August 2009

New York, August 31, 2009--A magistrate in Zambia issued a summons today for the entire editorial staff of the southern African country's largest independent newspaper to appear in court on Wednesday on contempt charges, according to local journalists and news reports. The ruling was prompted by an op-ed commenting on the prosecution of the paper's news editor. 

New York, August 31, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists announced today that it will honor imprisoned Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam with a 2009 International Press Freedom Award. Tissainayagam, left, sentenced today to 20 years in prison on specious charges of violating anti-terror laws, is one of five journalists who will be honored by CPJ at a ceremony in November. The full slate of awardees, selected by CPJ's Board of Directors this summer, will be formally announced in September. 

As Col. Muammar Qaddafi, 67, celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ascent to power this week, it is unlikely that any of the numerous international guests will venture to ask the Libyan dictator or his aides what happened to journalist Abdullah Ali al-Sanussi al-Darrat after his arbitrary arrest 36 years ago. Al-Darrat, a journalist and writer from Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, vanished following his detention without trial in 1973, according to international human rights groups and the Western Europe-based Libyan League for Human Rights.

A Supreme Court decision to allow a change of venue in the trial of three suspects accused of murdering journalist Dennis Cuesta, at left, in August 2008 sets a hopeful precedent in the fight against impunity in media killings in the Philippines. The decision was granted in mid-July and press freedom groups tracking the case learned about the ruling on August 28. 

New York, August 28, 2009--A Ugandan newspaper's critical caricature of President Yoweri Museveni led police to interrogate three journalists today on allegations of sedition, according to a defense attorney and local journalists. 

No doubt Stars and Stripes is a Pentagon-authorized newspaper. But no one should doubt the daily's editorial independence from the Defense Department. This week Stars and Stripes beat the rest of the press pack in breaking a story that not only made Defense Department officials uncomfortable, but that compelled veteran Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman to say he would look into the matter.

For the second time in less than a month, the lead federal investigator in the case of a journalist murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, has been shot and killed in the streets of that city, according to news accounts. The second investigator, Pablo Pasillas Fong, was shot 13 times on August 26, according to the reports.

New York, August 28, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the conditions in which dozens of Iranian journalists are being held and is concerned about the health of many of them, particularly that of Ahmad Zaid-Abadi. The columnist, who worked for Rooz Online, a Farsi and English-language reformist news Web site, was arrested in mid-June after the contested presidential election.

On July 31, 2009, Judge Dácio Vieira of the Federal District Court in Brasilia banned the Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo and its Web site Estadão from publishing reports on an corruption scandal involving the family of former Brazilian President José Sarney, according to local news reports.

New York, August 27, 2009--Azerbaijani authorities should drop all charges against video bloggers who satirized the government, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

On July 16, 2009, police detained freelance photographer Antônio Carlos Argemi while he was covering a protest outside the home of Rio Grande do Sul Governor Yeda Crusius in Porto Alegre, 834 miles (1,342 kilometers) southwest of Brasilia.

Suspected militants fired at two low-flying military helicopters in Basilan province in the southern Philippines on August 16, 2009, injuring two journalists who were on board, according to local and international reports. The militants were thought to belong to the Abu Sayyaf Group, which is allegedly linked to Al-Qaida.

New York, August 26, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Taraz Regional Court in southern Kazakhstan to overturn on appeal a jail sentence given to Ramazan Yesergepov, the editor of the independent Almaty-based weekly Alma-Ata Info. 

New York, August 26, 2009--Two Ethiopian journalists were thrown in prison on Monday after a judge convicted them under an obsolete press law in connection with coverage of sensitive topics dating back several years, according to local journalists and news reports.

PBS's "Wide Angle" aired "Eyes of the Storm" last week, a documentary on Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath. Like Anders Ostergaard's recent film "Burma VJ" on citizen reporters during the monk-led protests in 2007, which we wrote about in April, "Wide Angle" contrasts independent reports filmed at great risk with the junta's state media claims that aid was under control. 

New York, August 25, 2009--Four journalists from Uganda's largest independent newspaper are facing criminal prosecutions, joining four others already charged since 2007, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, August 25, 2009--The fourth session of the mass trial of more than 100 opposition figures, including journalists, took place in Tehran today. The Committee to Protect Journalists is particularly dismayed by procedural irregularities and the fact that the trial is only open to state-owned media. 

New York, August 25, 2009--Masked assailants on Monday stormed a radio station and a television outlet critical of the country's interim government, forcing the broadcasters off the air in the latest attack on the Honduran media. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Honduran authorities to ensure that all journalists can work safely in an increasingly polarized and violent environment.

