July 2009

While the general trend in China is toward a more open environment, there is a tendency toward "soft harassment" by police, who threaten retribution to sources and news assistants for helping foreign journalists rather than interfering directly with the journalists themselves. 

On July 22, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh once again went after journalists in an interview on the country's only state-run television station. The president made a thinly veiled threat toward six independent journalists currently facing "seditious publication" and "criminal defamation" charges in the country: "So they think they can hide behind so-called press freedom and violate the law and get away with it. They got it wrong this time. We are going to prosecute them to the letter," Jammeh said. 

The large family of Mexican radio anchorman Juan Martínez Gil gathered around his coffin in the intense tropical heat of Acapulco's main cemetery on Thursday. His brother Javier, who identified his badly beaten body on Tuesday, was the least consolable. He leaned across the coffin, his tears flowing down his face onto the dark metal. "Juanito, you were always with us. Always at my side. Now you are gone. How can I be with you?" he moaned. 

New York, July 31, 2009--Iran's official news agency claimed that a prominent filmmaker arrested Thursday has been released, but there is no independent confirmation. Two other documentarians detained at the same time remain in custody, according to international news reports.

New York, July 30, 2009--After more than a month of detention, several journalists may face trial beginning on Saturday on charges of "sending pictures to enemy media." Three documentary filmmakers were arrested today, bringing the total of journalists currently held in Iranian jails to 42, the highest count in the world.

New York, July 30, 2009--A bill by Venezuela's attorney general that punishes "press crimes" with prison terms is an unprecedented step in the crusade by President Hugo Chávez Frías' administration to curtail media freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, July 30, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities today in the Democratic Republic of Congo to lift a ban on the FM broadcasts of Radio France Internationale (RFI) across the Central African country. The government silenced the station in response to its coverage of the ongoing conflict in the east, RFI said.

New York, July 29, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects the alleged confessions by two detained Iranian photographers held incommunicado in Iran since their arrests earlier this month. The two allegedly confessed to sending pictures to the "enemy" following the country's disputed June 12 presidential elections, according to the official Iranian News Agency (IRNA).

New York, July 29, 2009--Mexican authorities found the brutally beaten body of a journalist partially buried near the southwestern resort city of Acapulco Tuesday afternoon, according to local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Mexican authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing, and to put an end to the ongoing violence against the Mexican press.

Your Majesty: On the eve of the 10th anniversary of your ascent to the throne, the Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express our disappointment with the continued use of the courts to suppress freedom of expression. International human rights groups praised Morocco around the time of your ascension to the throne for having made significant steps toward the rule of law. Unfortunately, just a few years later it was among the 10 nations worldwide where press freedom had deteriorated the most.

"Are you sure about coming back here now?" My cousin in Antananarivo was a bit hesitant about the wisdom of my plan to visit the family while the political crisis was still weighing on the daily lives of Malagasy citizens. I had not been back to my home country in nine years until this summer. Prior to that, I went back every year since I left Madagascar after high school. It may have seemed like a peculiar decision to go back when the situation was less than ideal but it was the one time when my work would allow me to stay for almost a full month.

New York, July 28, 2009--Following a vicious attack on a cameraman for the La Paz-based television network Gigavisión outside the station's offices early Saturday morning, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bolivian authorities today to thoroughly investigate and bring those responsible to justice.

New York, July 27, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the safety of Al-Jazeera staff in Yemen after an unknown caller threatened to kill the satellite broadcaster's bureau chief on Sunday. 

New York, July 27, 2009--Police in Mindanao must investigate the motive for today's shooting murder of radio journalist Godofredo Linao and pursue those responsible, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 24, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Egyptian authorities today to explain why they have detained three bloggers this week without charge.  

CPJ will be collecting signatures until July 31 on a Facebook petition in support of Maziar Bahari, Newsweek's Tehran correspondent, who is being held without charge in Iran.

A group of political supporters attacked freelance photojournalist Jay Mandal at an election rally in Nandigram, West Bengal, India, on May 5, 2009, according to news reports and the New York-based South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). 

China Daily filed an appeal on July 2, 2009, challenging the Taiwanese government's decision to revoke distribution rights of the Beijing-based English-language newspaper in Taiwan, according to international news reports. 

Dear Prime Minister: We are writing to express our serious concerns about legislation that would further restrict press freedom in Ethiopia and about an ongoing pattern of criminal prosecutions, administrative restrictions, and Internet censorship. We are concerned that these measures, which official rhetoric has publicly justified as policies to safeguard the "constitutional order," actually criminalize independent political coverage and infringe on press freedom as guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution. We call on you to use your influence to reverse this trend.

