abducted

New York, October 2, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the safety of television reporter Carlo Lorenzo and cameraman Gilbert Ordiales, who went missing on the southern island of Jolo, Sulu Province, on September 28. CPJ fears that the journalists may have been kidnapped. Lorenzo and Ordiales, who work for GMA television…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by a wave of violent attacks against journalists near the southern city of Penza. Most recently, Igor Salikov, director of information security at Propaganda publishing house, was killed soon after a newspaper printed by his employer published a series of articles alleging that local authorities were involved in corruption.

In the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, journalists around the world confronted an unprecedented press freedom crisis.

Bangladesh: TIPU SULTAN For Tipu Sultan, an award-winning free-lance reporter from Bangladesh, writing the truth almost cost him his life. On January 25, 2001, Sultan was abducted and savagely beaten by about 15 thugs wielding baseball bats, hockey sticks, and iron rods after producing an article accusing a local legislator of criminal activity. Joynal Hazari,…

Colombia: IGNACIO GÓMEZ Colombia is a country of terrible secrets, none of which are safe from Ignacio Gómez. In almost two decades as an investigative reporter, Gómez has exposed alliances between drug lords and politicians, foreign mercenaries operating in Colombia, corrupt soccer teams, and the role of the Colombian military and paramilitary forces in many…

New York, November 20, 2002–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today presented the recipients of its 2002 International Press Freedom Awards at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

New York, July 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just learned that Mario Prada Díaz, of the weekly El Semanario Sabanero in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia, was killed this week. His death occurred the same week in which another journalist in the region was threatened at gunpoint, one day after a…

Kathmandu, June 6, 2002—In a press conference today, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists announced that it had met with Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Information Minister Jaya Prakash Gupta to raise concerns about press freedom abuses that have occurred since the government declared a state of emergency in November 2001.…

Bogotá, May 24, 2002–The leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have demanded that a newspaper in northern Colombia pay the equivalent of US$250,000 and publish a four-page communiqué to secure the release of a reporter and another employee who were kidnapped last week, the newspaper’s director said yesterday. Ulilo Acevedo, founder and director of…

Bogotá, May 21, 2002—Two newspaper reporters and their driver were kidnapped by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on May 16 in northern Colombia. According to local police, the rebels freed one of the reporters the following day. Nidia Álvarez Mariño and Ramón Vásquez Ruiz of the Santa Marta­based daily Hoy Diario del…