DA Spring 04

CONTENTS Dangerous Assignments Fall|Winter 2004 Committee to Protect Journalists AS IT HAPPENED Executive Director: Ann Cooper Russia steps up repression. Cuba still imprisons journalists. Brazil Deputy Director: Joel Simon proposes restrictions. Eritrea kicks out last foreign correspondent. .2 Dangerous Assignments IN FOCUS By Amanda Watson-Boles Editorial Director: Bill Sweeney Terrorists in Pakistan injure journalists and police in a double Senior Editor: Amanda Watson-Boles bombing. .3 Designer: Virginia Anstett Printer: Photo Arts Limited COMMENTARY By Frank Smyth Where will the United States stop in compelling reporters’ testimony? . .4 Committee to Protect Journalists Board of Directors CPJ REMEMBERS: Francisco Ortiz Franco By Joel Simon A Tijuana editor is gunned down, but his passion lives on. .5 Honorary Co-Chairmen: Walter Cronkite The Fixers By Elisabeth Witchel Terry Anderson In hot spots around the world, major news organizations rely more Chairman: David Laventhol on local journalists to guide, translate, and make arrangements. Now, Vice Chairman: Paul E. Steiger with dangers growing for the “fixers,” the media face new questions. .6 Andrew Alexander, Franz Allina, PLUS: Letter from Iraq By P. Mitchell Prothero Peter Arnett, Dean Baquet, Tom “We don’t need or want you here”—and it shows. .9 Brokaw, Josh Friedman, Anne Garrels, James C. Goodale, Cheryl Gould, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Alberto A Story Is No Crime By Joel Simon Ibargüen, Gwen Ifill, Steven L. An extraordinary coalition secures a hard-fought victory against criminal Isenberg, Jane Kramer, Anthony libel in Costa Rica—and may have laid out a road map for the future. .11 Lewis, David Marash, Kati Marton, Michael Massing, Geraldine Fabrikant PLUS: An Editor on Trial Metz, Victor Navasky, Burl Osborne, Tempo editor Bambang Harymurti talks with CPJ’s Abi Wright. .13 Charles L. Overby, Clarence Page, Norman Pearlstine, Erwin Potts, Under Siege By Saparmurad Ovezberdiyev Dan Rather, Gene Roberts, Sandra Mims Rowe, John Seigenthaler, and with an introduction by Nina Ognianova Paul C. Tash A Turkmen reporter angered the government with his interviews and “endless broadcasts”—and found himself under assault. .15 Published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 330 Seventh PLUS: In Exile By Jennifer Friedlin Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, N.Y. Forced to flee, journalists find both freedom and problems. .17 10001; (212) 465-1004; [email protected]. Glasnost and Now By Ann Cooper Find CPJ online at www.cpj.org. Valery Ivanov and Aleksei Sidorov were stirred by the possibilities of a free press. Their lives—and that promise—were snuffed out. .20 PLUS: Eleven Murders, No Justice The lives taken as Russia stands by. .22 DISPATCHES: Censoring a Crisis By Kamel Labidi How the Sudanese government’s choke hold on the press enables war and destruction. .23 NEWSMAKERS: Border Busters By Amanda Watson-Boles Amid bitter animosities, Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists take small steps—together. .25 CORRESPONDENTS: ‘Rebellion’ for Press Freedom By Julia Crawford On the cover: Pakistani fixer and journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, who Journaliste en Danger is the first line of defense for the embattled was detained and charged with sedi- Congolese press. .28 tion, conspiracy, and impersonation ON THE WEB: Without a Net By Amanda Watson-Boles for helping two French correspon- Zouhair Yahyaoui went from Web publisher to political prisoner. Now, dents. he’s at it again. .30 Photo: Reuters/Rizwan Saeed KICKER By Mick Stern . 32 Dangerous Assignments 1 AS IT HAPPENED A look at recent red-letter cases from the CPJ files… May independent press. More than two September dozen other journalists remain jailed. CPJ names Iraq as the most dan- 3 9 The last remaining foreign corre- gerous place in the world to work as a 22 Francisco Ortiz Franco, co-editor spondent in Eritrea leaves after the gov- journalist. Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Bangla- of the Tijuana-based weekly Zeta, is ernment orders his expulsion. Jonah desh also make CPJ’s annual list of gunned down in apparent retaliation Fisher worked for the BBC and Reuters. the 10 worst places to be a journalist. for his work. (See “CPJ Remembers,” page 5.) 