Alerts

New York, October 10, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of two Palestinian journalists detained by Israeli authorities for five months and urges the Israeli government to release another journalist still in detention.

Youssry al-Jamal, a soundman for Reuters, was released yesterday, October 9, without charge. Israeli forces detained him in the West Bank town of Hebron on April 30 while he was filming with a colleague near the Al-Ahli Hospital. He was held the entire time without charge in administrative detention.

New York, October 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday's attack on the Taipei offices of Next (Yi Zhoukan) magazine.

At about 1 p.m. on October 6, at least 10 men stormed the Next offices in Taipei, destroying office equipment and carrying away two computers, according to Taiwanese and international news reports. Three security guards were injured when they tried to stop the assailants.

New York, October 4, 2002—An appeals court in the northern breakaway region of Cyprus yesterday released from prison two journalists with the opposition daily Afrika, according to international press reports.

On August 8, a court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) sentenced Afrika editor-in-chief Sener Levent and editor Memduh Ener to six months in prison for libeling Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in a July 1999 article titled "Who is the number one traitor?" The journalists appealed the sentence.

New York, October 4, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release late yesterday of Philippine journalists Carlo Lorenzo and Gilbert Ordiales, who were held captive for five days while reporting on the southern island of Jolo, in Sulu Province.

CPJ remains, however, deeply concerned about allegations made by Lorenzo that members of the Philippine military were responsible for their abduction and is investigating these charges.

New York, October 2, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the safety of television reporter Carlo Lorenzo and cameraman Gilbert Ordiales, who went missing on the southern island of Jolo, Sulu Province, on September 28. CPJ fears that the journalists may have been kidnapped.

Lorenzo and Ordiales, who work for GMA television broadcasters, were in Jolo to report on rebel groups in the region, according to Philippine and international news reports. The journalists were last seen after they met a group of armed men in the town of Indanan, according to an account by their driver. The driver left the group momentarily to check on his car, and when he returned, the journalists and the armed men had disappeared.

New York, October 1, 2002—Brazilian journalist Domingos Sávio Brandão Lima Júnior was murdered yesterday afternoon. Brandão was the owner, publisher, and a columnist of the daily Folha do Estado, which is based in the city of Cuiabá, in the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

Brandão, 40, was shot at least 5 times by two unidentified men on a motorcycle, according to several news reports. The two men had been waiting for Brandão near the paper's new offices, which are under construction.

New York, September 27, 2002—An Argentine federal judge has subpoenaed the phone records of Thomas Catan, the Buenos Aires correspondent for the U.K.-based Financial Times. The records could potentially reveal the journalist's sources.

On August 20, 2002, Catan, citing unnamed bankers and diplomats he interviewed, reported that Argentine legislators had solicited bribes from foreign banks operating in Argentina as a condition for stalling a bill that, among other things, sought to reinstate a 2 percent tax on interest and commissions for a failed health scheme for bank workers. The tax has been strongly opposed by foreign banks, which could reportedly lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

New York, September 26, 2002—Roddy Scott, 31, a British free-lance cameraman working for Britain's Frontline, a television news agency, was killed in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. Russian soldiers found his body earlier today in Ingushetia's Galashki region, near the border with Chechnya, following clashes between Russian forces and a group of Chechen fighters.

The cameraman had accompanied the Chechens as they crossed from Georgia into Russia, United Press International reported.

New York, September 25, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of journalists covering the ongoing military crisis in the Ivory Coast.

According to several sources in the capital, Abidjan, at least one local journalist was badly beaten by troops loyal to the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, who have been fighting mutinous soldiers variously described as rebels, foreign mercenaries, and "terrorists" by the state media.

New York, September 20, 2002—Brazilian police yesterday captured a local drug trafficker who was the leading suspect in the disappearance and murder of prominent journalist Tim Lopes.

Elias Pereira da Silva, also known as Elias the Madman, was apprehended in one of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, or shantytowns, after a two-day search. In early August, several members of his gang, who were charged with murdering the journalist, were arrested or killed in a shootout with the police.