On June 3, 2009, Mexican Judge José Alberto Ciprés Sánchez sentenced Hiram Oliveros Ortiz to 16 years in prison for the 2004 murder of journalist Roberto Javier Mora García, editorial director of the Nuevo Laredo-based daily El Mañana, the paper reported. The following day, Oliveros' attorney appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of the State of Tamaulipas, according to local news reports.

Unidentified individuals harassed and attacked journalists working at the Tegucigalpa offices of the online daily Hondudiario.com three times in two weeks, according to CPJ interviews and local news reports. Though the attacks appeared to be robberies, the daily's director told CPJ he believed they were retaliation for the Hondudiario.com's reporting on corruption in the Honduran government. 

New York, July 22, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalist condemns the government's growing crackdown on the independent press in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland as September presidential elections near. 

New York, July 22, 2009--The ‎Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed the detentions of another four journalists in Iran. CPJ research shows the continuing arrests have solidified Iran's dishonorable standing as the world's leading jailer of journalists.

Dear Mr. Cabello: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by your recent announcement that regulators may revoke the concessions of 240 radio stations for failing to update their registration papers. We believe that this decision is yet another attempt by Venezuelan authorities to expand pro-government media, control the flow of information, and suppress dissent.

Social networking sites are under increasing pressure in China. Someone seems to have realized just how difficult they are to monitor when it comes to breaking news.

With elections due on August 20, pressure is mounting on Afghan journalists, and it's coming from all sides. The International Federation of Journalists helped organize a meeting in Kabul last week to draw the fractious journalists' community together; there are four or five competing organizations, all vying for recognition, dominance, and funding. In March, the donor organizations to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called on the groups to sort themselves out before they'll start sending money. In a release yesterday, the IFJ addressed both problems: attacks and abuse aimed at journalists as the elections approach and military activity increases; and the inability, so far, of journalists to organize themselves into a cohesive unit. 

Among the dozens of journalists detained in Iran is Majid Saeedi, a freelance photographer working for Getty Images. Jonathan Klein, the photo agency's co-founder and CEO, describes Saeedi as a "dedicated photojournalist" who was simply trying to document events in Iran. Below are examples of Saeedi's work, courtesy of Getty.

In response to a report by The Associated Press saying that the agency's Sri Lanka bureau chief Ravi Nessman left the country on Monday after the government refused to renew his visa, we released this statement...

On April 23, 2009, six unidentified assailants held at gunpoint Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal, host of the political program "La Luciérnaga" on national Caracol Radio, inside his home in the western city of Tuluá, reported the Cali-based daily El País. The attackers ransacked the journalist's home, stole two computers and two cell phones, according to local news reports. Álvarez and the domestic worker who was with him at the time of the attack were unharmed.

New York, July 20, 2009--Authorities in Kirkuk province must bring to justice those responsible for the 2008 murder of journalist Soran Mama Hama, at left, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on the eve of the anniversary of the reporter's slaying. 

We were only 30 on Friday: representatives of human rights organizations, a few journalists and academics, a couple of anonymous "concerned citizens." Standing on the Place de la Liberté (Freedom Square) in Brussels two blocks from the Parliament, a few meters away from a police team that had asked us to limit ourselves to a "static demonstration," we held pictures of Natalya Estemirova and roses. A few journalists--the Belgian news agency, Reuters Television, a community TV station--were filming the scene. Scores of people were walking by on their way from lunch back to office work.

I spent Sunday morning in Kabul catching up with Danish Karokhel, at left, director of Pajhwok Afghan News and (along with deputy Farida Nekzad) a 2008 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee. Pajhwok moved since the last time I was here, and with income from subscribers to its news service and grant money from NGOs, it seems stronger than ever. More than 120 staff members are now spread around the country, with new online efforts and an expanded photo service in the works. With a presidential election scheduled for August, Karokhel is in the middle of planning a training seminar on campaign coverage for his teams in Kabul and the provinces.

In a 2006 interview, Walter Cronkite recalled how the search for missing reporters in Vietnam led him to CPJ and on to Turkey. Interview by Maya Taal

New York, July 17, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists recalls Walter Cronkite, the CBS News anchor and CPJ honorary co-chairman who died today, as an instrumental leader in the international press freedom movement. Throughout CPJ's 28-year history, Cronkite was active in efforts to protect local journalists working in dangerous situations around the world.

