Category: Letters to Countries

We write to show our solidarity with James Donkor, a journalist with Radio Progress in Wa, who was arrested on October 24. According to his own testimony, Donkor was on a visit to the Wa Polytechnic when he saw a large crowd gathering outside. He entered the crowd and saw a man tied to an electric pole. On inquiring, he was told that the police had tied him there for “disrespecting” them. Like the journalist he is, Donkor took a photograph.

Press suppression in Morocco grows with at least three recent cases: The editor of Al Michaal — sentenced to a year in jail for publishing information about H.M. King Mohamed VI’s health — the government’s ban of foreign newspapers, the destructin of iissues of a Moroccan magazine, and the blockade of the offices of another Moroccan publication.

Imagine waking up one day and finding that you cannot speak and there is no exchange of information, no new thinking. Stop imagining. This is happening to Sri Lanka because of the abuses of press freedom.

The OPC writes to express our amazement that two producers of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation television program, Ahmar Bel Khat El-Arid — Rozanna Yami and a pregnant colleague — are facing serious punishment for “facilitating the expression of sin” for words spoken on air by a participant in the show.

The OPC fully supports your efforts to publish news of an Italian businessman’s alleged involvement in a corruption scandal and to appeal the injunction preventing Dnevnik from publishing further news of the affair.

The world knows that the threat of assassination by criminal gangs is the principal danger facing Mexican journalists today. However, we draw the Mexican government’s attention now to the fact that journalists are often threatened by the very people who should be protecting them — the police, the judiciary and local officials.

The killing of an Afghan journalist known for his critical reporting on the Taliban appears that he was singled out for assassination because he was too well informed about the activities of Taliban militants and Pakistani intelligence agencies.

The OPC urges the Zambian President again to drop charges against journalist, Chansa Kabwela, and close out what is now turning into a farcical performance by some members of its government.

The news from Venezuela in the month of August was alarming as its government appears determined to prevent critics from expressing themselves, and even to crush any form of media that does not reflect the government’s priorities.