Attacks on the Press 2006: Cuba
CUBA Facing intense international interest in President Fidel Castro’s hospitalization and the transfer of power to his brother, the Cuban government severely restricted information about Castro’s illness in the name of state security and selectively blocked foreign journalists’ entry into the country. In a July 31 proclamation aired on Cuban television without advance notice, Castro…
Attacks on the Press 2006: United States
UNITED STATES After consuming the press freedom landscape for more than two years, an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s name wound down with a whimper. News organizations reported in August that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently knew from the day his investigation began in December 2003 that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Countries That Have Jailed Journalists
ALGERIA: 2 Djamel Eddine Fahassi, Alger Chaîne III IMPRISONED: May 6, 1995 Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station Alger Chaîne III and a contributor to several Algerian newspapers, including the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Forqane, was abducted near his home in the al-Harrache suburb of the capital, Algiers, by four…
Independent journalist released after nine days
UPDATE December 12, 2006 Original alert: December 6, 2006 Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia, Jóvenes sin censura IMPRISONED Rodríguez Albacia, a reporter for the independent news agency Jóvenes sin censura, was released at 10 p.m. on December 12, after being detained for nine days at Havana’s police station, 100 y Aldabó. He told CPJ that authorities filed…
Internet fuels rise in number of jailed journalists
New York, December 7, 2006–The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work increased for the second consecutive year, and one in three is now an Internet blogger, online editor, or Web-based reporter, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Journalist detained, dissident jailed for launching news agency
New York, December 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at the detention of one Cuban journalist for working for an independent news agency, and of a second for attempting to launch such an agency. Police and state security forces swooped on the Havana home of independent journalist Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia on Monday, confiscating…
Journalist González is freed after 16 months in jail
New York, November 21, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Cuban journalist Oscar Mario González, who had been jailed for 16 months without charge. González was freed unexpectedly on Monday without explanation, his daughter Elena González, who lives in Sweden, told CPJ. She said her father was in good spirits…
Independent journalist sentenced to two years’ house arrest
New York, November 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentence of two years’ house arrest handed down by a Cuban court to a journalist who reported on a dengue fever outbreak that the authorities censored. Journalist Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez of the independent agency Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO) was convicted by a…