FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

JOURNALISTS AND TRANSLATOR RELEASED FROM LAOTIAN PRISON

New York, July 9, 2003-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
welcomes the release today of Belgian journalist Thierry Falise, French
cameraman Vincent Reynaud, and their American translator and guide, Rev. Naw Karl Mua.
Their release comes one week after the three were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for their alleged involvement in the murder of a village security guard.

"We are delighted that Laotian authorities have finally freed these
journalists," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "But the fact
that they were arrested and prosecuted on trumped-up murder charges is a
stark reminder of the extreme measures the Laotian government will take to
deter independent reporting. Press conditions in Laos are among the worst in
the world."

Laotian security forces arrested the group on June 4 in a remote corner
of northern Laos, where the journalists were reporting on a little-known
anti-government rebellion by members of the ethnic Hmong minority. The
government has long denied the existence of the anti-communist rebel
movement, which has been around for decades, and has suppressed
information about the military's efforts to crush the insurgency.

On June 30, the journalists were convicted and sentenced in proceedings
that took little more than two hours, in a courtroom that was closed to the
foreign press.

Falise, Reynaud, and Mua were freed after intensive diplomatic efforts
by European and U.S. diplomats. According to The Associated Press news
agency, two Hmong rebels arrested along with them remain in prison.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press
conditions in Laos, visit www.cpj.org.

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Committee to Protect Journalists
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