Follow-up

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...

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...

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...

Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues. The Army says it thinks Bilal has too many contacts among insurgents. He has taken pictures the Army thinks could have been made only with the connivance of insurgents...

The Pentagon said on Monday that an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press and held by the U.S. military since April was considered a security threat with “strong ties to known insurgents.” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there was sufficient evidence to justify the continued detention of Bilal Hussein, 35, who AP said was taken into U.S. military custody on April 12 in the...

A man purporting to lead an African branch of the al Qaeda militant network claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the beheading of a Sudanese newspaper editor who was found dead last week. The man, in a statement distributed to Sudanese newspapers, called editor Mohamed Taha a "dog of dogs from the ruling party", and accused him of insulting the prophet Mohammad. "Three individuals from this...

American journalist Paul Salopek was released Saturday from a prison in the war-torn Darfur region where he was held for more than a month on espionage charges, news agencies reported. A judge in the North Darfur capital of al-Fasher released the Chicago Tribune journalist and his Chadian driver and interpreter after a 13-minute hearing. FREE AND BACK: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, right...

Press freedom organisations have called for the release of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has being tried in a closed-door proceeding in Beijing. His trial on espionage charges began on August 15 and ended late that afternoon without an immediate verdict. "We have seen no evidence that Ching Cheong has committed a crime, and we call for his immediate release," Committee to Protect...

Maldivian journalist Jennifer Latheef who was serving a 10-year jail term for terrorism has been pardoned by the government. Latheef has, however, rejected the presidential pardon. ACCUSED OF TERRORISM: The Maldives government announced Jennifer Latheef’s release on August 16. She was jailed for 10 years in October 2005 after being convicted of inciting a riot in 2003. International human rights...

Reporters Without Borders today denounced India’s security services for their persecution of photojournalist Muhammad Maqbool Khokar (better known as Maqbool Sahil), who has been imprisoned since 18 September 2004 under an emergency security law, and called for the country’s journalists to campaign to free him. Requests by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the National Human Rights...