Alerts

New York, May 8, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Monday, May 6, confiscation of the intellectual and political magazine Wijhat Nadhar.

Wijhat Nadhar editor El-Mostafa Soulaih told CPJ that staff contacted him from Al-Najah al-Jadidah printing press in Casablanca and told him that agents from the secret service, the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST), had taken all 8,000 copies of the magazine, which was set for distribution on Tuesday, May 7.

New York, May 8, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by yesterday's decision of the Appeals Board of the Supreme Court to reinstate a Defense Ministry decree that was used to convict and jail Russian journalist Grigory Pasko.

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

New York, May 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the Chilean government's recent pledge to reform Chile's onerous criminal defamation laws.

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, government spokesman Heraldo Muñoz announced that the government would present a proposal to the Chamber of Deputies to achieve "the decriminalization of crimes of opinion ... and look to modify the concept of disrespect as well as deal with the crimes of libel and slander to take out any reference to freedom of expression and freedom of the press and opinion," according to a press release.

New York, May 7, 2002—A judge today dismissed charges of "abusing journalistic privileges" and "publishing false information" against Collin Chiwanza, reporter for the independent Daily News, citing lack of evidence.

Chiwanza appeared in court with fellow Daily News journalist Lloyd Mudiwa and Andrew Meldrum, a U.S. citizen who is the Zimbabwe correspondent for the London-based The Guardian newspaper. Mudiwa and Meldrum, who face the same charges, will remain free until their trial, which is scheduled for May 22.

New York, May 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the recent passage of the National Media Commission Bill 2002, a pernicious piece of legislation that would give a state-dominated commission the right to license journalists and force reporters to reveal confidential sources.

Over the past year, Gambian journalists have made successful efforts to regulate themselves. During the run-up to last October's presidential elections, for example, the Gambia Press Union adopted a code of conduct for journalists. Partly as a result, the political coverage was some of the most balanced in the country's history.

New York, May 3, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prison sentence imposed last week on Egyptian journalist Ahmed Haridy, editor of the online daily newspaper Al Methaq Al Araby.

On April 28, Haridy was sentenced to six months in prison after the Boulak Abu al-Aila Misdemeanor Court in the capital, Cairo, found him guilty of defaming Ibrahim Nafie, editor-in-chief and chairman of Egypt's largest newspaper, the semi-official Al-Ahram.

New York, May 2, 2002--CPJ condemns the recent sentencing of Iranian reformist journalist Ahmed Zaid-Abadi, a writer for the newspaper Hamshahri, to 23 months in prison.

On April 29, The Associated Press quoted Zaid-Abadi's wife as saying that he was originally charged in August 2000 with "insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and publishing lies against the Islamic establishment for the purpose of disturbing public opinion." The charges came after he gave a series of lectures at several Iranian universities, according to a CPJ source.

New York, May 2, 2002—CPJ regrets that 15 years after the murder of Japanese journalist Tomohiro Kojiri, a reporter for the daily Asahi Shimbun, no one has been brought to justice for this crime. The statute of limitations on his case expired tonight at midnight, Tokyo time.

New York, May 2, 2002—CPJ is deeply concerned about the draft Supreme Radio and Television Board Bill currently being debated by the Turkish Parliament.
The bill was passed last year but vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in June 2001. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's government recently resubmitted the bill to Parliament.

Under the new law, Turkish broadcasters would face exorbitant fines if found to violate a wide range of Turkish laws that have historically been used to punish journalists for expressing their opinions. The fines range from 5 billion lira (about US$4,000) to 250 billion lira (about US$190,000), with a 50 percent increase for repeat offenders. Broadcasters convicted three times within a single year could have their licenses revoked.

Washington, D.C., May 2, 2002—In Senate testimony today, a CPJ representative argued that the U.S. government should never recruit journalists as spies, and that U.S. intelligence operatives should never pose as journalists.

Appearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, CPJ Washington representative Frank Smyth underscored the need to maintain an inviolate firewall between U.S. intelligence agencies and the press.