New York, August 24, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for an end to an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in Somaliland.

New York, August 24, 2009--Following the brutal murder on Sunday of radio journalist Bruno Koko Chirambiza in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo--the third journalist to be slain in the restive region since 2007--the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Congolese authorities to end the alarming pattern of impunity in journalist murders.

New York, August 24, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Mauritanian court's decision to sentence an online editor to six months in prison.

New York, August 24, 2009--Authorities in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions must immediately investigate today's murder of Afghan journalist Janullah Hashimzada, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

The government's cruel treatment of Tunisian journalist Abdallah Zouari came to an end on August 1, a reminder that even the most autocratic regimes will yield to international pressure for press freedom. Zouari, a former reporter for the now-defunct Islamic weekly Al-Fajr, had been forced to live under a form of house arrest since his release from prison in 2002 following an 11-year term. Living under what was called "administrative control," Zouari was subjected to strict police surveillance and forced to reside in the suburbs of the southern city of Zarzis, hundreds of miles from his family. No more.

Ahead of the first anniversary on Sunday, August 23, of the kidnapping in Mogadishu of Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan we issued the following statement today on behalf of the families of the two journalists...

On August 15, Caracas authorities arrested Gabriel Uzcátegui in connection with a violent attack against a dozen local journalists who were protesting an education bill that critics fear will restrict press freedom in Venezuela. Uzcátegui is an employee of the government-owned broadcaster AvilaTV, the national daily EL Nacional reported.

New York, August 21, 2009--Prosecutors in Abakan, the capital of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, should drop their defamation charges against online editor Mikhail Afanasyev, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The charges are tied to a blog entry about Monday's explosion at Russia's largest hydroelectric plant that killed dozens of workers, according to news reports.

This week, CPJ's Shawn W. Crispin examined the incredible risks and challenges confronting witnesses to journalist murders in the Philippines. Crispin's report, "Under Oath, Under Threat," featured Bob Flores, a man who has demonstrated extraordinary courage in identifying a gunman in the slaying of radio journalist Dennis Cuesta. Crispin and I had met Flores earlier this year in Manila, and we came away both inspired and determined to highlight the issue of witness intimidation in the Philippines.

New York, August 20, 2009--Security forces obstructed, assaulted, and detained Afghan and foreign journalists in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan today, enforcing an official gag order on news of violent incidents during the presidential election. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai told the press that information about attacks would discourage voter turnout. 

CPJ spoke with three Kabul-based journalists to learn how they and their colleagues around the country responded to the government's request to mute coverage of violence during polling hours today.

"When we were in that car and he was pointing that gun at us ... I thought, 'We're done. We're not getting out of here alive.'"

August 2009

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

The shooting death last year of Radio Mindanao Network broadcaster Dennis Cuesta raised the realization among journalists here that the profession we know and love could cost us life and limb. 

In response to news that Pakistani Voice of America reporter Rahman Bunairee was released after 10 days in U.S. immigrant detention, we issued this statement...

New York, August 19, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ calls on Cameroonian authorities to reopen a private radio station shut down on Monday over a popular talk show.

About 20 paramilitary police summarily sealed the studios of Sky One Radio, based in the capital, Yaoundé, the station's president, Joseph Angoula Angoula, told CPJ. The station was accused of "recurring violations of legal and administrative regulations" of media laws, according to a statement on the Web site of Cameroon's Communications Ministry. The statement did not detail the violations.

New York, August 19, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a prison sentence given on Tuesday to the editor of a private newspaper in Niger. Abdoulaye Tiémogo, editor of the weekly Le Canard Déchaîné, has been in police custody in the capital, Niamey, since August 1. 

New York, August 19, 2009--The Afghan government should lift orders issued Tuesday for a media blackout on election-related violence during Thursday's presidential polls, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda lashed out at private broadcasters last week, accusing them of unethical reporting. The comments come in the midst of two important, ongoing developments: mounting public criticism of Museveni's policies and the government's criminal prosecutions of six journalists for their coverage.

In the Philippines, witnesses to journalist murders face extreme pressures and grave risk. The government’s protection program, while valuable, falls short of ensuring justice. By Shawn W. Crispin

In our special report “Under Oath, Under Threat,” CPJ’s Shawn Crispin examines the culture of impunity in the killings of journalists in the Philippines. Here, Crispin describes how intimidation and fear have stopped witnesses from coming forward to help put the murderers behind bars. Listen to the mp3 on the player above, or right click here to download. (2:14)  

New York, August 18, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an independent investigation into the death on Monday in a Baku prison hospital of Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, who had been in state custody since February 2007. 

