New York, April 29, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating a news report that radio journalist John Villanueva was shot dead after being ambushed yesterday while riding his motorcycle. Villanueva was an announcer for the station DZGB in Legaspi City, south of the capital, Manila, according to the Agence France-Presse. The motive for…
New York, April 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent attack on the offices of Doordarshan Television and Radio Kashmir in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Five people were killed. At about 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, assailants detonated a car laden with explosives near the main gate of…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the prolonged detention of writers Yang Zili, Xu Wei, Jin Haike, and Zhang Honghai. On April 21, the Beijing Intermediate Court reopened the trial against the four men, who were arrested in March 2001. No verdict has been announced.
New York, April 22, 2003—Afghan officials announced yesterday that they have arrested five men suspected of involvement in the murder of four journalists killed in an ambush in southeastern Afghanistan on November 19, 2001. Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan photographer for the Reuters news agency; Harry Burton, an Australian cameraman for Reuters; Julio Fuentes, a Spanish…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about your government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for last month’s attack on Tempo magazine. Moreover, we are disturbed that two of the journalists injured in the attack are now themselves in danger of arrest under Indonesia’s criminal libel laws. On March 7, Tempo…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the prolonged detention of South Korean photojournalist Jae Hyun Seok, who was arrested on January 17. Seok is expected to appear for a court hearing within the next few days, according to his family. Seok was arrested while photographing the exodus of 48 North Korean refugees…
Many reporters find themselves in a dilemma when the press comes under attack. Our pride, our institutional and tribal loyalties, all clamor for a retort. We may be the bearers of bad tidings, but we are not their cause. If the truth is inimical to you, we want to argue, assailing us will not alter…
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…
In many obvious ways, press conditions in Afghanistan in 2002 were far better than the year before, when virtually no local independent media outlets operated, and eight journalists were killed covering the U.S.-led military offensive that ended the repressive rule of the Taliban regime. During 2002, Afghan journalists produced some 150 publications in the capital,…