Vietnam cracks down on bloggers and online journalists
New York, September 3, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the recent harassment and arrests of online journalists and political bloggers in Vietnam. The mounting crackdown comes as Web-based journalists and bloggers’ independent reporting challenges the tightly censored state-run media’s traditional monopoly on local news and opinion.
CPJ calls U.S. detention of Ibrahim Jassam unjust
CPJ called on U.S. military forces to charge or release journalist Ibrahim Jassam, who has been imprisoned in Iraq for one year as of today. Jassam, a freelance cameraman and photographer working for Reuters, has not been charged with a crime, and no evidence against him has ever been disclosed. U.S. forces have made only…
Lee and Ling: ‘Instinctively, we ran.’
Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested by North Korean police on March 17 for allegedly entering the country illegally and carrying out “hostile acts.” In June, they were sentenced to 12 years’ hard labor. Now back in the U.S. after receiving a pardon, the two are telling their story on Current.com,…
CPJ award goes to jailed Sri Lankan journalist
New York, August 31, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists announced today that it will honor imprisoned Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam with a 2009 International Press Freedom Award. Tissainayagam, left, sentenced today to 20 years in prison on specious charges of violating anti-terror laws, is one of five journalists who will be honored by CPJ…
In Iranian prison, journalists’ well-being in question
New York, August 28, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the conditions in which dozens of Iranian journalists are being held and is concerned about the health of many of them, particularly that of Ahmad Zaid-Abadi. The columnist, who worked for Rooz Online, a Farsi and English-language reformist news Web site, was arrested in mid-June…
Kazakh editor imprisoned for collecting state secrets
New York, August 26, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Taraz Regional Court in southern Kazakhstan to overturn on appeal a jail sentence given to Ramazan Yesergepov, the editor of the independent Almaty-based weekly Alma-Ata Info.
Ethiopia jails two editors on old charges under obsolete law
New York, August 26, 2009–Two Ethiopian journalists were thrown in prison on Monday after a judge convicted them under an obsolete press law in connection with coverage of sensitive topics dating back several years, according to local journalists and news reports.
Hopeless, a sister visits her imprisoned brother in Havana
Graciela González-Degard is 72 years old. She has salt-and-pepper hair, long elegant hands, soft manners reminiscent of another era, and a bad knee that she blames on age. Once a Catholic nun, Graciela moved to the United States from Havana in the 1960s and now lives in New York with her husband. She teaches children…