Alerts

New York, July 17, 2002—Haitian broadcast journalist Israel Jacky Cantave and his cousin, who went missing on July 15, were found tied and blindfolded by last night on the side of a road.

Cantave, who is known for his in-depth reports on sensitive issues, works for Radio Caraïbes, which is based in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

From the hospital where both men were taken, Cantave, 28, gave the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) an account of what happened to him and his cousin, Frantz Ambroise, after they left the radio station on Monday night.

New York, July 17, 2002—Zimbabwe's High Court has suspended government orders to deport Andrew Meldrum, a U.S. citizen and the Zimbabwe correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper, and referred the case to the Supreme Court.

Meldrum was served with two deportation orders on July 15, just minutes after being acquitted of "publishing false information" and "abusing journalistic privileges" for a Guardian article about a story in Zimbabwe's independent Daily News. The Daily News story, which the paper later retracted, alleged that young members of the ruling ZANU-PF party had beheaded an opposition supporter.  [see Special Report].

New York, July 16, 2002—Haitian broadcast journalist Israel Jacky Cantave has been missing since last night, and colleagues said that they fear he has been kidnapped in reprisal for his reporting.

Guyler C. Delva, head of the Haitian Journalists Association told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Cantave, who covers a range of sensitive issues for Radio Caraïbes, left his radio station in Port-au-Prince with his cousin Frantz Ambroise after finishing the 10 p.m. newscast on Monday.

New York, July 16, 2002—In the latest instance of Kazakhstan's official harassment of independent and opposition journalists, a prominent journalist has been charged with defaming Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Sergei Duvanov, who writes for several Web sites financed by Kazakhstan's political opposition, was summoned to the Almaty office of the National Security Committee (KNB, successor to the KGB) on the morning of July 9, according to international and Kazakh news reports.

July 15, 2002 Monday 9:04 AM Eastern Time


By KATHY GANNON; Associated Press Writer

HYDERABAD, Pakistan

The British-born Islamic militant accused of masterminding the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was convicted Monday and sentenced to death by hanging. Three accomplices were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Pakistani authorities braced for a violent reaction by Islamic extremists, already angry over President Pervez Musharraf's support for the United States in the war against terrorism. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad went on a "heightened state of security readiness" after the verdict, spokesman John Kincannon said. "We'll see who will die first, me or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me," the defendant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, said in a statement read to reporters by his lawyers.