Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by today’s emergency proclamation announcing that Pakistan’s constitution has been suspended. CPJ is concerned that in the absence of constitutional protections guaranteeing civil liberties, including freedom of speech and of the press, the right of journalists to report freely on the momentous political developments at hand may be sharply curtailed.
Dear Gen. Orr: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express concern about the case of Kawthar Salam, a veteran reporter for the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda,who has apparently been denied permission to work in Israeli-controlled territories.
Your Majesty: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) would like to extend a warm welcome to you on the occasion of your visit to the United States. CPJ supports Your Majesty’s efforts to initiate reform of the 1998 Press and Publications Law (PPL). As you are well aware, the 1998 PPL imposed sweeping restrictions on the press. As a result it became the subject of vigorous local and international protests. Parliament amended some of the more restrictive articles of that law in September. This is a welcome development which we hope will bolster freedom of the press in Jordan and lead to bolder reforms of Jordanian laws that inhibit free expression.
October 13, 1999 (CPJ) -The Pakistani army took over state-run television and radio yesterday during a military coup against the civilian government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan Television (PTV) went off the air within hours of its broadcast announcing the prime minister’s dismissal of Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, which apparently prompted the…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by this weekend’s arrest of veteran journalist Najam Sethi, founder and editor of the English-language weekly newspaper Friday Times. Sethi is the third Pakistani journalist arrested under suspicious circumstances in less than a week, prompting fears that your government is engaged in a campaign to silence the country’s independent press. All three men had been interviewed before their arrest by a BBC television crew preparing a report on high-level official corruption in Pakistan for the program “Correspondent.”
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns in the strongest terms today’s indictment of Andrew Finkel, a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul who reports for Time magazine and the Times of London and appears on CNN. In a hearing today, Finkel, a British national, was charged with “insulting state institutions” under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charge comes in response to a February 1998 article Finkel wrote for the daily Sabah titled “Shurnak 1998,” which discussed Turkey’s ongoing military operations against the Kurds in the southeast. An expert panel’s report, submitted to the court, concluded that Finkel did not insult the military. Another hearing has been scheduled for November 16, pending the report of a second panel of experts on the validity of the charges. If convicted, Finkel faces up to six years in prison.
October 8, 1999 – An East Timorese farmer said he witnessed the shooting of Sander Thoenes, a Dutch correspondent killed near Dili last month (map), according to The Christian Science Monitorand wire service reports. Alexandre Estevao said the gunmen wore Indonesian military uniforms with insignia for Battalion 745, a unit of East Timorese known for their…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by two recent violent attacks against journalists investigating corruption in Romania. On September 23, Marian Tudor, a reporter with the daily Jurnalul de Constantain the Black Sea port of Constanta, was assaulted by two unidentified assailants aboard a train traveling from Constanta to Bucharest. Tudor was delivering edited manuscripts for that day’s edition of Jurnalul de Constantato a printer in the capital.
Islamabad, October 6, 1999 – After a two-hour hearing, the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan dismissed a petition that sought to exclude embattled editor Najam Sethi from political life by having him declared non-Muslim. The petition was filed on June 24 by legislator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a member of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ruling…