Statements

San Francisco, May 30, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's conviction of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of the Prachatai discussion board, under Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. The court's decision, which affirms that website operators can be criminally liable for the content of user comments, chills online press freedom in the country, and leaves Thai news sites vulnerable to unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.

New York, May 3, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murders of Mexican photographers Gabriel Huge and Guillermo Luna Varela, whose bodies were found today in La Zamorana canal in Veracruz state, according to news reports.

New York, May 1, 2012--The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) must immediately and unconditionally release French journalist Roméo Langlois, who was captured Saturday during a confrontation with Colombian armed forces, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. An alleged FARC member has reportedly told Colombian journalists that the leftist rebel group is holding Langlois as a prisoner of war.

New York, March 26, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the one-month suspension of pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, and calls on the Turkish government to allow the newspaper to function. 

New York, March 15, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the illegal foreign travel ban on at least four independent journalists in Belarus, and calls on the government of Aleksandr Lukashenko to immediately restore their freedom of movement.

New York, March 13, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the Mexican Senate's approval today of a constitutional amendment that makes attacks on the press a federal offense and calls on authorities to end the widespread impunity for crimes against journalists. 

New York, March 12, 2012--The release of Turkish journalists Nedim Şener, Ahmet Şık, Muhammet Sait Çakır, and Coşkun Musluk, who are among dozens of journalists imprisoned in Turkey for alleged participation in a purported antistate plot known as Ergenekon, is a welcome development, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, March 8, 2012--A vote by a commission of UNESCO's executive board to rename the discredited Obiang prize is a blow to the credibility of the organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Meeting in Paris, the commission voted to change the name of the prize to "International UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea Prize" and for UNESCO to move ahead with the implementation.

New York, March 8, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the threats made against Khadija Ismailova, an Azerbaijani journalist known for her investigations into high-level corruption, including secret, offshore businesses of President Ilham Aliyev's family.   

New York, March 7, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by the Turkish prime minister's repeated use of CPJ statistics to misrepresent and undermine the serious repression faced by journalists in Turkey.