Alerts

New York, June 28, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) protests the harassment by Egyptian police of several reporters covering yesterday's runoff parliamentary elections in the northern city of Alexandria.

Egyptian police detained two journalists from U.A.E.­based Abu Dhabi TV and two others from German television channel ZDF as they tried to film at polling stations in Alexandria.

New York June 28, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter of inquiry today to Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba urgently requesting information about the status of Krishna Sen, editor of the daily Janadisha and former editor of Janadesh, both publications considered supportive of the banned Maoist rebel movement.

The government has failed to comment on widely circulated media reports that Sen, who was arrested on May 20, may have been killed while in custody. The government had accused Sen of being among the senior leaders of the Maoist movement and of commanding rebel operations in Kathmandu but has not presented its case against him in court.

Egyptian police detained two journalists from U.A.E.­based Abu Dhabi TV and two others from German television channel ZDF as they tried to film at polling stations in Alexandria.

New York, June 27, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the recent arrests of João de Barros, publisher and editor of the independent daily Correio de Bissau, and Nilson Mendonca, editor at the state-run Rádio Difusão Nacional (RDN). Both journalists have been released.

De Barros was arrested in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, on June 17, following his appearance on a talk show on the independent Radio Bombolom. During an on-air interview, de Barros said that recent rumors of coup plots against President Kumba Yala were designed to divert attention away from rampant government corruption. De Barros also called Yala's recent military threat against neighboring Gambia, which the president has accused of supporting the alleged insurgents, "pathetic."

related article: Press freedom crisis worsens in the occupied territories

New York, June 26, 2002—Six suspects accused in the October 1994 murder of Dmitry Kholodov, of the Moscow-based independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, were fully acquitted today by the Moscow Circuit Military Court. The six men were released from custody following the verdict.

The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the suspects' guilt, according to Russian and international news reports.

New York, June 26, 2002—Tajikistan's Prosecutor General's Office has dropped its criminal case against Dodojon Atovullo, editor and publisher of the Russian-language paper Chroghi Ruz. Authorities have been searching for Atovullo since May 2001, when he fled in exile to Germany.

According to a June 21 report from Interfax news agency, First Deputy Prosecutor General Azizmamad Imomov confirmed that the case against Atovullo had been thrown out and that the search for him has ended.

New York, June 25, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday's conviction of Mikola Markevich and Paval Mazheika, both of the independent weekly newspaper Pahonya.

The Leninsky District Court in the city of Hrodno, in western Belarus, found editor-in-chief Markevich and journalist Mazheika guilty of libeling President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The journalists were sentenced to two-and-a-half and two years, respectively, of hard labor.

New York, June 25, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed that the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court today upheld journalist Grigory Pasko's December 2001 conviction and prison sentence.

Pasko was convicted of treason and sentenced to four years in prison on December 25, 2001, based on the charge that he intended to leak classified information about the Russian Pacific Fleet's dumping of nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan to Japanese news outlets. He is currently serving his jail term in Vladivostok.

Washington, DC, June 24, 2002--In a round-table discussion organized by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), CPJ's Asia program coordinator Kavita Menon called for greater U.S. support for press freedom in China. "The U.S. has clear commercial and political interests in promoting greater transparency and the rule of law in China," said Menon. "The local media have increasingly played a critical role in exposing corruption and other abuses of power, and deserve the support of the international community for doing so."