July 17, 2000– Earlier this month, CPJ Vice Chairman Terry Anderson visited Moscow as a member of an international delegation of press freedom advocates. The delegation met with a consortium of Russian journalists and officials to voice concern over the increasing number of attacks on the Russian media. On July 12, Anderson spoke with Russian…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to strongly protest the Lebanese authorities’ recent decision to annul the passport of Raghida Dergham, the New York bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat and a widely respected commentator on Arab affairs.
Read an account of the shelling incident in The Financial Times and in the BBC New York, May 23, 2000 — A Lebanese free-lance reporter was freed today after nine months in detention, as Israeli troops pushed ahead with their accelerated withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon, Lebanese sources told CPJ today.
By Joel CampagnaRoyal succession and rubber-stamp elections set the tone for a year in which Middle Eastern and North African governments continued to restrict press freedoms through a combination of censorship, intimidation, and media monopoly. Ballots in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen produced few surprises as longtime rulers stayed in power and maintained formidable obstacles…
[Click here for full list of documented cases] At its most fundamental level, the job of a journalist is to bear witness. In 1999, journalists in Sierra Leone witnessed rebels’ atrocities against civilians in the streets of Freetown. In the Balkans, journalists watched ethnic Albanians fleeing the deadly menace of Serbian police and paramilitaries. In…
Since Israel began turning over parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) six years ago, its repression of the local press has noticeably declined. The censorship, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests of Palestinian journalists that marked full-fledged Israeli occupation are now practiced by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and…
Since 1990, when Lebanon began its recovery from 15 years of civil war and political strife, the country’s press has struggled to regain its formerly dominant position in Middle East journalism. A variety of private newspapers and radio and television stations exist today, many offering generally solid news coverage and criticism of the government. But…
Among many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, the optimism that accompanied the establishment of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian National Authority (PNA) six years ago appears to have given way to disillusionment. Widespread corruption within the PNA, its perceived failure in negotiating a just peace, and worsening economic conditions for much of the population…
There are two views of the press in Armenia today. The first holds that the press is entirely free to report as it chooses. The second is that the press is irresponsible. One thing is certain: In the absence of censorship, Armenian officials resort to verbal pressure and sometimes physical retribution, to knock journalists into…