came to the Kigali home of Bizumuremyi, editor of one of Rwanda’s few independent newspapers, Umuco. CPJ sources said the intruders broke the door, awakening neighbors who intervened before the intruders could get inside. Bizumuremyi, who had been asleep inside, summoned police. Police said they would investigate, according to the local human rights organization Ligue des Grands Lacs.

January 14, 2006

Radio Las Anod
CENSORED
Faysal Jama' Adan, Radio Las Anod
Jamal Suleyman Warsame, Radio Las Anod
HARASSED

Police closed Radio Las Anod, arresting director Adan, editor Warsame, and an unidentified technician, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and local news media monitored by the BBC. NUSOJ quoted the local police commander, Col. Ali Qase, as saying that the order came from regional authorities, although he did not know the reason.

New York, January 13, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the closure of Radio Mwangaza, a community station in the northern Congolese city of Kisangani, which has aired programs criticizing local authorities.

Court officials sealed its studios on January 11 in a dispute over alleged non-payment of music royalties, station director Jean-Pierre Lifoli told CPJ. Local press freedom groups said they believed the station, which was set up with French and Canadian support, has been targeted for its critical programming.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to refrain from signing a bill before you that threatens freedom of the press and free expression by imposing harsh penalties for defamation. As you know, Prime Minister Mari bim Altakiri approved on December 6, 2005, a bill revising the penal code, which had been passed by the National Parliament. The penal code revisions now before you allow for up to three years imprisonment and unlimited fines for publishing statements deemed defamatory of public officials.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrests and detentions of Cambodian journalists Mam Sonando, Hang Sakhorn, and Pa Guon Tieng. These detentions come as Cambodia wages an alarming campaign to stifle the voices of numerous government critics and human rights activists. In the cases of the three journalists, your government resorted to charges of criminal defamation to justify imprisonment.

JANUARY 13, 2006
Posted: January 20, 2006

Mogi News
ATTACKED

Unidentified assailants hurled a percussion grenade at the premises of the daily newspaper Mogi News in the city of Mogi das Cruzes, state of São Paulo. No injuries or damage were reported.

CPJ Update The Committee to Protect Journalists January 13, 2006

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is disappointed that a special prosecutor has not been appointed to investigate crimes against free expression despite your pledge to seek the position in response to a wave of murderous violence against the media in northern Mexico.

New York, January 12, 2006—The top prosecutor in the Kyrgyzstani capital, Bishkek, said today he had issued formal warnings to two newspaper editors and may take legal action against them for allegedly slandering President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, according to press reports.

"Recently some media have published articles distributing unreliable information, some of it slanderous with regard to the character of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, affecting his honor [and] dignity and undermining his reputation," Prosecutor General Uchkun Karimov said at a press conference in Bishkek. His comments were reported by the independent AKI Press news agency and other news organizations.

New York, January 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the imminent jailing of Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Wiesci Polickie in the northwestern town of Police. Convicted of libeling a local official in articles published in 2001, Marek is due to begin serving a three-month sentence on Monday, according to CPJ sources.

 UPDATE 

November 1, 2006
Original Case: October 23, 2006

Fahad Mohammed Abukar, Warsan Radio
Mohammed Adawe Adam, Radio Shabelle
Muktar Mohammed Atosh, HornAfrik Radio

New York, January 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the authorities in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region to overturn the conviction and 30-year prison sentence handed down to Kurdish writer Kamal Karim for defamation.

Karim, whose name is also given as Kamal Sayid Qadir, was convicted by a state security court in the city of Arbil after a one-hour-long trial on December 19, 2005 of defaming public institutions. Karim, 48, is an Austrian citizen. He has been in detention since he was arrested on October 26, 2005 in Arbil by the Parastin, the security intelligence service of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

DECEMBER 15, 2005—JANUARY 5, 6, 2006

Yarl Thinakkurl
Joy Jeyakumar, Veerakesari
Namathu Eelanaadu
HARASSED

The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance said Tamil journalists were targeted several times for official harassment. The claims came at a time of rising tensions between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatist groups.

