Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 8 November 1997, journalist Francisco Castro Menco was shot dead by unidentified individuals in his home in Majagual, a town in the department of Sucre. Castro was president of the Fundacion Cultural, a radio station that had recently been granted a licence by the Ministry of Communications. He hosted a daily program […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Winston Ojukutu, correspondent for the BBC, was arrested on 5 November 1997. His arrest was in connection with ad-hoc interviews he held with the public on their reaction to a public statement made by the ruling Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) about their unwillingness to disarm until ECOMOG forces followed suit. Ojukutu’s whereabouts […]

(WAN/CPJ/RSF/IFEX) – Three press freedom organizations – the World Association of Newspapers, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters sans frontieres – have written an open letter to the President of Uruguay, Julio Maria Sanguinetti, calling on him to abide by his promise to investigate the “disappearance” of journalist Julio Castro. Twenty years ago, Castro, […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Gordana Igric, a prominent Serbian freelance journalist, has been forced into hiding by a series of death threats against her for a recent report broadcast on the U.S. television station CBS about indicted war criminals at large in the Bosnian town of Foce. Igric began receiving threatening phone calls at her Belgrade apartment […]

(CPJ/IFEX)- On 19 October 1997, Francis Akpu, a Nigerian citizen who is a reporter for the Financial Times in Freetown and owner of the newly created newspaper, “Alpha Jet” was accused of subversion and arrested by military officers. Military officials were offended with the name of the newspaper Akpu started as it refers to the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) presented the 1997 International Press Freedom Awards on 23 October 1997 to six courageous journalists who have provided independent news coverage and viewpoints in the face of arrest, imprisonment, violence against them and their families, and threats of death. Receiving the awards in gala ceremonies in the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Ajit Bhuyan, editor of the widely read Assamese-language newspaper “Asomiya Protidin” (“Assamese Daily”) and its sister paper, the Assamese-language weekly “Sadin” (“Seven Days”), has been the target of repeated arrests since August 1997. According to news reports, Bhuyan has been linked by state authorities to the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a open letter written by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to Chinese President Jiang Zemin on the occasion of his state visit to the United States of America from 26 October to 2 November 1997. In the letter, CPJ urges Zemin to order the release from prison of sixteen […]