CPJ condemns attack on office of news website
New York, April 19, 2011–Six men raided the office of a news website in Amman on Monday, threatening its staff and destroying equipment. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the assault on Al-Muharrir and calls on Jordanian authorities to investigate the attack thoroughly.
Bahraini blogger dies in custody; journalists under attack
New York, April 12, 2011– The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bahraini authorities to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the death of a blogger while in state custody. Bahraini authorities, meanwhile, announced that they would file criminal charges against three senior editors at the Gulf kingdom’s premier independent daily, continuing a months-long…
More journalists held in Libya; blogger jailed in Egypt
New York, April 11, 2011–Continuing a weeks-long pattern of seizing journalists covering the Libyan conflict, the government of Muammar Qaddafi is detaining two more television journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. And in Egypt, in a serious setback for press freedom under the transitional government, a court has sentenced a blogger to a…
Burundi must free Kavumbagu, halt flawed prosecution
Dear Justice Minister Ancilla Ntakaburimvo: We urge you to intervene in the case of Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, editor of the news website NetPress who has been improperly imprisoned since July 17, 2010, on a charge of treason. We call on you to urge the state prosecutor to drop the pending charge against Kavumbagu and secure his release.
Ending dark era, Cuba frees last jailed journalist
New York, April 8, 2011–The Cuban government on Thursday released the last journalist remaining in its prisons, ending a dark, eight-year-long era in which the island nation was one of the world’s worst jailers of the press, at one time imprisoning nearly 30 independent reporters and writers. The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed relief today…
European Parliament must speak out on China abuses
New York, April 6, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on members of the European Parliament to strongly criticize the Chinese government’s apparent detention of artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The European Parliament is convening an emergency debate Thursday on Ai’s disappearance, which may be the latest unlawful detention in the government’s onslaught against…
Guides for Journalists using Facebook
Facebook has just rolled out a series of meetups and resources for news organizations and individual journalists using its services. As Mashable mentions, the social networking company has been taking the increased use of its service as a news publishing and sourcing tool increasingly seriously over the last year. The page itself has some good…
Journalists detained in Bahrain, Egypt
New York, March 30, 2011–A CNN crew was detained today in Manama while interviewing a prominent Bahraini human rights defender, according to a Twitter posting by the network and a CPJ interview. The detentions come amid a recent series of repressive actions by the Bahraini government, which included today’s arrest of a well-known blogger. Anti-press…
In China, a state of denial on detentions, abuse
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu, today denied having heard of Sydney-based Chinese author and blogger Yang Hengjun, according to The Associated Press. We reported yesterday that Yang was missing, presumed to be the latest high-profile writer to fall victim to the government’s aggressive roundup of critics who might respond to online calls for a…
Online writer indicted, another missing in China
New York, March 28, 2011–Police indicted one online writer on anti-state charges in Sichuan today and another disappeared in Guangzhou on Sunday, according to international news reports. Both cases appear part of the Chinese Communist Party’s strenuous efforts to suppress their critics and pre-empt a “Jasmine Revolution” in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said…