Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

In a 17 March 2000 letter to President Charles G. Taylor, CPJ condemned the recent illegal closure of the privately-owned stations Star Radio and Radio Veritas. During the morning of 15 March, heavily armed police officers under the command of Director of Police Paul Mulbah occupied the Star Radio compound in Monrovia and sealed its […]

YUGOSLAVIA: AUTHORITIES RELEASE JAILED JOURNALIST, BUT CLOSE ANOTHER TV STATION New York, March 17, 2000 — Nebojsa Ristic, head of an independent television station in Serbia, was released from prison today after serving almost 11 months of a one-year sentence imposed last April, according to CPJ’s sources in Belgrade. Ristic was arrested in April, 1999, […]

CPJ is pleased to announce the Web publication of “Putin’s Media War: Independent Press Under Siege in Russia,” an analysis by CPJ Europe program coordinator Emma Gray. Writing in advance of the March 26 presidential elections, Gray argues that because of acting president Vladimir Putin’s successful use of mass media to deceive the Russian public […]

The following is a 15 March 2000 CPJ press release: Liberia: Two Radio Stations Closed New York, March 15, 2000 — Citing public security concerns, the Liberian government shut down the privately owned Star Radio station and suspended Radio Veritas, a religious station owned by the Catholic Church. A statement from the office of President […]

The following is a 15 March 2000 CPJ press release: ETHIOPIA: LEGAL AT LAST, LOCAL PRESS GROUP APPEALS FOR INTERNATIONAL AID New York, March 15, 2000 — After a seven year wait, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA) has obtained a certificate of legal recognition from the Ethiopian government, according to CPJ sources in […]

**Updates IFEX alert of 13 March 2000** (CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 14 March 2000 CPJ press release: IRAN: REFORMIST PUBLISHER IN COMA AFTER SHOOTING New York, March 14, 2000 — A leading reformist newspaper publisher who was shot in the face on March 12 is battling for his life in a Tehran hospital. […]

YUGOSLAVIA: BROADCAST OUTLET FORCED OFF THE AIR AS PRESSURE MOUNTS ON INDEPENDENT MEDIA New York, March 14, 2000 — In the latest government attack on independent media in Yugoslavia, police have shut down the opposition-run station Radio Television Pozega in the city of Pozega, 60 miles southwest of Belgrade. Police seized the station’s transmitter during […]

New York, March 14, 2000 — Francisco “Pacho” Santos Calderon, editor of Colombia’s largest daily newspaper, El Tiempo, fled the country on March 11 after an apparent attempt was made on his life. According to one of Santos’ colleagues, the assassins were hired by members of the left-wing United Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s […]