Articles by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Slovak journalist assaulted and detained
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is deeply concerned about the 7 August 1998 beating and detention by Bratislava (the capital city) police of Vladimir Bacisin, a widely respected investigative reporter at the private business daily “Narodna Obroda.” On the evening of 7 August, two police officers stopped Bacisin after he had crossed a downtown Bratislava street on […]
Information Minister announces plans to restrict foreign journalists
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is deeply disturbed by Information Minister Mohamed Rahmat’ s announcement on 9 August 1998 that he plans to impose new rules and restrictions that would allow the government to more closely monitor the movements of foreign journalists in the country. Foreign journalists working in Malaysia are already required to register with the […]
Journalists sentenced; newspaper censored
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 11 August 1998, Michel Ongoundou-Loundah, publication director for “La Griffe” newspaper, disappeared from his home. The following day he appeared in the Libreville court along with two reporters from “La Griffe”, Raphael Ntoutoume Nkoghe and Pulcherie Baumel. The three journalists were tried and convicted for criminal libel in connection with an article […]
Editor Nahed Hattar violently assaulted
(CPJ/IFEX) – In the late evening of 8 August 1998, Nahed Hattar, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Al-Mithaq”, was violently assaulted by four unidentified men wielding clubs as he exited his car with his wife and child in front of his home in Jabal Hussein. The assailants beat him until he lost consciousness. Hattar was taken […]
Disappearance of Iranian journalist Mahmoud Saremi
(CPJ/IFEX) – According to government sources in Tehran, members of the Taliban militia abducted Mahmoud Saremi, Afghanistan bureau chief for the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, along with 10 Iranian diplomats who were in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif when Taliban forces secured the area on 8 August 1998. IRNA reports that Saremi was taken by […]
Romanian journalists sentenced for libel
**Updates IFEX alert of 4 August 1998** (CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ strongly protests the 23 July 1998 sentencing, by an Iasi city court, of Romanian journalists Ovidiu Scutelnicu and Dragos Stingu to one year in prison for criminal libel. The decision, once carried out, will make Romania the second country in the former Eastern bloc (after […]
President pledges to abolish censorship
**For background information, see IFEX alerts of 15 January 1998, 31 July 1997, 9 December 1996, 6 August 1996 (CPJ/IFEX) – According to information made availably on 31 July 1998, an advisor to Azerbaijan’s president Heidar Aliyev has confirmed to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the leader of the oil-rich nation has pledged to […]
Draft press law approved by parliamentary committee
(CPJ/IFEX) – A draft press law was approved last week by the National Guidance Committee (NGC) of the Jordanian Parliament. However, despite the NGC’s amendment of several highly restrictive provisions of the original bill submitted by the cabinet last month, the draft law constitutes a grave threat to press freedom in Jordan. **For background, see […]