Government suspends Al-Jazeera’s bureau operations
New York, July 1, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the Algerian government’s decision to suspend operations of the local office of the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera. According to press reports and journalists in the capital, Algiers, the Ministry of Communications ordered Al-Jazeera’s Algiers bureau to suspend its newsgathering operations yesterday.…
Journalists expelled
New York, June 17, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s expulsion from Morocco of Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem, a reporter and photographer, respectively, with the Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenbladet. Dommersnes told CPJ that four plainclothes Moroccan security officers woke Refvem and him up in their hotel rooms in Rabat early yesterday…
Publisher sentenced to two years in prison
New York, June 16, 2004—Mohamed Benchicou, publisher of the French-language daily Le Matin, was sentenced by an Algiers court to two years in prison on Monday, June 14, for violating Algeria’s currency exchange laws, according to Youssef Razzouj, Le Matin’s editor. Benchicou was also ordered to pay a large fine, totaling several hundred thousand dollars…
Journalist imprisoned
New York, June 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the ongoing imprisonment of Hafnaoui Ghoul, an Algerian journalist and human rights activist who has been jailed since May 24 on defamation charges. Ghoul, who writes for the Algerian dailies El-Youm and Djazair News, was detained on May 24 by the police and…
BBC Cameraman killed in Saudi Arabia
New York, June 7, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, 36, who was shot to death yesterday by unidentified gunmen near Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, was also critically injured in the attack. The shooting occurred in Al-Suwadi, a suburb…