Articles by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
CPJ protests attacks on journalists
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly alarmed by the continuing pattern of intimidation and violence against journalists by Serbian special police and military in Kosovo. In particular the organisation is distressed by a recent incident in which special police, posing as journalists, infiltrated an international press pool that was following a motorcade of diplomats around the […]
Independent radio station forcibly shut down; news director arrested
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 27 May 1998, police raided the offices of Radio Titan, the only independent radio station in the Republic of Bashkortostan, beating and rounding up staff members and supporters. Employees and listeners had been keeping a round-the-clock vigil around the station?s building, in anticipation of official reprisals after Radio Titan aired interviews with […]
British correspondents roughed up in Kosovo
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has learned that on 6 July 1998, two British correspondents, travelling with the so-called Kosovo Observer Mission in war-torn western areas of the breakaway Yugoslav province of Kosovo, were beaten by plainclothes Serbian police near the village of Prekaz. Kurt Schork, of the Reuters news agency, and Anthony Lloyd, of the “Times” […]
Three newspaper journalists arrested
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 2 July 1998, Joseph Mboka, editor of the “Democrat”, Jonathan Leigh, managing editor of the “Independent Observer”, and Ahmed Kanneh, managing director of “Newstorm” were arrested for violating Proclamation 1, the current emergency regulations banning the publication of information regarding the current war with the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) forces. Mboka’s […]
Government minister warns print media to pay outstanding taxes or risk closure
(CPJ/IFEX)- On 24 June 1998, Minister of Information Julius Spencer announced that all editors must pay in full within two weeks any outstanding taxes, or risk closure of their newspapers. The Sierra Leone Journalists Association’s letter protesting the terms of the taxation amendment has not been acknowledged by authorities nor have any of the organization’s […]
Two newspaper journalists each sentenced to six months in prison; newspaper ordered shut down for one week
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 24 June 1998, a criminal court sentenced Muhammad Jasim al-Saqr, editor-in-chief of the leading daily newspaper “Al-Qabas”, and Ibrahim Marzouk, a free-lance journalist with the same paper who is based in Egypt, to six months in prison in connection with a joke published in the 5 January edition of “Al-Qabas”. The four-line […]
Journalist Taoufik Ben Brik questioned over alleged “subversive” article
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 18 June 1998, Taoufik Ben Brik, a correspondent for the Paris-based daily “La Croix -L’Evenement”, was summoned to the Ministry of Interior headquarters in Tunis by two plain clothes police officers and brought before Mohammad Ali Ganzoui, assistant to the Minister of Interior, “La Croix” reported. During their encounter, Ganzoui accused Ben […]
Agence France-Presse correspondent denied permission to visit Tonga
(CPJ/IFEX) -On 19 June 1998, Michael J. Field, a correspondent for the news agency Agence France-Presse, requested permission to visit Tonga to report on the upcoming 80th birthday of His Majesty Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga. He received a response on 23 June, in the form of a letter written by Police Minister Clive […]