Exiled Somali journalists face new challenges in Nairobi
Somali journalists Hassan Ali Gesey and Abdihakim Jimale are roommates these days, living in a tiny, graffiti-ridden room in Nairobi, Kenya. Neither would have wanted to eke out an existence like this, but dire circumstances brought them together—starting with the night three years ago that Gesey saved Jimale’s life.
Honduran journalist flees the country after attacks
New York, April 1, 2010—Honduran journalist José Alemán fled the country on Sunday after threatening attacks, including the break-in of two unidentified gunmen at his home in the rural municipality of San Marcos de Ocotepeque, near the border with El Salvador, the local press reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for Honduran authorities…
Somali editor, family make a new life in exile
KAMPALA, Uganda As Ahmed Omar Hashi strode toward me, his figure silhouetted in the bright morning light, it was hard to believe this was the same man who left Mogadishu on a stretcher just six months earlier after suffering a near-fatal gunshot wound. As I reached to shake his hand, he pulled me into a…
Feng Zhenghu home safe after Kafkaesque exile in Japan
Journalists, friends, and supporters of Feng Zhenghu, who I interviewed in Tokyo on Monday as he was about to end his involuntary exile in Japan, have been making full use of the Internet to document his arrival home in Shanghai’s Pudong Airport this afternoon.
Chinese writer ends Japanese exile after 90 days in airport
A Chinese dissident who writes about rights abuses is ending an involuntary exile in Japan on Friday. Or so he hopes. Feng Zhenghu has booked a flight departing Japan’s Narita Airport for Shanghai at 9:45 a.m. on February 12. That was the topic of an impromptu press conference held Monday afternoon in the brightly lit…
An Iraqi in America: ‘Time is like a sword’ here
It has been almost nine months since I arrived in the United States. I can’t believe how fast life is moving and how different my family’s days are now are from the old days—that was a beautiful time. Everything is changing now. There’s no simplicity for us anymore.
A new mission for Somalia’s Mustafa Haji Abdinur
January 21 marks Press Day in Somalia, the most dangerous country in Africa to be a journalist. As such, few local journalists find much reason to celebrate. With nine Somali journalists killed in the line of duty last year, numerous local journalists have fled, especially from the restive capital, Mogadishu. “The free media is going…
Mexican journalist seeks asylum in the U.S. following threats
On December 11, 2009, Ricardo Chávez Aldana, a radio host for the Ciudad Juárez-based Radio Cañón, fled to the United States with his wife and children, his sister, her husband, and their two children, his supervisor at Radio Cañón, José Antonio Tirado, told CPJ. The reporter and his family left their home after the killing of two…