Army chief orders commanders to ensure safety of journalists
New York, July 27, 2001–Responding to concerns repeatedly expressed by the Committee to Protect Journalists and other international press freedom groups, Israeli military authorities have ordered field commanders to protect journalists who cover street clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev informed CPJ via e-mail today that Israeli Defense…
CPJ delegation visits Harare to support local press
Harare, July 26, 2001–For more than two years, since the January 1999 arrest and torture of two journalists from the Harare weekly The Standard, the press in Zimbabwe has operated under a virtual state of siege. In April 2000, the offices of the Daily News were bombed. In January 2001, a commando team blew up…
Parliament may repeal controversial information law
New York, July 25, 2001–After a firestorm of criticism from the Paraguayan press, Parliament has announced plans to repeal a controversial new access to information law that severely restricts the ability of journalists to obtain public records. President Luis González Macchi signed Law 1728 on Administrative Transparency and Free Access to Information on July 16.…
Journalist sentenced in absentia on defamation charge
New York, July 25, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the recent trial and sentencing of Algerian journalist Faouzia Ababsa, managing editor of the French-language daily L’Authentique, on defamation charges. On July 11, Ababsa was convicted in absentia of defaming Abdelkarim Mahmoudi, president of the Confederation of Finance Managers, a private…
CPJ testifies before U.S. Congress on press freedom conditions in Central Asia
New York, July 19, 2001–A CPJ representative testified before a joint congressional subcommittee yesterday about the terrible state of press freedom in Central Asia. [Read the transcript] “Repression and violence, or the threat thereof, are ever present for many reporters, encouraging self-censorship as a survival mechanism,” CPJ Washington representative Frank Smyth told the joint hearing…
CPJ Welcomes Release of Burmese Journalist San San Nwe
New York, July 18, 2001–CPJ welcomes the release today of San San Nwe, a journalist, novelist, and political activist who was jailed by the Burmese military government in August 1994 on charges of spreading information damaging to the state. She was released along with 10 other members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD),…
Journalists released on bail
New York, July 18 — A judge in the northern city of Abbottabad today ordered the release on bail of four journalists from the Urdu-language daily Mohasib who had been imprisoned under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. The journalists, who had been jailed for about six weeks, were released after vigorous protests by local and international…
Media executive assaulted
His attackers said, “We are sick of you!” Police are treating the assault as a robbery. New York, July 17, 2001–Oleh Velichko, the head of the Avers media corporation in western Ukraine, was brutally beaten by two unknown assailants outside his home in the late evening hours of Wednesday, July 11, according to CPJ sources…