Radio show cancellation sparks controversy in Argentina
The recent cancellation of a radio show hosted by prominent Argentine broadcast journalist Nelson Castro, a harsh critic of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration, sparked immediate controversy. Electroingeniería, the company that owns the Buenos Aires-based Radio Del Plata, announced on Friday that the news show “Puntos de Vista” (Points of View), which has been…
Jailed Cuban journalist protests inhumane conditions
Fabio Prieto Llorente, one of 21 independent journalists jailed in Cuba, has been outspoken in describing the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which he and others have been held. On Wednesday, he began a hunger strike to call attention to the situation at El Guayabo Prison in the western Isla de la Juventud province, the…
Mexican reporter released from U.S. detention center
According to U.S. and Mexican news reports, reporter Emilio Gutiérrez Soto was released on Thursday from a detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he had been held for seven months while awaiting an immigration hearing. Gutiérrez illegally entered the United States in June fearing for his life and that of his son after receiving…
After outcry, Nicaragua drops case against critical editor
The Nicaraguan attorney general’s office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organization headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as politically motivated.
Q & A: Reporting in a ‘culture of fear’
Freelance journalist Frank Chikowore visited CPJ this week after receiving the Tully Center Free Speech Award at Syracuse University. Chikowore received the award for his brave, ongoing reporting on the crisis in Zimbabwe. He has worked for two newspapers in Zimbabwe, including The Nation and the Weekly Times, which was closed down in 2005.
Saudi prince threatens sports commentators
Saudi Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz made an unexpected phone call last week to a live talk show on a Saudi sports channel. The prince made the angry call to Al-Riyadiyya from Mascat, Oman, on January 17 after he’d watched Oman’s national soccer team defeat Saudi Arabia in the Gulf Cup. He picked up the phone…
Israeli Supreme Court orders Gaza opened to reporters
The Israeli Supreme Court announced today that international journalists must be allowed total access to Gaza in light of the official end of hostilities on January 18. Since November, the Israeli government has said that restricting the entry of these journalists has been for their own safety. Tel Aviv’s Foreign Press Association called the claim…
The long road ahead after masterminds’ conviction
The conviction of the masterminds of José Emeterio Rivas’ murder did not surprise his colleagues in Barrancabermeja, a city in the northern Santander province, where the journalist was shot in 2003. The former mayor’s involvement in the crime and his relationship with paramilitary forces was a well-known secret in the city. Despite witnesses’ fear and…
Murder pushes Novaya Gazeta to request guns
In a November 2007 interview, just before receiving CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, Dmitry Muratov, the editor of the embattled Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, recalled the loss of three colleagues to work-related murders in six years. “We have suffered war-like casualties,” Muratov said.