2016
CPJ joins call for Egypt to end its persecution of journalists, civil society leaders
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 other organizations in calling on Egyptian authorities today to halt the persecution of journalists, press freedom advocates, and civil society leaders. Restrictive measures have included travel bans, asset freezes, and the re-opening of a five-year-old investigation into the foreign funding of human rights organizations.
Journalist arrest another sign of deteriorating climate for press in Chhattisgarh
New York, March 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to immediately release Prabhat Singh, a reporter for the Hindi daily Patrika, who was arrested in the south Bastar region Monday, and to investigate a claim that he was mistreated in custody. Singh’s arrest comes as…
CPJ calls on Nigerian police chief to investigate assault of publisher, not publisher
CPJ writes to Nigerian Police Inspector General Solomon Arase to urge him to arrest those responsible for beating publisher Yomi Olomofe into a coma in June 2015, rather than investigating the publisher on charges of assaulting his assailants.
Tanzanian journalist abducted, beaten for Zanzibar election coverage
Unknown assailants abducted Salma Said, a reporter with the Kiswahili-language Mwananchi (“Citizen”) newspaper and a correspondent for Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, shortly after the journalist arrived at Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport on March 18, 2016, according to news reports and a statement she made to the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition…
Mission Journal: Rise in journalist arrests tarnishes Jordan’s image as reformist
The phone call came just as our conversation about the escalating crackdown on Jordanian media hit its stride. Lina Ejeilat, the co-founder of the news website 7iber (pronounced hebber), apologized and said she had to take the call. It was 7iber’s lawyer and it was important. For years the website had fought against a requirement…
As Turkey broadens media crackdown, CPJ expands coverage
“Turkey Crackdown Chronicle” to increase documentation of press freedom violations New York, March 21, 2016–In response to the recent spike in media freedom violations in Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists has launched the “Turkey Crackdown Chronicle,” a real-time diary of attacks on journalists and other press freedom abuses.
Closure of news site underscores Malaysia’s press freedom crisis amid 1MDB scandal
On March 14, The Malaysian Insider abruptly closed its editorial operations less than a month after the state media regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, blocked local access to its news site.
Sudanese authorities confiscate newspaper edition
Sudanese authorities confiscated all 20,000 copies of the March 15, 2016, edition of the daily newspaper Al-Sudani, according to press reports. Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) appeared at the newspaper’s printers in Khartoum on the evening of March 14 and seized all copies of the daily, which had just been printed…