Afghanistan / Asia

New York, November 12, 2009—A Norwegian freelance journalist and an Afghan colleague were released Thursday after nearly a week in captivity in eastern Afghanistan, according to international news reports.

Dear Prime Minister Brown: The Committee to Protect Journalists wishes to offer our condolences on the loss of British Parachute Regiment Cpl. John Harrison, who died in a September 9 military operation to rescue two journalists kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. We are grateful that New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a British-Irish national, was safely rescued, but we’re saddened by the loss of his colleague, fellow New York Times reporter Sultan Munadi.

In “Portraits of the Fallen,” a video introduction to CPJ’s database of killed journalists, María Salazar-Ferro examines the circumstances in which reporters, photographers, editors, and other journalists have died on duty. Because hundreds of journalists have been murdered in reprisal for their work, CPJ is leading a Global Campaign Against Impunity. (4:11) Visit our database of…

David Rohde’s gripping five-part series on his abduction in Afghanistan and Pakistan ends today with his dramatic escape from his abductors.  His series—and the reaction to it—bring into high relief the challenges that journalists face as they confront growing risk around the world.  Rohde, for example, felt the need, both in his article and in…

An improvised explosive device hit a Unites States Army vehicle in Logar Province in Afghanistan on August 28, 2009, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring CBS Radio news correspondent Cami McCormick, CBS reported on its Web site.

Dear President Karzai: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about conditions for journalists in Kandahar. Long destabilized by efforts to defeat the Taliban, the southern province has become even more dangerous since the recent presidential elections. Besides the daily threat of being caught up in an attack by insurgent groups, several local journalists tell CPJ they fear beatings, detentions, or worse in retribution for their reporting.

On my first trip to Kabul for CPJ in July 2006, I met Sultan Mohammed Munadi at The New York Times bureau. Munadi, who was killed today, was working on a story when I walked in, but he took time to help me find a driver. 

We issued the following statement after Afghan journalist Sultan Mohammed Munadi was killed during a raid to free him and his colleague, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. The two journalists had been kidnapped in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz on Saturday…