Attacks on the Press 2004: Sudan
Sudan Sudan garnered international headlines in 2004 due to widespread atrocities and ethnic cleansing in Darfur, an impoverished region in the west of the country. Since February 2003, government-backed militias, known as janjaweed, have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced close to 2 million in a counterinsurgency campaign against rebel groups.
Attacks on the Press 2004: Syria
Syria An ongoing state crackdown on political dissent further dulled hopes that President Bashar al-Assad would loosen the shackles on the country’s news media. Bashar promised greater media openness four years ago when he assumed power following the death of his father, the ironfisted Hafez al-Assad. In his first months in office, he injected new…
Attacks on the Press 2004: Tunisia
TunisiaFor nearly two decades, Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has quietly run one of the region’s most efficient police states, stifling the media with an array of Soviet-style tactics. Even allies of Ben Ali, such as U.S. President George W. Bush, expressed concern in 2004 about the troubling lack of press freedom. On World…
Attacks on the Press 2004: Turkey
TurkeyThe European Union’s long-awaited decision in December to begin formal talks to admit Turkey would have been impossible without legislative reforms made in recent years, including several aimed at expanding freedom of expression. A new Penal Code set to take effect in 2005 codifies a number of recent press reforms. Notably, it limits the definition…
Attacks on the Press 2004: United States
United States In 2004, U.S. prosecutors and judges showed a new and alarming willingness to compel reporters to reveal confidential sources. Prosecutors in several high-profile cases insisted that journalists name their sources, and judges backed up the demands by ordering reporters to testify or face fines and imprisonment.
Attacks on the Press 2004: Yemen
YemenYemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in May that he would work to decriminalize press offenses. Yet three months later, a prominent editor who published opinion pieces opposing the president’s handling of a bloody armed rebellion was sentenced to a year in prison, and his newspaper was suspended for six months.
MAURITANIA
MARCH 13, 2005 Posted: March 17, 2005 Mohamed Ould Lamine Mahmoudi, freelance IMPRISONED According to press reports and a Mauritanian source, police detained freelance journalist Mahmoudi after he interviewed a woman in the southern town Mederdra who claimed that she was kept as a slave by a family in another small Mauritanian town.
Blogger and two technicians detained
New York, March 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prolonged detention of an Internet writer, also known as a Web logger, or blogger, and two technicians working with him. According to sources in Bahrain, prosecutors in the capital, Manama, summoned Ali Abdel Imam on February 27 and detained him. Abdel Imam is the…
No criminal charges against IDF soldier in journalist’s shooting death
New York, March 9, 2005—Israel’s army said today that it would not press criminal charges against a soldier thought responsible for the May 2003 shooting death of British freelance cameraman and film director James Miller in the Gaza Strip. In Tel Aviv, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mandelblith told members of Miller’s family that the soldier would…
CPJ urges ‘vigorous’ investigation into Baghdad shooting
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the events of March 4 when a car carrying the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena came under fire from U.S. forces while en route to Baghdad International Airport. Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed and Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto, was wounded. Sgrena, who was held by kidnappers for a month, had just been released.