Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

(CPJ/IFEX) – The Sierra Leone government has increased the special tax on the media by approximately 280 percent, and has required payment in full by the 14 May 1999 deadline. **Updates IFEX alert of 11 May 1999** Background Information On 8 May, Information Minister Julius Spencer announced that all newspapers published in the country must […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 11 May 1999, Ahmed Kanneh, Thomas Gbow, and Mohammad Massaquoi, publisher, editor, and news editor, respectively, for “The New Storm” weekly newspaper, were released on a combined bail of five million leones (approx. US$2,400). The three journalists have been charged with publishing an alarmist publication under the 1998 Emergency Press Law. Their […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is expressing its deep concern for the safety of Jesús Barraza, editor of the weekly magazine “Pulso” in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora State. On 4 May 1999, at 9 p.m., as Barraza was leaving the “Pulso” offices, a well-dressed man walked up to him, and told him that Albino Quintero Meraz, […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 10 May 1999, state prosecutors charged five journalists from the bi-weekly opposition newspaper “Al-Sha’b” with libeling the head of the Al-Muhandes Bank in Egypt, Hussein Sabbour. The indicted journalists include editor in chief Magdy Hussein, managing editor Talaat Rumeih, deputy of the board of directors Adel Hussein, journalist Amer Abdel Moneim, and […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 8 May 1999, Information Minister Julius Spencer announced that all newspapers published in the country must register with the Ministry of Information by 14 May, and that their publishers must pay any outstanding taxes in full in order to receive permission to continue publishing. HASH(0x979c2a0)

(CPJ/IFEX) – 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 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government is engaged in a campaign to silence the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – At approximately 10:00 a.m. on 5 May 1999, plainclothes detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) detained journalists Ahmed Kanneh, Thomas Gbow, and Mohammad Massaquoi – publisher, editor, and news editor, respectively, for “The New Storm” weekly newspaper – at the newspaper’s offices in Freetown. The journalists were transported to the central police […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is expressing its grave concern about the reported arrest of Azeri journalist Qanimat Zahidov in northern Iran. **Updates IFEX alert of 7 May 1999** Zahidov, editor-in-chief for the Baku-based daily “Ekspress Gazeta”, disappeared on 3 May 1999, while on his way home from a reporting trip to northern Iran. According to reports […]