2016

  

Dominican Republic court partially strikes down criminal libel laws

New York, February 25, 2016 — A recent decision by the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court to strike down laws providing for criminal penalties for defamation is a step forward in the fight to eliminate criminal defamation laws in the Americas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ called on Dominican authorities to strike all…

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Nigerian journalist says businessman threatened her over investigative report

Abuja, Nigeria, February 25, 2016–Nigerian authorities should investigate claims that a businessman threatened freelance journalist Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna over her investigation into his company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Journalist trapped and injured while reporting in besieged Turkish town dies

New York, February 24, 2016–A news editor for the Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, who had been trapped with a gunshot wound in Cizre since January 22, has died. Authorities used DNA testing to identify the remains of Rohat Aktaş, local reports said today. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear. Pro-opposition and pro-Kurdish media…

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Bangladeshis read a newspaper pasted to a wall in Dhaka. The editor of The Daily Star, based in the city, is facing multiple legal cases after saying he published unsubstantiated reports several years ago. (AP/A.M. Ahad)

79 cases and counting: Legal challenges pile up for Daily Star editor who admitted error in judgment

When Mahfuz Anam, editor of one of Bangladesh’s most respected newspapers, admitted recently to a lapse in editorial judgment several years ago, he could not have predicted the legal backlash that would ensue. Anam’s admission that he published unsubstantiated information accusing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of corruption has led to a barrage of defamation and…

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Court convicts suspect in murder of DRC journalist Soleil Balanga

New York, February 23, 2016–A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday convicted a suspect of murdering journalist Soleil Balanga in April 2015, in Équateur province, according to a press release issued today by Journaliste en Danger, a Congolese press freedom organization. The High Court of Boende found Moussa Tendenle guilty of having…

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Hossam Bahgat sits at his desk in a December 7, 2011, file photo (AP/Sarah Rafea)

Egypt prevents investigative journalist from leaving the country

New York, February 23, 2016- Egyptian authorities prevented journalist Hossam Bahgat from traveling from Cairo International Airport today. No reason was given for the ban.

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Owner of Mexican news outlet who was threatened for his reporting killed in Tabasco

New York, February 22, 2016–Mexican journalist Moisés Dagdug Lutzow, who owned media company Grupo VX, was stabbed to death in his home in Villahermosa, Tabasco state, Saturday, local news reports said. Dagdug presented a weekly program for the company’s television station TVX.

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Head of Kazakh journalists’ union detained

New York, February 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by today’s detention of Seytkazy Matayev, head of the Kazakh Journalists’ Union and the chair of National Press Club, in Almaty.

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Syrian journalist killed while covering fighting in Daraya

New York, February 22, 2016 — Syrian freelance journalist Majid Dirani was killed on February 19 by Syrian military tank shells while covering fighting in a suburb of Damascus, one of his employers, Anadolu Agency, and other news outlets reported.

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Tibetan blogger jailed for three years for ‘inciting separatism’

New York, February 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the sentencing of Tibetan blogger Druklo to three years in prison on charges including inciting separatism.

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