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Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about recent incidents of official legal harassment of the press in Yemen. On July 9, three journalists–Faisal Mukarram, a reporter for the London-based Al-Hayat daily, Ahmed al-Hajj, a reporter with The Associated Press, and Khaled al-Mahdi, a correspondent for Deutsche Presse Agentur–were summoned by a state prosecutor and accused of violating article 103 of the press law, which bans journalists from publishing “any secret document or information that might jeopardize the supreme interests of the country or expose any of its security or defense secrets.”

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to protest the ongoing detention of free-lance journalists Ibrahim Hussein and Abdel Rahim Mohsen. On June 21, plainclothes police officers arrested Hussein the office of the Yemeni Unionist Party, according to CPJ sources. Mohsen was arrested at his home on May 23.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the imprisonment of four journalists–Emmanuel Chilekwa, Shadreck Banda, Kinsley Lweendo, and Jane Chirwa–from the independent, Lusaka-based weekly The People.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to condemn the arrests this week of three Harare-based, independent journalists Lloyd Mudiwa, Collin Chiwanza, and Andrew Meldrum. Central Intelligence Division officers arrested Mudiwa and Chiwanza, both staff writers at the privately owned Daily News, at their Harare office in the early morning hours of April 30.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns your government’s decision to prosecute Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft under the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This marks your government’s first attempt to implement the controversial act, which you signed into law two weeks ago.

Your Excellency: Given the fact that Zimbabwean authorities had threatened to bar foreign correspondents from covering the March 9 and 10 presidential elections, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased that a number of foreign news reporters have been granted accreditation. However, we remain concerned that the accreditation process was applied selectively and that some foreign correspondents have been denied entry into Zimbabwe because of their professional affiliation or critical reporting on the country’s deepening political crisis.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the recent suspension of the weekly newspaper Al-Shumou. CPJ has learned that the Ministry of Information issued an order for the indefinite closure of the newspaper on February 3. Seif al-Hadheri, Al-Shumou’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ that the ministry provided no explanation for its action and that officials have refused to discuss the matter with him. He surmised that the closure came in response to Al-Shumou’s various “criticisms of government ministers.”

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the recent suspension of the weekly newspaper Al-Shumou. CPJ has learned that the Ministry of Information issued an order for the indefinite closure of the newspaper on February 3. Seif al-Hadheri, Al-Shumou’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ that the ministry provided no explanation for its action and that officials have refused to discuss the matter with him. He surmised that the closure came in response to Al-Shumou’s various “criticisms of government ministers.”

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned about press freedom violations in Nepal during the recently declared State of Emergency. On November 26, King Gyanendra declared a State of Emergency throughout the country in response to an upsurge of violence between Maoist rebels and government security forces that killed at least 100 people over the weekend.