New York, August 18, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the government's censorship of the daily newspaper Etemad e Melli on Monday.

A piece in the Columbia Journalism Review raised questions about CPJ's support of several bloggers in Egypt. The article draws a distinction between journalists who report facts and bloggers who deal in opinion and the promotion of causes. In a companion piece, CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney argues that in a country like Egypt, where freedom of expression is under constant assault, bloggers fill a vacuum and need our support.

New York, August 18, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalist is concerned Kenyan police are attempting to intimidate journalists at the private daily, The Star, to reveal their sources for a June 20 article that said the Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit had lost crucial files about an accused al-Qaeda member.

New York, August 17, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ousting of the board of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ) on Saturday. The syndicate was the only independent organization of its kind in Tunisia for critical journalists, providing them with syndication services among other benefits.

The Chinese government backed away on Thursday from its attempt to mandate censorship software, "Green Dam" and "Youth Escort," on personal computers, a move that was previously delayed. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official Li Yizhong denied there was ever an intention to require pre-installation of the programs on Thursday, saying the government's May announcement of its plans were misleading, according to state newspaper China Daily. 

In Zambia, the coming week will mark the anniversary of the untimely death of President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa. The late president had championed press freedom with his commitments to reform, and, with his passing, the Zambian media lost an ally. Worse, the media freedoms gained in recent years are now slipping. 

New York, August 14, 2009--In a letter addressed to the head of the Iranian judiciary, four defense lawyers protested that they were not allowed to attend the latest hearing, on August 8, in a mass trial in which more than 100 defendants, including journalists, stand accused of anti-state activities. 

New York, August 14, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a violent assault by suspected government supporters on a dozen journalists in Venezuela on Thursday. The journalists were protesting an education bill that would restrict press freedom. 

New York, August 14, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by U.S. immigration officials' decision to detain without explanation Rahman Bunairee, a Pakistani reporter for Voice of America who said he had been targeted for attack in his home country. CPJ calls on immigration officials to release Bunairee immediately and allow him to resume his work for the U.S. government-funded broadcaster.

New York, August 14, 2009--Security forces should immediately investigate today's shooting murder of TV journalist Siddique Bacha Khan in the city of Mardan in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. 

In response to news that Pakistani reporter Rahman Bunairee was detained Monday by immigration officials at Washington Dulles International Airport while trying to enter the country to accept a one-year position with Voice of America, we issued this statement...

New York, August 12, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the news that photojournalist Majid Saeedi has been released on bail in Iran, but remains concerned that he still faces charges. 

New York, August 12, 2009--Tuesday's roadside bomb attack that seriously wounded two Associated Press journalists highlights the dangers journalists face in covering the escalating conflict in Afghanistan. 

It's been more than three months since I realized one of my most important dreams by coming to the United States. Still, I never thought that I would come here as a refugee, maybe because my Iraqi dignity and pride simply wouldn't accept such an idea. 

A month ago I sat next to a cop, turned on my computer, and opened my blog. The threats were there: "My dear lydia cacho get ready to be found soon with your throat slit, your pretty head will be left outside your apartment if you think you are so brave bye."

New York, August 11, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the slaying in Dagestan today of Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, an editor known for his critical commentary, and urges Russian authorities to thoroughly probe journalism as the motive. Akhmedilov, 32, left, was shot in his car at around 1 p.m. local time on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the independent Caucasus news Web site Kavkazsky Uzel reported. 

 

On May 5, 2009, Milton Nelson Chacaguasay Flores, director and editor of the weekly publication La Verdad in the city of Machala, was released on parole after serving six months in prison on libel charges. Chacaguasay told CPJ that on June 8, 2009, he was again charged with slander and sentenced to four months in prison. He said he believed the second prison sentence was an attempt to silence his reporting on local government corruption.

Last week, the Ethiopian government tried to force private Kenyan broadcaster Nation Television (NTV) to drop a four-part exclusive report on separatist rebels in southern Ethiopia. NTV aired the first two parts of "Inside Rebel Territory: Rag-Tag Fighters of the Oromo Liberation Front," which led Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya to accuse the Nation Media Group of giving a platform to a terrorist organization, the daily Nation reported. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), whose Web site is among several authorities block in Ethiopia, is fighting for greater autonomy for the Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the south of the vast Horn of Africa nation.

A bizarre case of press censorship arose recently in Morocco when authorities seized 100,000 copies of the country's two leading newsweeklies--TelQuel and its Arabic-language sister publication, Nichane--after they published the results of a poll in which Moroccans were asked to assess their king. The odd part? Ninety-one percent of Moroccans said they found the rule of King Mohammed VI mainly "positive."