16 Bambang Harymurti, chief editor of June Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, is con- July victed in a high-profile criminal defama- 1 The popular Russian news program tion case. He receives a one-year “Namedni” is canceled under govern- 9 Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes prison sentence but vows to appeal. ment pressure, and anchor Leonid Russia, is killed in a drive-by shoot- (See “An Editor on Trial,” page 13.) Parfyonov (below) is fired. Days ing outside his office in Moscow. He before, Parfyonov had interviewed the was the 11th journalist to be killed in October widow of slain Chechen separatist Russia in a contract-style murder in leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The four years. (See “Glasnost and Now,” 5 A Sierra Leonean court sentences interview was cut from the broadcast page 20.) Paul Kamara, editor and publisher of seen in much of the country. the newspaper For Di People, to two August years in prison on charges of “sedi- tious libel.” The newspaper had pub- 7 The Iraqi government closes the lished articles that offended President Baghdad office of the Qatar-based Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Ⅲ news channel Al-Jazeera and bars it from newsgathering in Iraq. The government says the ban is designed to As They Said “protect the people of Iraq.” Reuters/Stringer “What is free press? There is no free press anywhere. It’s not in 3 Rebels take control of Bukavu in 20 Brazilian President Luiz Inácio eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, “Lula” da Silva (below) sends a bill to England; it’s not in the United forcing three radio stations off the air Congress to “guide, discipline, and States. We’d like to know what and causing several journalists to go supervise” journalists. The govern- free press is in the first place.” into hiding. The insurrection leads to ment says it is trying to improve –Isaias Afewerki, president of press freedom abuses nationwide. journalism, but the bill comes after Eritrea, where 17 journalists are a series of reports detailing alleged imprisoned 17-24 Cuban authorities release government corruption. BBC online, September 10, 2004 Manuel Vázquez Portal (below) and “The fact that no one is con- Carmelo Díaz Fernández, who were victed for killing journalists imprisoned for more than a year really encourages people to in a government crackdown on the attack media practitioners.” –Inday Espina-Varona, chair- woman of the National Union of AP/Dario Lopez-Mills Journalists of the Philippines, Italian freelance journalist Enzo 25 where 45 journalists have been Baldoni, who was kidnapped by mili- killed since 1985 tants while traveling to the Iraqi city of Los Angeles Times, September 12, Najaf, is shown murdered in video. 2004 (See “Letter from Iraq,” page 9.) 2 Fall | Winter 2004 IN FOCUS Reuters/Zahid Hussein Karachi, Pakistan n a number of occasions Police officers and journalists worldwide, terrorists have converged on the scene to investi- O used a double-bombing tech- gate. About 30 minutes after the initial nique: detonating a small explosive blast, another, much stronger, bomb to draw a crowd, then setting off detonated, injuring dozens and killing another to inflict heavy damage once one officer. police and rescue workers arrive. Police blamed the attack on Such attacks put not only emergency Islamic militants who had tried to personnel at risk but also journalists, assassinate Pakistani President Pervez who are often among the first to Musharraf in 2002, according to arrive at the scene. Agence France-Presse (AFP). A U.S. In the crowded port city of official told AFP that the attackers Reuters/Zahid Hussein Karachi, Pakistan, on the afternoon might have struck the cultural center of May 26, a car bomb exploded out of a mistaken belief that it was Washington Post quoted the head of shortly after 5 p.m. in front of the connected to the U.S. government. police operations as saying that the Pakistani-American Cultural Center, a Dozens of journalists, including second bomb was hidden in a car private, English-language school AFP photographer Amer Qureshi that had been stolen only 90 minutes located near the residence of the U.S. (right), were injured by shrapnel before the attack. Ⅲ consul general. that flew in the second blast. The —Amanda Watson-Boles Dangerous Assignments 3 COMMENTARY tempt and at least four other In San Francisco, U.S. prosecutors reporters were subpoenaed in a fed- sent letters to journalists from The eral investigation into which admin- San Francisco Chronicle and The San Breaking istration officials leaked the name of Jose Mercury News asking them to a CIA operative. A government offi- turn over documents and confiden- cial’s willful disclosure of an under- tial sources for stories about alleged a Bond cover CIA officer is a crime. steroid use by professional athletes— Here is where politics loom large— including the source of grand jury and the government’s strategy raises transcripts, excerpts of which were By Frank Smyth questions. Chicago U.S. Attorney published in the Chronicle. Patrick Fitzgerald, a rising star in the Justice Department guidelines WASHINGTON, D.C. Justice Department who was named state that “the department’s policy is hat kind of country forces special prosecutor to the case, put the to protect freedom of the press, the journalists to name their initial squeeze not on syndicated news-gathering function, and news Wsources, and what signal columnist Robert Novak, who broke media sources.” Only in “exigent cir- does it send worldwide? the story, but on several reporters cumstances, such as where immedi- By most accounts, U.S. prosecu- peripherally involved, including two ate action is required to avoid the tors have targeted more journalists who never even wrote about it.

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