Letters

Dear Minister Barak: The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to explain why you have imposed blanket restrictions on international media entering the Gaza Strip and certain areas inside Israel along the Gaza border.

Dear President Castro: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution to renew its call for the immediate and unconditional release of all journalists jailed in your country. With 21 reporters and editors unjustly incarcerated, Cuba is one of the leading jailers of journalists in the world, second only to China.

Dear Defense Minister Barak: The Committee to Protect Journalists urgently demands an explanation for the bombing of Al-Aqsa TV headquarter in Gaza City by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday. We are also dismayed by the army's decision to declare Gaza's northern boundary with Israel and other parts of the territory "closed military zones."

Dear Mr. President: We urge you to reject the recently passed Kenya Communications Amendment Bill, which includes provisions that would severely harm press freedom. Legislators approved the measure on December 10, ignoring concerns raised by journalists, media company owners, and even fellow lawmakers.

Dear President Correa: We are writing to express alarm at the imprisonment of two Ecuadoran journalists and to call for their immediate and unconditional release. Furthermore, we urge you to use the authority of your office to reform Ecuador's archaic defamation laws, which are incompatible with international standards of freedom of expression and rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Dear Minister Jamil, The Committee to Protect Journalists brings your attention to a one-month prison sentence handed down last week by the criminal court in Sulaymania in contravention of the region's new press law.

Dear Mr. Medina Mora: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by developments in the criminal investigation into the October 27, 2006, killing of U.S. journalist Bradley Roland Will in Oaxaca. The recent indictment of three protesters ignores considerable evidence indicating that pro-government gunmen were behind the killing.

Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists believes the criminal investigation of prominent journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios is politically motivated and intended to restrict critical news coverage in Nicaragua. The case undermines your government's oft-stated commitment to press freedom.

Unfounded government accusations have fueled a climate of fear, CPJ says in a letter to President Hugo Chávez Frías. ... ...

Dear President Medvedev, The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that Russia has recently denied entry to international journalists who have worked in the country regularly. We are especially concerned that Russian authorities have used a law that implies the journalists represent a threat to the country, but gives no explanation as to how.