Gulf based Indian journalist face threat from Indian Social Club

School Mafia threatens to kill journalists, business lobby withdraw advertisement from newspaper (Watch this space )

 

Between Two Worlds; Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel faces conflicting expections (Special Report, Joel Campagna, Committee for protecting journalists.)

Journalists body Concerned about US Pressure on Al Jazeera TV

Three Journalists killed in Afghanistan

Press Freedom in Afghanistan: A brief Review

French Journalist Released by Taleban militia

Abdul Saboor Salehzai, BBC Imprisoned

Three Indian journalists die in plane Crash

AFGHANISTAN U.S. AIRSTRIKE DESTROYS AL-JAZEERA OFFICE IN KABUL

New York, November 13, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a journalists body for the freedom of press, said that it is deeply concerned about the destruction of the Kabul offices of Al-Jazeera, the Qatari-based, Arabic language satellite television station. The building that housed the station was destroyed by a missile fired by a U.S. warplane early Tuesday morning, according to international news reports. No injuries have been reported.

The US which has been a self proclaimed champion of freedom of expression and democracy throughout the world has been concerned about the manner in which the Arabic channel has been reporting events in Afghanisthan. Al-Jazeera reaches more than 35 million viewers, including 150,000 in the United States. Although U.S. officials have frequently criticized Al-Jazeera for its alleged anti-American bias, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials have recently granted interviews to the station, recognizing its important role in molding public opinion across the Arab world.

'The target of the missile attack remains unclear. The Kabul neighborhood that houses the Al-Jazeera office was also home to several Taliban officials and the Taliban Ministry for the Suppression of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue.A Pentagon spokesperson told CPJ that they were investigating reports of the bombing,' the CPJ said in a statement.

"Al-Jazeera is a vital source of news and information about the conflict in Afghanistan," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "We are relieved that no lives were lost in the incident and we hope that Al-Jazeera will resume its Afghanistan coverage without delay."

At 1:30 a.m on November 13, 2001 Kabul time, a U.S. warplane flew over Kabul, and reporters heard two loud explosions, Agence France-Presse reported. A guard at the Al-Jazeera office told the Associated Press that a missile landed on the office but did not explode. The attacks came as Taliban soldiers retreated from Kabul while Northern Alliance opposition forces took over control of the city.

BBC, AP offices damaged

CPJ statement said it is also investigating reports that offices of the BBC and The Associated Press were damaged during recent bombings in Kabul. Windows were shattered and equipment was destroyed at the BBC office in Kabul during a bombing late yesterday afternoon Kabul time, but nobody was injured, according to BBC sources in London.

At the time this news release was issued, the Al-Jazeera office was reported to have been hit by U.S. missiles. Spokespersons from the U.S. Central Command have since clarified that U.S. aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs on the building housing Al-Jazeera, based on indications that it was a "known al Qaeda facility."

Journalists body Concerned about US Pressure on Al Jazeera TV

New York, October 4, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by reports that U.S. officials pressured Qatar in an attempt to influence the news coverage of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Following a meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C., with U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani acknowledged that U.S. officials had asked him to use his influence to rein in Al-Jazeera's news coverage.

The U.S. government apparently feels that Al-Jazeera's programming has been unbalanced and anti-American, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

"We heard from the U.S. administration, and also from the previous administration," the emir was quoted as saying by CNN. "Naturally we take these things as a kind of advice."

A State Department official told CNN that Secretary Powell and the emir "had a frank exchange" on the issue and "there should have been no mistake of where we are coming from."

On October 2, the, U.S. Embassy in Qatar filed a formal diplomatic complaint with Qatari authorities regarding Al-Jazeera's coverage.

Founded in 1996, Al-Jazeera is the most widely watched news channel in the Arab world. The 24-hour channel has revolutionized the Arabic news industry through uncensored news programs and open debates.

Although the Qatari government subsidizes Al-Jazeera, the station has been widely praised for its editorial independence. Over the years, Al-Jazeera has drawn a steady stream of complaints from Arab governments angered by its reporting.

"The U.S. administration is effectively urging Qatari authorities to interfere with what is essentially an independent news station," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "Arab government attempts to influence Al-Jazeera have garnered widespread attention over the years. We are disheartened to see U.S. officials adopting similar tactics."

