On December 15 last year, fighting that broke out between supporters of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar–who had been vice president until Kiir fired the entire Cabinet–escalated into a civil war that has increased pressure on an already fragile independent press.
New York, December 14, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s raids on media outlets in which police detained journalists and media workers on politicized anti-state charges. Among those detained today were Ekrem Dumanlı, editor-in-chief of Zaman, one of Turkey’s largest dailies, and Hidayet Karaca, chairman of the Samanyolu Broadcast Group, reports said.
A sense of optimism seems to be filling the streets of Jakarta after the election of President Joko Widodo, who took office a few weeks ago. Against this backdrop of hope, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined other press freedom and freedom of expression groups for a series of meetings in Indonesia’s capital and Bali…
New York, December 11, 2014–A correspondent working for Al-Jazeera’s Arabic website, Aljazeera.net, was killed Wednesday night while covering clashes between rebel and government forces in Syria’s Daraa province, the outlet reported today. Mahran al-Deeri is the fourth journalist to die covering fighting in and around the village of Sheikh Miskeen in the past three days.
New York, December 9, 2014–Three journalists from the Syrian opposition TV station Orient News were killed on Monday while headed to cover the aftermath of clashes in the village of Sheikh Miskeen in Daraa Province, according to their station and other news reports. The station said it believed the journalists were directly targeted by the…
For Ecuadoran journalist and political activist Fernando Villavicencio, life on the lam has meant wading through jungle rivers to avoid police checkpoints, dining on crocodile and monkey meat, and penning his latest book from a series of safe houses.
On December 2, 2014, a special war crimes court convicted Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman of contempt in connection with his reporting, according to news reports. The court ruled that Bergman’s writing “portraying derogatory criticism” had “hurt the feelings of the nation,” and ordered him to pay a 5,000 taka (US$65) fine or serve seven…
Nairobi, December 8, 2014–Two journalists were killed and three were wounded in a twin bombing in the south-central Somali town of Baidoa on December 5, which targeted a restaurant where journalists and officials frequently congregate.
New York, December 8, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of journalist Aleksandr Alesin, who according to news reports is being held by the Belarusian national security service, known as the KGB.