Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 31 March 1998 56-year old Ivan Fedyunin, a reporter with the local “Bryanskie Izvestia” newspaper, was murdered. According to his colleagues and the police who found his body on 2 April, Fedyunin was stabbed to death in his apartment. An elderly couple told police that they had heard screams for help but […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Reuters has reported that on 10 April 1998 Palestinian authorities closed down its Gaza office in response to a videotape it distributed to the media containing a statement made by an alleged member of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS). On 8 April, Reuters had broadcast and distributed to the media a videotape of […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Danlami Nmodu, Kaduna correspondent for the independent news magazine “Tell”, was released during the week of 6 April 1998. State Security Service (SSS) agents interrogated Nmodu about the whereabouts of his editors, all of whom are currently either in hiding or in detention. Nmodu was warned to refrain from writing stories for “Tell” […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to a government document in CPJ’s possession, all state agencies have been barred from advertising in the weekly “Cronica” and the daily “elPeriodico”, both of which have criticized President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen’s administration. The memorandum, sent to state agencies on 21 January 1998, notes, “One may not publish [government announcements] in “Cronica” […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is profoundly concerned about several serious developments over the past two months which have contributed to a further deterioration of press freedom in Egypt. CPJ wrote to His Excellency Muhammad Hosni Mubarak on 25 February 1998, protesting the one-year prison sentences handed down against journalists Magdy Hussein and Muhammad Hilel of the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 26 March 1998, Sorie Fofana, editor of “The Vision” newspaper, was detained by police and held at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Freetown. The arrest was in connection with a headline story reporting that President Kabbah’s military advisor, Sheka Mansaray, refused to allow the police to search his car at a […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to CPJ, Davor Butkovic and Vlado Vurusic, the former editor-in-chief and a reporter respectively for the independent weekly “Globus”, were convicted and sentenced on charges of criminal libel. Butkovic and Vurusic were sentenced to suspended jail terms of four months and two months respectively for defaming the country’s Defense Ministry. The charges […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to CPJ, on 23 February 1998, a libel judgment was issued against “Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti”, which has forced the shut-down of the popular opposition daily. “Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti” published its last issue on 26 March 1998, after losing a controversial libel case to a government-tied sports organization for 3.5 million hryvnyas (about US$1.8 million) […]