CPJ sources and press reports indicate that U.S. officials were particularly disturbed by Al-Jazeera's frequent airings of its exclusive December 1998 interview with Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. government was also irked by airtime given to analysts who expressed anti-American views and by an unconfirmed Al-Jazeera report that Taliban forces recently captured U.S. Special Forces troops inside Afghanistan.

Taleban Releases British Journalist

New York, October 9, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the release of British journalist Yvonne Ridley, a reporter for London's Sunday Express who was imprisoned by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia for 10 days after entering the country without a visa.

Late yesterday evening, October 8, Taliban escorts drove Ridley to the Pakistani border crossing at Torkham, near Peshawar, and handed her over to Pakistani officials. In an account of her ordeal published today in the daily Express, Ridley reported that the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, signed her release order under pressure from the Pakistani government.

"We are extremely pleased that our colleague Yvonne Ridley has been freed," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "CPJ calls on the Taliban to allow foreign journalists access to Afghanistan so that they can cover events in the country."

Background

Taliban soldiers arrested Ridley, along with two Afghan guides, on September 28 in the village of Dour Baba, just 9 miles (15 kilometers) from the Pakistani border. The fate of the guides remains unknown.

Senior Taliban officials had told reporters that Ridley was under investigation for spying and would have to stand trial for entering the country illegally. At the time of her arrest, Ridley was disguised underneath an all-encompassing burqa gown and was not carrying a passport or other travel documents.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Taliban have banned foreign journalists from entering Afghanistan and stopped granting visas to foreigners.

Authorities initially detained Ridley in Jalalabad and then moved her to a prison in Kabul, where she was jailed along with six of eight foreign aid workers who are currently on trial for preaching Christianity, a violation of Taliban law.

In her Express article, Ridley wrote that she began a hunger strike the day of her arrest, when she was denied access to a telephone. Ridley reported that from her prison cell in Kabul, she could clearly see bombs dropping on the evening of October 7, the first night of U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan.

Commenting on her decision to go to Afghanistan, Ridley wrote, "It was not a silly stunt, I was trying to find out what Afghans thought about the situation."
After her release, Ridley was taken first to Peshawar and then to Islamabad, where she was in the care of the British High Commission. She was due to leave Islamabad Tuesday night local time for London, according to Martin Townsend, editor of the Sunday Express.

Press Freedom in Afghanistan: A brief Review

AFTER 21 YEARS OF WAR, AFGHANISTAN IS ONE OF THE POOREST COUNTRIES in the world. Its people are starved for food, but also for information. The local media are dominated by the country's ruling Taliban militia, which, though it produced increasingly sophisticated propaganda, propagated religious pronouncements and official edicts rather than news. As a result, Afghans get much of their news from foreign short-wave radio broadcasts.

Shunned by the international community for its repressive rule, the Taliban leadership is divided on how to treat the foreign media. A conservative core remains openly hostile, while other officials argue that press attention could help secure desperately needed aid and diplomatic recognition. The government did make some effort to recast its image in 2000, and foreign journalists were allowed in with greater frequency than in years past.

Several foreign news agencies have offices in Kabul, including the BBC, The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. In January, a Foreign Ministry official announced that CNN would be permitted to set up a Kabul bureau, but the deal apparently fell through because of the Taliban's allegedly Quran-based ban on photographing or filming people. (This ban is only sporadically enforced, but anyone with a camera is vulnerable to the whim of an overzealous militant.)

The Taliban has imposed numerous regulations on news organizations, requiring that all locally hired staff obtain official authorization and that foreign correspondents notify the foreign ministry before traveling outside Kabul. These restrictions allow the Taliban to monitor the activities of the foreign press.

All journalists reporting in Afghanistan are keenly aware that they work at the mercy of the Taliban, without meaningful legal or physical protections. In December, Taliban officials arrested Abdul Saboor Salehzai, a translator for the BBC, and said he would be released only after the BBC dismissed him. Salehzai's forced resignation raised serious concerns about the ability of foreign news organizations to work independently in the country.

French Journalist Released by Taleban militia

November 5, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of French journalist Michel Peyrard, who was imprisoned for 25 days by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia. CPJ remains concerned about the continued detention of Peyrard's guides, Pakistani nationals Mukkaram Khan and Mohammad Irfan, who remain in Taliban custody in Jalalabad.

