Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests your government’s closure of the Amman bureau of the Qatar-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera. On August 7, Information Minister Muhammad Adwan revoked the station’s license to operate in Jordan and barred its staff from working for the station in the country. The move came after a guest on that day’s broadcast of the debate program “Opposite Direction” criticized Jordan’s relationship with Israel.
New York, August 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the investigation ordered yesterday by a state prosecutor in Lebanon into accusations that Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), a private television station, is responsible for “inciting sectarian strife” and “disturbing general peace.” Under investigation are LBCI’s news editor, Jean Feghali, and…
New York, August 2, 2002—On July 31, Abdullah Keskin, a Turkish publisher charged with “separatist propaganda” for publishing a U.S. journalist’s book about Turkey’s Kurdish minority population, was convicted and sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, which the court converted to a fine of about US$500. An Istanbul State Security Court ruled on Wednesday that…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the death of Palestinian free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra, who was killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gunfire, and the subsequent failure to investigate the incident and safeguard journalists who cover the West Bank and Gaza.
New York, July 24, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the decision announced today by a Tehran appeals court confirming the banning of Norooz, Iran’s main reformist daily, and the six-month jail sentence handed down to the paper’s editor, Mohsen Mirdamadi. According to press reports and CPJ sources in Tehran, an appeals court…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about recent incidents of official legal harassment of the press in Yemen. On July 9, three journalists–Faisal Mukarram, a reporter for the London-based Al-Hayat daily, Ahmed al-Hajj, a reporter with The Associated Press, and Khaled al-Mahdi, a correspondent for Deutsche Presse Agentur–were summoned by a state prosecutor and accused of violating article 103 of the press law, which bans journalists from publishing “any secret document or information that might jeopardize the supreme interests of the country or expose any of its security or defense secrets.”
New York, July 16, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns last week’s ban on the reformist Iranian newspaper Azad. On July 11, Tehran’s Press Court ordered the pro-reform daily to cease publishing indefinitely because it had violated a government directive banning media commentary about the resignation of prominent cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. Iran’s Supreme…
New York, July 12, 2002—Palestinian free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died this morning from gunshot wounds he sustained yesterday in the West Bank town of Jenin. Said Dahla, a photographer for the official Palestinian news agency WAFA who was accompanying Abu Zahra, was also wounded. “We mourn the loss of our colleague Abu Zahra,” said…
New York, July 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has censored media coverage of the resignation of prominent cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. According to a CPJ source in Tehran, the council, which is headed by the president and includes several top government officials, sent the written…
New York, July 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed that Israeli authorities continue to detain three Palestinian journalists—Reuters sound technician Youssry al-Jamal, photographer Hussam Abu Alan of Agence France-Presse, and Al-Quds newspaper reporter Kamel Jbeil. Al-Jamal was arrested on April 30 while filming near Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, and Abu Alan…