Alerts

New York, December 30, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened at the loss of media colleagues in the devastating tsunami that has claimed more than 100,000 lives in South Asia.

Among the hardest-hit regions was the province of Aceh in Indonesia, where the dead included journalists and media workers who have reported for years amid a violent civil war.

New York, December 30, 2004—Peruvian radio journalist Duber Maruiola Labán was released this morning, three days after being kidnapped by a group of peasants who accused him of promoting the interests of a local mining company, local police told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

More than 50 members of a peasant group kidnapped Mauriola at a friend’s house in the town of Huancabamba, Piura Department, in northwestern Peru, on Monday. The group said Mauriola’s coverage for the local radio station Centinela favored the Majaz SA copper mining company, which it alleges is polluting the environment.

New York, December 29, 2004—A stick-wielding group of peasants kidnapped Peruvian radio journalist Duber Mauriola Labán on Monday, accusing him of promoting the interests of a local mining company. Police were trying to rescue the journalist, who was still being held today by kidnappers in a remote village.

According to local press reports, more than 50 members of a peasant group kidnapped Mauriola at a friend’s house in the town of Huancabamba, Piura Department, in northwestern Peru. The peasant group says Mauriola’s coverage for the local radio station Centinela has favored the Majaz SA copper mining company, which they allege is polluting the environment.

New York, December 28, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the recent jailing of an Ethiopian journalist who was unable to pay bail in a criminal defamation case. Wosonseged Gebrekidan, former editor-in-chief of the private, Amharic-language weekly Ethiop, has been imprisoned since December 23.

Local sources said Gebrekidan was charged with defamation in connection with a March 2001 article in Ethiop about a dispute between two neighbors in the capital, Addis Ababa. The court imposed a 3,000 birr bail (US$335), which Gebrekidan has been unable to pay.

New York, December 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by Vietnamese authorities' intensifying harassment of writer Do Nam Hai. The writer, who penned articles critical of the Vietnamese government under the name Phuong Nam, fears that authorities are planning to arrest him, sources close to the journalist told CPJ.

"Vietnam's record of imprisoning dissenters and writers who question government policy, as Do Nam Hai has, is appalling," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We call on authorities to stop harassing Hai, and to respect his right to express his opinions freely."

New York, December 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the conviction and sentencing of Risang Bima Wijaya, former general manager of the Yogyakarta daily Radar Jogja, on criminal defamation charges. A judge in Yogyakarta District Court, in central Java, sentenced Wijaya to nine months in prison on December 22 for publishing libelous articles.

The court found Wijaya guilty of publishing several articles in Radar Jogja alleging that Sumadi Martono Wonohito, general manager of Kedaulatan Rakyat daily newspaper, another publication in the region, had sexually harassed a staff member, according to local and international news reports.

New York, December 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of two French journalists who had been kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq by an insurgent group for the last four months.

Al-Jazeera reported that insurgents turned over the journalists, Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of the daily Le Figaro, to the French Embassy in Baghdad today. The French Foreign Ministry confirmed that the men, who disappeared along with their Syrian driver on August 20, were released.

New York, December 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked and saddened by last night's assassination of Deyda Hydara, a veteran Gambian journalist and outspoken press freedom advocate.

Hydara, managing editor and co-owner of the independent newspaper The Point, as well as a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reporters without Borders (RSF), was shot three times in the head by unidentified assailants while he drove home from his office in the capital, Banjul. Two other staff members of The Point who were in the car with Hydara were wounded and are currently in the hospital.

New York, December 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that authorities in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia have prosecuted and convicted Yuri Bagrov, a reporter who covered the North Caucasus and Chechnya for The Associated Press (AP) until September.

The Leninsky court in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia's capital, today convicted Bagrov on criminal charges of using falsified documents to obtain Russian citizenship and fined him 15,000 rubles (US$540).

New York, December 14, 2004—Two prominent writers and defenders of imprisoned journalists in China were taken from their homes yesterday, Monday, December 13, and interrogated about articles they had written for overseas Internet sites. Liu Xiaobo and Yu Jie were released this morning after being warned to stop writing reports critical of the Chinese government.

"The detention and interrogation of Liu Xiaobo and Yu Jie demonstrates the Chinese government's willingness to target high-profile intellectuals in an effort to stem the expression of dissent," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "These two writers have not only fought to express their own ideas but have also supported other writers who are harassed, censored, and imprisoned in China."