On November 3, Taliban officials escorted Peyrard, a reporter for the French weekly Paris Match, to the Torkham border crossing in northwest Pakistan, where he was met by the French ambassador to Pakistan and Pakistani officials, according to international news reports.

Though the reasons for his release are unclear, it comes after lengthy negotiations between French government officials, Paris Match representatives, and the Taliban. Sources at Paris Match told CPJ that Peyrard is currently in Peshawar and plans to stay there until his Pakistani colleagues are released.Upon Peyrard's release, Taliban officials announced that Khan and Irfan would be freed on November 4. However, as of today the two remained in detention.

Khan, a correspondent for the national Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt, and Irfan, an administrator at an Islamic school in Peshawar, were working as Peyrard's guides when he entered Afghanistan under the cover of a head-to-toe burqa gown. On October 9, the three were detained about 20 miles from the eastern city of Jalalabad.On October 27, a spokesperson for the ruling Taliban announced that Peyrard would be tried in "a few days time," according to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a Pakistan-based news agency with close links to the Taliban. Peyrard, Khan, and Irfan had been charged with spying, which is punishable by death.

The Taliban are also holding Japanese free-lance journalist Daigen Yanagida, who was detained on October 22 Peyrard, who was kept in the same room as Yanagida in Jalalabad, told Kyoto News Service that Yanagida had been cleared of spy charges and could be released this week.


DECEMBER 16, 2000
Abdul Saboor Salehzai, BBC IMPRISONED

Taliban authorities detained Salehzai, a translator for the BBC in Kabul, and held him incommunicado. "We asked the BBC to dismiss Salehzai several times because we believe he is a Communist," Mohammad Osman Sheryar, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters. "He will remain in detention until the BBC has removed him."

The BBC said in a statement that it could not comply with the Taliban's request for Salehzai's dismissal, and that his detention was "unacceptable."

On December 18, CPJ wrote to the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, urging him to order Salehzai's immediate release and allow him to continue his work at the BBC without further interference. Salehzai was released on December 21, after he agreed to leave his post at the BBC.

October 3, 2001

Indian journalists die in plane Crash

CPJ mourns the tragic deaths of our colleagues Anju Sharma of the Hindustan Times; Sanjiv Sinha of the Indian Express; Ranjan Jha of the television news channel Aaj Tak; and Gopal Bisht, cameraman for Aaj Tak.

All four journalists were killed on September 30 when their chartered plane crashed during a flight between New Delhi and Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh State. Four other passengers, including the opposition Congress Party's deputy leader, Madhav Rao Scindia, were also killed.

A fire in the engine caused the crash, according to Indian press reports. The passengers were traveling to Kanpur for a Congress Party rally.

Three Journalists killed in Afghanistan

November 12, 2001—The three jounralists were killed while reporting in northern Afghanistan. Johanne Sutton, a reporter for Radio France Internationale; Pierre Billaud, a reporter for Radio Television Luxembourg; and Volker Handloik, a free-lance reporter on assignment for the German news magazine Stern, were killed on the evening of November 11 when Taliban forces fired on their Northern Alliance military convoy.

"All of us here at CPJ send our heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of these three brave journalists," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "Reporters working on the front lines of this conflict are doing critically important work at great personal risk."

The reporters were among a group of six journalists who were riding with Northern Alliance soldiers in an armored personnel carrier (APC). The soldiers were advancing toward Taliban positions near the city of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar Province and the alliance's former headquarters. The Northern Alliance later claimed it had recaptured the city.

Taliban forces opened fire on the convoy and hit the APC carrying the journalists with a rocket-propelled grenade. The jolt from the grenade's impact caused some people to fall off the tank, while others may have jumped off. Three journalists survived the attack: Paul McGeough, a reporter for the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald; Véronique Rebeyrotte, a reporter for France Culture radio; and Levon Sevunts, a reporter for the Montreal Gazette.

CPJ continues to investigate competing claims about how the journalists were killed. A Northern Alliance general told CNN that the bodies of Billaud and Handloik were found in a Taliban trench and suggested that the two had been "assassinated." However, McGeough told CNN he does not believe the journalists were targeted.

CPJ is also investigating reports that an Afghan translator traveling with the group is missing.Sutton, Billaud, and Handloik are the first known press casualties in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led military campaign began on October 7. Since 1987, at least 10 other journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, according to CPJ records.