Alerts

New York, February 28, 2002—Police and state security agents yesterday attacked Reuters journalists Alfredo Tedeschi and Andrew Cawthorne with batons while they covered an incident in front of the Mexican embassy in Havana.

A group of Cuban citizens used a bus to crash into the gates of the embassy in hopes of seeking asylum, according to international news reports.

Police chased, beat, and detained several onlookers who had congregated outside the embassy. Two Reuters journalists were caught in the fray: Tedeschi, a cameraman, was beaten to the ground by police, and his camera was taken. Cawthorne, Reuters' Cuba correspondent, was beaten on the arm and back.

New York, February 28, 2002—Four radio stations were attacked and destroyed on February 23 as violence erupted over disputed presidential election results.

Supporters of President Didier Ratsiraka allegedly attacked the offices of the Madagascar Broadcasting Service's (MBS) radio station in Fianarantsoa, some 90 miles south of the capital, Antananarivo. The station's facilities were set ablaze, seriously injuring three security guards.

Bangkok, February 25, 2002— Thai immigration authorities have ordered the expulsion of two foreign correspondents for the Hong Kong­based Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine on the grounds that they are a threat to national security.

Shawn Crispin, the magazine's bureau chief, and correspondent Rodney Tasker, who is also president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, received an official notice revoking their visas dated February 22, the same day that Thai-language newspapers carried stories saying that the police had placed the two reporters on a so-called blacklist.

Dear Little Pearl:

By the time you read these words, God willing, you will not be a "Little Pearl" anymore. As I write these words, you are not yet born. It is March and you are due in May.

Last weekend President Bush mentioned you at the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club. The 117-year-old organization of Washington-based newspaper reporters and columnists invites our nation's president and Cabinet to a dinner each year so we can make fun of each other with songs and dance. This year Bush broke with tradition to ask us to do one serious thing.

New York February 21, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the destruction of a Palestinian broadcasting facility in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces today. Early this morning in the Gaza city of Al-Shijaieh, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops entered a two-story building that houses offices and studios used by the Palestinian National Authority's broadcast outlets, Voice of Palestine radio (VOP) and Palestine Television.

New York February 21, 2002--The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the destruction of a Palestinian broadcasting facility in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces today. Early this morning in the Gaza city of Al-Shijaieh, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops entered a two-story building that houses offices and studios used by the Palestinian National Authority's broadcast outlets, Voice of Palestine radio (VOP) and Palestine Television.

New York, February 20, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed at subpoenas recently served to several Mexican and American journalists. All of them were ordered to hand over material related to 1999 news articles about the Hank family of Mexico, which has been linked to drug trafficking activities.

On February 22, a U.S. District Court will hear a motion to quash the subpoena served to Dolia Estévez, the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Mexican daily El Financiero.

New York, February 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores the suspended prison sentences and fines imposed last week on two journalists from the weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire.

On February 14, a Casablanca court of appeals convicted Abou Bakr Jamai, publications director of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, and Ali Ammar, the newspaper's general director, of defaming Foreign Minister Muhammed Ben Aissa.

New York, New York, February 14, 2002--CPJ delivered nearly 600 petitions to Chinese president Jiang Zemin today calling for the release of journalist Jiang Weiping, a recipient of CPJ's 2001 International Press Freedom Award. The petitions urge President Jiang to "release Jiang Weiping and other jailed Chinese journalists immediately and unconditionally, and to uphold the rights of all journalists to work freely and safely."

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.