State Persecution

10 January 2007

Morocco: Prosecutor seeks prison terms and closure of “Nichane” weekly

Reporters Without Borders has voiced dismay at the sentences of three to five years in prison and bans on working as journalists that the state prosecutor requested on 8 January 2007 in Casablanca at the start of the trial of Driss Ksikes, editor of the Arabic-language weekly “Nichane”, and one of his journalists, Sanaa Elaji, on charges of “damaging Islam” and “publishing and distributing...

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29 December 2006

IAPA assails Venezuela’s Chávez over non-renewal of TV station licence

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today repudiated a decision by Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to not renew the broadcast license of television network Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). Chavez made the announcement yesterday after accusing the network of supporting plots to overthrow him and engaging in subversive activities. The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the...

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28 December 2006

Facing record damages, Moroccan weekly’s survival in doubt

The publisher of the independent Moroccan weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire and a former reporter have been ordered to pay the record damages awarded earlier this year in a controversial defamation suit. Publisher Aboubakr Jamaï said the award could jeopardize the magazine’s survival. Jamaï told CPJ that two court officials visited Le Journal’s Casablanca office on December 18 and gave him and former...

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1 November 2006

Top AP editor urges more coverage of detained photog

Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll today called on other news organizations, especially those that use AP services, to increase their attention on imprisoned AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by U.S. military officials in Iraq for more than six months without being charged. Saying Hussein “works on behalf of every news organization that receives news from the...

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1 November 2006

Top AP editor urges more coverage of detained photographer

NEW YORK: Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll today called on other news organizations, especially those that use AP services, to increase their attention on imprisoned AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by U.S. military officials in Iraq for more than six months without being charged. Saying Hussein “works on behalf of every news organization that receives news from...

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26 October 2006

Military refuses to give more information on AP photographer detained in Iraq

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is brushing off a request for more information and a decision on an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. In a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, does not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein remains at a U.S. run prison camp. The letter repeats the military...

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17 October 2006

US defends its detention of Iraqi AP photographer

The Pentagon has brushed off a request from a journalist organization seeking more information and a decision on Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein continues to be held without...

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17 October 2006

US defends its detention of Iraqi AP photographer

NEW YORK — The Pentagon has brushed off a request from a journalist organization seeking more information and a decision on Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein continues to be held...

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16 October 2006

Military refuses to give more information on AP photog detained in Iraq

The Pentagon is brushing off a request for more information and a decision on an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. In a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, does not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein remains at a U.S. run prison camp. The letter repeats the military’s long...

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12 October 2006

Journalism fellowship keeps Yahoo money despite criticism

A journalism fellowship at Stanford University will keep a $1 million grant from Yahoo Inc. despite criticism of the company’s decision to turn over information on journalists to Chinese authorities. The Yahoo money given to the John S. Knight Fellowship is slated to bring one journalist to campus each year for the next decade from countries where the news media is restricted. Some former Knight...

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