Walter Cronkite had such a profound impact in so many ways that one might overlook an important part of his legacy--his long efforts on behalf of international press freedom and his advocacy on behalf of local journalists around the world. Cronkite was a vital participant in the launch of the Committee to Protect Journalists 28 years ago and, though his title here may have been honorary co-chairman, he was an active force throughout the years.

July marks the start of seal hunting season in Namibia, where hunters will be allowed to kill more than 90,000 seals. British journalist Jim Wickens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers filmed the event near Cape Cross Colony on Thursday morning for a British advocacy organization, Ecostorm. That is, until the journalists became the hunted.

New York, July, 17, 2009-- During a speech and sermon delivered at Tehran University today, former president and cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called for reconciliation, the release of imprisoned protesters, and an end to restrictions on the press and free speech. The Committee to Protect Journalists had this statement:

New York, July 17, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack on reporter Aweys Sheikh Nur on Wednesday by security guards during a court session in Bosaso, in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia. 

New York, July 17, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the harassment of international journalists covering this week's disputed presidential elections in Republic of Congo.

July 2009

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

My friend and colleague Iason Athanasiadis spent three weeks in an Iranian prison last month. In the ongoing roundups of journalists since the June 12 election, Iason has seen his own friends and colleagues thrown in jail, including Majid Saeedi, a freelance photographer for Getty Images. 

New York, July 16, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Yemeni court of appeals to overturn a jail sentence it handed down on Wednesday against journalist Anis Mansour from the suspended independent daily Al-Ayyam. 

New York, July 16, 2009--North Korea should grant amnesty to U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have now been jailed four months following their arrest on the North Korean-Chinese border, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 16, 2009--Distributors blocked the July 4-10 edition of The Economist from entering Thailand for an article that covered the mounting threat of lese majeste complaints to the country's Internet freedom and freedom of expression, according to a local distributor and international news reports. 

New York, July 15, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Palestinian Authority's decision today to suspend the operations of Al-Jazeera in the West Bank after the satellite channel aired a controversial interview on Tuesday. The suspension, according to a Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information statement, will remain in place until "the judiciary issues a ruling on the subject."

New York, July 15, 2009--Today's brutal murder of prominent journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, at left, in Chechnya must be thoroughly investigated immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Estemirova, 50, was abducted this morning in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as she was leaving her apartment for work, Reuters reported. She was found shot in the head and the chest in the neighboring region of Ingushetia at around 5 p.m., according to international news reports.

New York, July 15, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the arrest of Zambian journalist Chansa Kabwela on bogus charges of circulating obscene materials. 

Dear Mr. President: As Tunisia's October presidential and parliamentary elections draw closer, the Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you for the second time in four months to protest reprisals against critical journalists and their families. It is inconceivable that free and fair elections can take place in an environment in which independent media are harassed and silenced. We urge you to honor your oft-stated commitment to promote free expression, and we ask that you instruct your government to allow our colleagues to perform their work unhindered.

Your Excellency: We are writing to express our grave concern at the detention of our esteemed fellow journalist Maziar Bahari and to request his immediate release. Mr. Bahari has been detained since June 21. No charges have been brought against him, and he has not been granted access to a lawyer. As one of the most impartial and committed journalists in his field, he has reported regularly over the past decade from the Middle East, principally from Iran and Iraq, and provided consistently balanced and insightful reports. As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, he has earned global respect for his work.

As a child, I never thought about becoming a journalist. I never really felt pulled toward any particular field. I just loved to feel free and try new things, especially when it came to hard work.

New York, July 14, 2009--Colombian police have arrested a man believed to have gunned down veteran radio journalist José Everardo Aguilar in retaliation for his reporting on corruption in southwestern Cauca province. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the arrest and urges authorities to bring the masterminds to justice.

New York, July 14, 2009--The Sri Lankan government is continuing its offensive against the independent news media, blocking domestic access to a news Web site and smearing lawyers who are representing a leading newspaper.

New York, July 13, 2009--Chinese police should halt the detentions of journalists reporting on ethnic violence in Xinjiang and reveal the whereabouts of a Uighur academic and Internet commentator who is missing and reportedly detained in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 13, 2009--A group of Venezuelan journalists with the regional television network Telesur and the state-owned station Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) left Honduras on Sunday after being detained and harassed in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The Committee to Protect Journalists reiterated its call on the interim Honduran government to respect freedom of expression by allowing all media to report freely without interference. 

