Egypt is second only to China as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2015. Worldwide, the number of journalists behind bars for their work declined moderately during the year, but a handful of countries continue to use systematic imprisonment to silence criticism. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser
Plainclothes police arrested Somaru Nag on July 16, 2015, at his family’s mobile phone shop on the outskirts of Darbha town, according his brother, Sonaru, who was cited by the South Asian media watchdog group The Hoot. The family was told of his arrest three days later.
The violence over the tightening of laws banning the consumption of beef in parts of India and debate over the reach of a right-wing Hindu agenda are having an impact on press freedom. An editor who wrote about the benefits of beef was fired last week, journalists have received death threats from extremist groups, and…
On September 29, 2015, police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh arrested a journalist on what his colleagues said were fabricated charges in connection with his reporting on human rights abuses by local authorities, according to news reports.
New York, October 8, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to thoroughly investigate the shooting death of journalist Hemant Yadav, determine a motive, and bring the perpetrators to justice. The attack follows the killing of another journalist in the state in June.
CPJ’s 2015 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free Published October 8, 2015 Elisabeth Witchel/CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant The ambush of a convoy in South Sudan and the hacking deaths of bloggers in Bangladesh this year propelled the two nations onto CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries…
“These people will kill you,” Nikhil Wagle, a prominent journalist in India, told me as we discussed reports of him being named as a target by a member of a hard-line Hindu group who is being questioned by police over the murder of a writer.
Images of police forcibly suppressing protesters, such as the one above, are seen in many places around the world. Too frequently, journalists trying to cover these events find themselves caught in the crosshairs, with news crews beaten by police batons, exposed to teargas or hit by water cannon. From race riots in Ferguson in the…
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on August 7, 2015, issued legal notices to three privately owned TV news channels, accusing them of violating broadcast regulations in coverage that was “disrespectful” to the country’s president and “tended to denigrate” the judiciary, according to news reports.
New York, August 3, 2015–A correspondent who wrote about corruption for a Bengali-language daily has been reported missing in the Indian state of West Bengal, according to news reports. Chayan Sarkar’s disappearance comes as a number of journalists have been attacked after reporting on corruption around India.