Sirnak—Like other journalists before me, I was taken to the southeast on a trip organized by the Turkish Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most of our time was spent in and around Sirnak, a border garrison town that has become symbolic of all the problems of that region. Nowadays, the principal landmark in Sirnak is the…
New York, October 27, 1999 — A Northern Irish journalist does not have to hand over his notes on the 1989 murder of a Belfast lawyer, the province’s senior judge ruled today. Ed Moloney, the Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune, had faced up to five years in jail and unlimited fines for…
Your Excellencies, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by today’s violent attack against Zeljko Kopanja, the founder and chief editor of Nezavisne Novine,the largest independent Serb daily in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Calls on Prime Minister to Launch Immediate Investigation and to Bring Perpetrators to Justice New York, N.Y., October 21, 1999-The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed outrage at the assassination today of prominent academic and journalist Ahmet Taner Kislali. Kislali, a regular columnist for the daily Cumhuriyet,was killed today in a bomb attack in front of his…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns in the strongest terms today’s indictment of Andrew Finkel, a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul who reports for Time magazine and the Times of London and appears on CNN. In a hearing today, Finkel, a British national, was charged with “insulting state institutions” under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charge comes in response to a February 1998 article Finkel wrote for the daily Sabah titled “Shurnak 1998,” which discussed Turkey’s ongoing military operations against the Kurds in the southeast. An expert panel’s report, submitted to the court, concluded that Finkel did not insult the military. Another hearing has been scheduled for November 16, pending the report of a second panel of experts on the validity of the charges. If convicted, Finkel faces up to six years in prison.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by two recent violent attacks against journalists investigating corruption in Romania. On September 23, Marian Tudor, a reporter with the daily Jurnalul de Constantain the Black Sea port of Constanta, was assaulted by two unidentified assailants aboard a train traveling from Constanta to Bucharest. Tudor was delivering edited manuscripts for that day’s edition of Jurnalul de Constantato a printer in the capital.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by your government’s decision to ban nine local publications, many of which had yet to publish their first issue. On October 4, Viktor Guretsky, director of the State Press Committee’s licensing board, canceled the registration of nine Minsk-based publications, claiming they had failed to obtain local authorities’ approval for opening their offices, as required under a provision of the country’s press law. Guretsky claimed that his committee had hitherto enforced the provision only outside Minsk, adding that the publications concerned have one month to seek the needed authorization and reregister.