Statements

New York, November 2, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by today's firebomb attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the disabling of its website by unknown hackers. The attacks appear to be in retaliation for the paper's spoof edition, "guest edited" by the Prophet Muhammad.

New York, October 13, 2011--As a court in Tajikistan prepares to issue verdicts in the politicized criminal prosecutions of BBC correspondent Urinboy Usmonov, and Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the independent weekly Nuri Zindagi, the Committee to Protect Journalists is demanding justice.

New York, October 7, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is delighted that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to renowned Yemeni press freedom activist Tawakul Karman, Chairwoman of Women Journalists Without Chains, along with two other female leaders.

New York, October 7, 2011--Five years after the brutal assassination of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to prosecute the masterminds of her killing and end impunity in the murder of journalists.

New York, September 21, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the news that U.S. journalist Shane Bauer and his friend Josh Fattal were released today on US$1 million bail by the Iranian government after two years in Tehran's Evin Prison, according to news reports.

New York, September 20, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by an Ecuadoran appeals court ruling today upholding a criminal libel conviction against four El Universo newspaper managers in a case brought by President Rafael Correa. 

New York, September 19, 2011--Yemeni journalist Hassan al-Wadhaf, a cameraman for the Arabic Media Agency, is in critical condition after being hit in the face by sniper fire while covering protests today in Sana'a, a colleague told CPJ.

New York, August 25, 2011--Ali Ferzat, a famous Syrian cartoonist critical of the government, was abducted and severely beaten by masked gunmen as he left his office early on Thursday in Damascus, international media reported. The attackers stomped on his hands and said the beating was a warning, the Associated Press said. He was dumped bleeding on a roadside several hours later.

New York, August 24, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the news that U.S. journalist Matthew VanDyke escaped with several inmates from Abu Salim prison in Tripoli today. VanDyke's mother told CPJ that he called her with the news of his escape and that he is safe and in good spirits. He also told his mother that he had been kept in solitary confinement for much of his imprisonment. It was not clear whether the prison was now controlled by rebels.

New York, August 24, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the kidnappers of four Italian journalists seized in Tripoli today to release them immediately.