Update: JANUARY 10, 2006
Original Alert: October 17, 2005

Babacar Touré, Sud group
Abdoulaye Ndiaga Sylla, Sud-Quotidien
Madior Fall, Sud-Quotidien
Oumar Diouf Fall, Sud FM
Ndeye Fatou Sy, Sud FM
Ibrahima Gassama, Sud FM

December 28, 2005

Radio Kasumai
CENSORED

Police entered the studios of Radio Kasumai, a community radio station in the northern town of Saõ Domingos, and ordered employees to stop broadcasting. The police also threatened several journalists. According to local journalists, the threats stemmed from a recent program in which callers complained on-air that police were illegally extorting money from local residents.

Building reform on the foundation of a free press By Joel Campagna An Arabic version of this article appeared in Elaph.com on September 10, 2005.

New York, January 10, 2006—Police have seized the entire print run of Belarus' largest opposition daily for the second time this month, the paper said today. Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), which has been harassed by authorities for criticizing President Aleksandr Lukashenko, lost all 30,000 copies on January 9.

The paper has been forced to print in the Russian city of Smolensk since October 2005 when local companies refused to print it on what Narodnaya Volya said were the orders of the Information Ministry. Border police in the northeastern Vitebsk region confiscated a shipment of 27,000 copies from Russia on January 3. The police released them a day later.

New York, January 10, 2006—Three ethnic Chechens charged in connection with the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov went on trial today in a Moscow court that was closed to the public, according to local and international press reports.

Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev are charged with killing Klebnikov, an American journalist of Russian descent. They are also charged with a series of other crimes, including contract killings, extortion, robbery, and membership in a criminal gang. The third defendant, Fail Sadretdinov, is charged with leading the gang.

New York, January 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in India's northeastern state of Assam to fully investigate the death of Prahlad Goala, who was apparently murdered on January 6. Goala had recently written a series of articles on corruption in the Assamese-language daily Asomiya Khabar that linked local forestry service officials to timber smuggling.

Local journalists told CPJ police arrested forest warden Zamman Jinnah in connection with the death. He was released on bail. Two other suspects, who are not forestry service employees, are still being held by police, the local journalists added.

New York, January 10, 2006—Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid has instructed military officials to open a criminal inquiry after a Zurich-based weekly SonntagsBlick published a confidential document about purported CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, according to international press reports.

Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Blaise Defago said on Monday that Schmid "ordered an investigation into how this secret document became public" and may take legal action against SonntagsBlick for publishing the document in violation of Swiss law, The Associated Press reported.

CPJ Update November 2006 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

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13 Confirmed cases of journalists killed in Iraq by U.S. Forces (March 2003-August 2005)

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the lack of progress in the investigation into the June 2004 disappearance of journalist Maksim Maksimov in St. Petersburg. Maksimov, 41, an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg weekly magazine Gorod, was last seen on June 29, 2004, when he went to meet with a source in the city's downtown district, the business daily Kommersant reported.

New York, January 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the abduction of U.S. reporter Jill Carroll in Baghdad, and the murder of her Iraqi interpreter. Carroll, a freelancer on assignment in Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor, was seized on January 7 by unidentified gunmen in the Adil neighborhood of western Baghdad with her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, the newspaper reported today.

New York, January 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Chinese authorities for censoring well-known blogger Zhao Jing, and is alarmed by Microsoft's agreement to pull down his site.

Zhao, whose online pen name is An Ti, lost his site on the U.S. company's hosting service MSN Spaces on December 30 after he wrote about the government's removal of top editors at the Beijing News, and a highly unusual strike by journalists at the paper in protest at the dismissals, according to The New York Times.

New York, January 6, 2006 ­ The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a decision by the Paraguayan Supreme Court of Justice to uphold the criminal defamation conviction of Aldo Zuccolillo, director of the Paraguayan daily ABC Color.

