Alerts

New York, August 7, 2002—In a fresh series of actions against Cuba's independent press corps, Cuban state security agents have harassed, detained, and threatened several independent journalists during the last 10 days.

Journalist detained
Ángel Pablo Polanco, 60, director of the independent news agency Noticuba, was detained on July 30. According to Polanco's wife, at around 11:30 a.m. that morning, seven or eight plainclothes state security agents arrived at the journalist's apartment, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre.

New York, August 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the investigation ordered yesterday by a state prosecutor in Lebanon into accusations that Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), a private television station, is responsible for "inciting sectarian strife" and "disturbing general peace."

Under investigation are LBCI's news editor, Jean Feghali, and chairman, Pierre Daher. The charges for which they are being investigated carry penalties of up to three years in prison and a fine of as much as 100 million Lebanese pounds (US$66,100).

New York, August 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today confirmed that Eritrean journalist Simret Seyoum, a writer and general manager at the banned private weekly Setit, has been in Eritrean government custody since early January.

This puts the total of jailed Eritrean journalists at 14, although government sources recently acknowledged holding only "about eight" media professionals. [See CPJ's August 2 alert]

New York, August 2, 2002—During a recent fact-finding mission to Eritrea, a presidential official told a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that eight independent journalists are currently imprisoned and held incommunicado.

Although the official, presidential spokesperson Yermane Gebremesken, cited eight journalists, CPJ puts the total number of journalists jailed in Eritrea at 13.

New York, August 2, 2002—On July 31, Abdullah Keskin, a Turkish publisher charged with "separatist propaganda" for publishing a U.S. journalist's book about Turkey's Kurdish minority population, was convicted and sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, which the court converted to a fine of about US$500.

An Istanbul State Security Court ruled on Wednesday that Keskin had violated Article 8 of Turkey's Anti-Terror Law when his publishing house, Avesta, printed a Turkish edition of After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters in Kurdistan, a book about the Kurds written by retired Washington Post correspondent Jonathan Randal.

New York, August 1, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the recent attack on the office of the Tamil-language newspaper Dinamalar in Thanjavur, a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

On the afternoon of July 30, about six people armed with wood sticks charged into the Dinamalar office and began destroying equipment and furniture. They assaulted employees who attempted to stop them, and several staffers were badly injured, said a news editor at the paper.

New York, July 26, 2002—The Court Martial Board, Liberia's military court, yesterday gave the government an August 7 deadline to produce Hassan Bility, a prominent newspaper editor who has been detained incommunicado since June 24.

Bility, editor of the weekly Analyst newspaper, was arrested with two other individuals—Ansumana Kamara and Mohammed Kamara—and charged with collaborating with the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). The three have been held incommunicado since then and have not been formally charged. The rebel group has denied any connection with the detained men.