New York, July 13, 2009--The Iranian authorities have arrested six more journalists--cementing the country's position as the world's worst jailer of journalists--and sentenced another on Sunday to eight years in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 13, 2009--The house of a second Pakistani journalist working in the border area with Afghanistan was looted and burned on Saturday, according to the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ). The attack was similar to one carried out by Taliban militants on Thursday in the same district, which has been an area of conflict since the government launched an offensive in April. 

After hearing news that President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed into law a restrictive Internet regulation bill on Saturday, we issued the following statement today...

Dear President Biya: We are very concerned about an ongoing pattern of abuses against press freedom in Cameroon. In particular, we are alarmed by recent death threats against an editor, the recent prosecution of two others by a military tribunal, and the lengthy imprisonments of another two on libel charges. We call on you to use your influence to end practices that are undermining the free flow of information.

New York, July 10, 2009--A judge in the northern state of Pará ordered prominent Brazilian journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, at left, on Monday to pay US$15,000 in damages in a civil libel suit. The decision is part of a systematic pattern of legal harassment against Pinto, who faces more than 10 lawsuits from powerful plaintiffs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Dear Mr. President: We are writing to express our alarm at your administration's increasing restrictions on the Nigerien private press. We are concerned by the ongoing censorship of stories about the public opposition to your plans for a constitutional amendment that would scrap presidential term limits.

New York, July 10, 2009--The home of Voice of America (VOA) correspondent Rahman Bunairee in Buner district was leveled by a bomb on Thursday in what was believed to be a retaliatory attack by the Taliban, news reports said.

This week CPJ congratulated the House sponsors of a bill that would expand the breadth and depth of the State Department's annual reporting to Congress on press freedom abuses worldwide. The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act passed the House last month; now the bill is being redrafted for the Senate by the Committee on Foreign Relations. CPJ, in the July 8 letter to Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Mick Pence (R-IN), who are also co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press, urged the Senate to pass the legislation appropriately named after the late Wall Street Journal reporter.

Local police beat three photographers in two separate incidents on June 18, 2009, in India's West Bengal state. They were covering a government offensive by police and paramilitary forces trying to break a four-day siege of the Lalgarh area by Maoist insurgents, according to local news reports.

Five years after the July 9, 2004 murder of journalist Paul Klebnikov, we released the following statement...

New York, July 8, 2009--Following an assault last week on the editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Dvornik in the western city of Kaliningrad, the Committee to Protect Journalists called today on regional authorities to thoroughly investigate the attack and bring those responsible to justice. The paper has been subjected to repeated harassment and legal prosecution.

Chinese authorities have, unusually, welcomed foreign reporters to Xinjiang since ethnic rioting broke out on Sunday in Urumqi between the Uighur minority and Han Chinese. A Beijing-based agency has even offered to facilitate travel, according to one writer who blogs from Shanghai. (CPJ hasn't confirmed his story. Have any other reporters been approached in this way?) 

The ongoing political crisis following the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya on June 28 has damaged the press freedom climate in Honduras. Complying with orders by caretaker leader Roberto Micheletti, Honduran security forces shut down local broadcasters, blocked transmissions of international news networks, and briefly detained journalists in the aftermath of the coup, CPJ research shows. But part of the damage was self-inflicted: Some media outlets have slanted coverage to favor the coup leaders.

Security forces were protecting, rather than harassing, international journalists covering riots in northwestern Xinjiang this week--a welcome change. A few have reported official interference since Sunday. But during previous outbursts of ethnic unrest in China's Tibetan and Uighur autonomous regions, security forces have repeatedly antagonized and expelled the foreign press corps. Foreign reporters this week have instead been welcomed to the regional capital, Urumqi, allowed a privileged enclave of Internet access, and corralled on an official tour of the city's ravaged center. 

New York, July 7, 2009--With at least 30 journalists currently in prison, Iran replaces China as the world's worst jailer of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ called on the Iranian authorities to release all journalists who have been detained following the country's disputed June 12 presidential elections. 

New York, July 7, 2009--Authorities in northwestern Xinjiang should stop the harassment of journalists reporting on ethnic rioting and restore Internet access in the regional capital, Urumqi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

Before he even arrived in Moscow, President Barack Obama gave an exclusive interview to an independent Russian newspaper that has long been on the front lines of press freedom. Novaya Gazeta is known for its ground-breaking investigative reports--and the fact that four of its journalists have been killed in retaliation for their work.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalist urges you to end an unprecedented level of intimidation and detention of Gambian journalists by national security forces. Today marks the third anniversary of the disappearance of journalist "Chief" Ebrima Manneh--his whereabouts, health, and legal status are unknown. Manneh, a former reporter for the Daily Observer, was taken into government custody by security agents in July 2006.

Tahir Ludin, David Rohde, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, were kidnapped on November 10, 2008, after Rohde was invited to interview a Taliban commander in Logar province outside Kabul. Ludin, an Afghan journalist, was acting as Rohde's translator. Rohde was on book leave from The New York Times at the time of their abduction. According to the Times, he was working on the history of American involvement in the region.

Dear President Nazarbayev: As an independent, nonpartisan organization defending press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to veto a severely restrictive draft Internet law, which will further curb press freedom conditions in Kazakhstan and is inconsistent with your country's democratic aspirations.

New York, July 6, 2009--A criminal court has suspended a newspaper that reported on a horse-racing scandal, upholding a 2008 ruling. Its editor and publisher were also fined.

New York, July 6, 2009--An unidentified gunman shot and killed Honduran journalist Gabriel Fino Noriega on Friday in the town of San Juan Pueblo, according to local press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Honduran authorities today to conduct a thorough investigation into Noriega's killing and bring those responsible to justice.

New York, July 6, 2009--The Committee to Protect journalists is saddened by the death of Radio IQK journalist Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf who was shot twice in the stomach on Saturday in the capital, Mogadishu. Yusuf, commonly known as "Ninile," was hit by stray bullets after leaving the station in Afarta Jardin, northern Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. 

In response to reports that Iason Athanasiadis, a journalist detained in Iran since June 17, was released today we issued the following statement...

We issued the following statement in response to reports that the Gambia's High Court jailed six journalists today who were charged with sedition and criminal defamation. One of the seven journalists, a mother of a young child, was rearrested but then freed on bail...

Iason Athanasiadis is still a young man at 30, but he's an old school, shoe leather journalist. "Journalism's deepest, most honest contributions inevitably spring from on-the-ground reporting, unencumbered by policy agendas in Washington, London, or other foreign capitals," writes Sandy Tolan, author and University of Southern California journalism professor, today in Salon. "That's what epitomizes the work of my friend and colleague Iason Athanasiadis, and it's why his detention by Iranian authorities, on June 17 when trying to board a flight out of Iran, is so troubling."

Articles published in Eritrea's now-banned private newspapers are at the center of a mock political trial being filmed as an educational documentary this week at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Inside a courtroom on the sprawling Tempe, Ariz., campus, a judge of the High Court of Eritrea presides dispassionately, international observers lean into translation headphones, and defense lawyers challenge prosecutors to detail the vague antistate charges against 11 political dissidents. It's a trial that the real defendants were never afforded when they were jailed nearly eight years ago.

What is happening in Nicaragua when it comes to press freedom? A CPJ report found that President Daniel Ortega is waging a war against the media. It consists of smear campaigns, legal and economic pressures, verbal and physical attacks, and a rigorous information embargo against the critical and independent media.

New York, July 2, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects the politically motivated lese majeste charges filed on Tuesday by a private citizen against board members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT). Violations of lese majeste laws are a criminal offense in Thailand, punishable by three to 15 years in prison.

New York, July 2, 2009--At least 24 journalists remain jailed in Iran, according to the latest CPJ research, while the government has instituted a broad and intrusive censorship regime.

Minutes after I woke up to get ready for the presentation of a CPJ report on press freedom conditions in Nicaragua, I turned on the TV. Nicaragua was shaken by the sudden death of Managua's mayor, Alexis Arguello, who was found at home with a gunshot wound to his chest. Arguello, who had won three world boxing titles for Nicaragua and was considered the greatest athlete in the country's history, committed suicide, according to several local press reports. While an autopsy is pending and authorities are investigating his death, on Wednesday the government declared three days of mourning. 

New York, July 2, 2009--Nearly four months after the death of Franco-Congolese journalist Bruno Jacquet Ossébi, the Committee to Protect Journalists called today for authorities in the Republic of Congo to publicly disclose a report that was prepared weeks ago on their investigation.

On May 27, 2009, an unidentified individual threatened José Bladimir Antuna García, a reporter who covers the police beat for the Durango-based daily El Tiempo. The reporter, who has previously been threatened, told CPJ he believes the death threat is linked to his reporting on organized crime and drug trafficking.

Nicaragua’s president ignores the news media, except to harass his critics. By Carlos Lauría and Joel Simon