New York, October 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by reports that editor Ahmed Shawkat was murdered today in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. According to The Associated Press (AP) and an Agence France-Presse correspondent in Mosul, Shawkat, editor of the Iraqi weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction), was shot and killed…
Your Royal Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns your government’s harassment of Wajeha al-Huwaider, who writes for the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan and the English-language daily Arab News. CPJ sources confirmed that the Information Ministry issued directives in late August effectively barring al-Huwaider from publishing her work in Al-Watan and Arab News. This action…
New York, October 8, 2003—Exactly six months after the U.S. shelled the Palestine Hotel in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and an air strike hit the Baghdad bureau of the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) filed three new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the incidents with the U.S. Defense…
New York, October 3, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that Tunisian authorities have harassed journalist and human rights activist Néziha Rejiba, also known as Om Zeid. According to the Tunisian press freedom group Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse, de L’Edition et de la Création (OLPEC), Rejiba, who is the…
New York, October 3, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today took part in a briefing held by the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington, D.C., which focused on human rights conditions in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. The six Middle East countries are currently considered “Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation” with the Organization for…
September 25, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns a bomb attack on a Baghdad hotel this morning, in which a journalist from the U.S. network NBC was injured. The attack may have been aimed specifically at NBC’s Baghdad bureau, whose journalists were the hotel’s only residents, according to the network. NBC News reported…
New York, September 25, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled that Jordanian authorities banned the September 23 issue of the private weekly Al-Wihda. According Mowaffaq Mahadeen, a managing editor at Al-Wihda, and independent sources in the capital, Amman, the general prosecutor of the State Security Court ordered the ban.
New York, September 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the decision of Iraq’s Governing Council to sanction Arabic satellite channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya. Today, Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council announced that it would bar the broadcasters’ reporters from covering official press conferences and from entering official buildings for two weeks, according…
New York, September 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is saddened by the death of veteran Los Angeles Times correspondent Mark Fineman. According to The Los Angeles Times, Fineman died today of an apparent heart attack while on assignment in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. Fineman, 51, had been waiting for an interview in the office…
New York, September 22, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed at the results of the U.S. military’s investigation into the August 17 killing of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, which concluded that U.S. soldiers acted within the rules of engagement when they shot Dana. “The U.S. military is acting as judge and jury in…