Police threatened to arrest two journalists based in Srinagar, capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, on July 10, 2009, for reporting that the family of a missing youth, Asrar Mushtaq Dar, feared he may have "disappeared" in police custody, according to a statement issued by the Kashmir Press Bureau. Dar was later found to have been murdered in a personal dispute with a friend, according to local news reports.

Journalist Shiva Oli returned to his village in Doti district, in western Nepal, on July 28, 2009, after hiding for three days following harassment for his work, according to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and other news sources. 

The notion that three American hikers could innocently wander across the border from Iraqi Kurdistan into Iran has elicited some understandable skepticism. But a statement from their friend who stayed behind in his hotel because he was ill helps explain how the situation unfolded. 

New York, August 6, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the highly politicized court verdict against six independent journalists today in the capital of the Gambia, Banjul. 

New York, August 6, 2009--Officials shut down the office of the Association of Iranian Journalists in Tehran on Wednesday night, just after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term, according to international news reports. 

Some Zimbabwean journalists say 2003 was the most repressive year for independent journalists. Others claim it was 2008. But no one is yet claiming it was 2009 after a recent series of positive developments for the country's media.

New York, August 5, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for the release of three Americans--one of whom is a journalist--who were arrested on July 31 in Iran. The three have been charged with illegally entering the country. 

At noon on Tuesday, Venezuelan authorities arrested pro-government activist Lina Ron and took her to Caracas' military intelligence headquarters, according to an official statement by the Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice Tarek El Aissami. Ron, a founding and very public member of the far-left political party Union Patriótica Venezolana (UPV), appeared in footage of Monday's violent attack against private broadcaster Globovisión.

In June, CPJ traveled to Ciudad Juárez to report on the extraordinary challenges that Mexican reporters face in covering the drug trade. As CPJ's Mike O'Connor noted in his report, self-censorship is rife and many critical stories are uncovered. The primary reason is impunity: Those who kill or threaten journalists know there is almost no chance they will be punished. Developments last week have reinforced the point.

In response to Russian press reports that the family of Anna Politkovskaya has appealed for further investigation into the suspected role of three men in her murder before sending them back to court, we issued the following statement...

Roxana Saberi, who was imprisoned in Iran for nearly four months, published a statement on her personal Web site to Euna Lee and Laura Ling after their release from North Korea on Tuesday. Saberi had previously expressed her support for the two imprisoned journalists in an interview with CPJ on June 9.

In Niger today, the government is holding a public referendum on a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for President Mamadou Tandja to run for office indefinitely. It would also further increase the former army colonel's control over the press. Tandja, at left, has charged ahead with the referendum despite overwhelming public opposition after he dissolved a resistant constitutional court and the National Assembly.

New York, August 4, 2009--Five journalists have been released in Iran, including one on Monday who had been held for a year. The other four were picked up in the crackdown following the June 12 elections.

New York, August 4, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes media reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pardoned and ordered the release of imprisoned journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee after former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang today.

On July 26, the following headline appeared in Mexico's daily Milenio newspaper: "Canada: Will assassinated at point-blank range." Soon, similar headlines followed. The stories focused on a recent report by three Canadian investigators that sustains conclusions made by the Mexican authorities in the case of Bradley Roland Will, left, a U.S. video-journalist and activist killed in October 2006 in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The government-commissioned report has sparked controversy for echoing the findings of Mexican authorities, whose investigation has been heavily questioned by local and international human rights groups and the Will family for being politicized and riddled with irregularities.

New York, August 3, 2009--Two Nigerien editors whose weekly newspapers reported on corruption charges involving the national human rights commission have been in police custody since Saturday, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, August 3, 2009--A group of more than 30 armed pro-government militants riding motorcycles stormed the premises of private broadcaster Globovisión today and  set off tear gas, local press reports said. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack and called on authorities to provide Globovisión and its staff members the necessary protection to ensure they can report the news without fear of reprisal. 

Like many radio listeners in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I tune to Radio France Internationale (RFI) on 93.4 FM or 105 FM. But beginning on July 24, the frequencies carried nothing but static. It was no accident. Media reports quoted government spokesman Lambert Mende as declaring a ban on RFI broadcasts.

Responding to reports that journalists were among the more than 100 defendants put on trial in Iran today for conspiring against the government, we issued the following statement...

We issued the following statement today in response to Venezuelan Minister of Housing and Public Works Diosdado Cabello's announcement that regulators have revoked the broadcast licenses of 34 private radio stations...