The Court ordered Zuccolillo on December 28, 2005 to pay a fine of 1.3 billion guaraníes (US$ 200,000), the Asunción-based ABC Color reported. Zuccolillo faces 18 lawsuits over articles his newspaper has published in recent years on official corruption.

New York, January 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by the failure of the Pakistani authorities to respond to inquiries about the fate of journalist Hayatullah Khan more than a month after he was seized by unidentified gunmen in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Family and colleagues have had no word of Khan since his abduction on December 5. Some colleagues suspect he was detained by the authorities after contradicting a government report on the killing of an al-Qaeda commander.

New York, January 5, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continuing prosecution of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, whose case has been handed by investigators to state prosecutors. This increases the likelihood that Ching will be charged with spying for Taiwan, his wife Mary Lau told CPJ. The investigation period for his case ended on December 30.

Ching, China correspondent for the Singapore-based daily The Straits Times, has been held since April 22, 2005 in Beijing without charge or defense counsel. He was detained while seeking transcripts of interviews with ousted former leader Zhao Ziyang, Lau said. Zhao spent 15 years under house arrest for opposing the military crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

New York, January 5, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest on criminal defamation charges of Cambodian journalist and human rights activist Pa Guon Tieng. Border police arrested Pa and two of his associates on January 4 while they were reporting in northeastern Stung Treng province, the Cambodia Center for Human Rights (CCHR) said.

Pa produces a popular call-in radio program for CCHR called "Voice of Democracy."

TEMPLATE

Nueva York, 4 de enero del 2006--El Comité para la Protección de Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) está preocupado por una acusación de censura gubernamental de un prominente periodista argentino cuyo programa de radio fue abruptamente sacado del aire. José "Pepe" Eliaschev señaló al CPJ que la emisora estatal Radio Nacional le informó el 30 de diciembre que su contrato no sería renovado en enero y que su ciclo "Esto Que Pasa" sería levantado.

Nueva York, 4 de enero del 2006--El Comité para la Protección de Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) está preocupado por una acusación de censura gubernamental de un prominente periodista argentino cuyo programa de radio fue abruptamente sacado del aire. José "Pepe" Eliaschev señaló al CPJ que la emisora estatal Radio Nacional le informó el 30 de diciembre que su contrato no sería renovado en enero y que su ciclo "Esto Que Pasa" sería levantado.

New York, January 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by an allegation of government censorship by a prominent Argentine journalist whose radio show was abruptly taken off air. José "Pepe" Eliaschev told CPJ that government- controlled Radio Nacional informed him on December 30 that his contract would not be renewed on January 1 and that his show "Esto Que Pasa" was canceled.

"The station's director Mona Moncalvillo said that she received orders from people above her, meaning the government," Eliaschev said.

New York, January 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by an arson attack on private Cameroonian radio station Freedom FM. Fire broke out in the building housing the station on Tuesday evening, according to Freedom FM's founder Pius Njawe, who received CPJ's International Press Freedom Award in 1991.

He told CPJ that police opened an investigation into the blaze, which started in a stairwell leading to the station's 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) rooftop antenna. The fire damaged the base of the transmitter. Police took away a gasoline can found at the scene.

New York, January 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of journalist Jiang Weiping, who has been jailed for five years for writing about corruption in his home province of Liaoning. CPJ honored Jiang in 2001 with an International Press Freedom Award.

"In the four years since we honored Jiang Weiping for his courage, we have campaigned actively for his release," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "While we welcome Jiang's release his detention shows the arbitrariness of the Chinese criminal justice system. Jiang did his country a great service by exposing corruption for which he paid with five years of his life. We call on the Chinese to stop imprisoning journalists for their work and to release those who remain behind bars."

New York, January 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that the Belarusian prosecutor's office has suspended an investigation of the murder of journalist Veronika Cherkasova. Local and international press reports said the authorities shelved the case on December 28 for lack of suspects. The authorities did not examine whether Cherkasova was stabbed to death in October 2004 because of her writing.

CPJ Update June 16, 2006 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists