Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

On 8 July 1996, an Indian-backed counter-insurgency militia kidnapped and detained 19 journalists in Kashmir. The journalists, who were released unharmed that same evening, were held as hostages by the militia to secure a meeting with the editors of Kashmir’s leading newspapers. The 19 journalists were traveling together from Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, […]

**Updates IFEX alerts dated 3 July 1996 and 9 March 1995** Chan Rotana, editor of “Samleng Yuvachun Khmer” (“Voice of Khmer Youth”), was released from a Phnom Penh prison on 5 July 1996. His release came after Cambodia’s Second Prime Minister, Hun Sen, agreed on 3 July to King Norodom Sihanouk’s request for a pardon. […]

**Updates IFEX alert dated 11 June 1996** On 27 June 1996, Sud Communication, the privately-owned Senegalese media company, was fined 500 million CFA (US$ 1 million) for public defamation of The Mimran Group, a sugar-importing company. A Magistrates’ Court judge ordered Sud Communication to pay the fine to Jean Claude Mimran, president of The Mimran […]

**Updates IFEX alert dated 25 June 1996** Bekele Dissassa, a distributor of publications including “Urji” newspaper and magazine, was released from prison during the first week of June 1996. He had been detained since April 1996. Bekele is a resident of Nekempte and distributes “Urji” in the Nekempte area. Appeals To

Source: Reuters On 2 July 1996, Radio France International correspondent Serge Daniel was expelled from Guinea and put on a plane for the Ivory Coast. Daniel, a Benin national, later stated that authorities had arrested him on 1 July but had given no formal reason for his expulsion. Appeals To

On 1 July 1996, Croatian authorities cancelled the television news program “Slikom na Sliku” (“Frame by Frame”), which airs on state-owned HTV. Journalists at the program stated that officials from HTV, which is the only nation-wide television channel in Croatia, informed the program’s editor that HTV would no longer air “Slikom na Sliku.” No reason […]

On 24 June 1996, a presidential decree was issued which forbids making insulting or slanderous public remarks about the President of Tartarstan. The decree calls for a four million ruble (US$ 800) fine on anyone found guilty of the charge. Repeat offenders whose insults are printed in the media face higher fines of seven million […]

**For background, see IFEX alerts dated 14 June, 30 April 1996 and others** The wife of a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) correspondent in Minsk, Galina Drakokhrust, was beaten by three assailants at 2:00 hours on 22 June 1996, the correspondent told CPJ. Yury Drakokhurst was away on a business trip in Poland when the […]