2017
Russian security forces raid journalist Zoya Svetova’s home
New York, February 28, 2017–Russian authorities should cease harassing journalists and allow them to work unimpeded, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security forces today searched the Moscow home of prominent journalist and human rights defender Zoya Svetova, according to press reports and Svetova’s lawyers.
Fox TV-Turkey taken off the air in Azerbaijan
Broadcasts of Turkish broadcaster Fox TV-Turkey ceased in Azerbaijan late the night of February 22, 2017, hours after a presenter mocked President Ilham Aliyev’s appointment of his wife as the country’s first vice-president, Azerbaijani and Turkish media reported.
Delhi police, student activists beat journalists
Police and student activists beat at least eight journalists covering fighting between rival student groups at Delhi University’s Ramjas College on February 22, 2017, according to media reports and journalists speaking to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Defamation suit in Thailand restricts BBC reporter’s freedom of movement
Bangkok, February 28, 2017–A court in Thailand has seized the passport of BBC reporter Jonathan Head in response to a criminal defamation suit filed by a Thai lawyer over a news report on alleged fraud committed on the tourist island of Phuket. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the restrictions on the reporter’s freedom of…
Die Welt Turkey correspondent jailed pending trial
New York, February 28, 2017–Turkish prosecutors should immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Deniz Yücel, Turkey correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Istanbul’s Ninth Court of Penal Peace last night ordered the journalist, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany detained since February 14, jailed pending…
Algerian journalist faces treason charges
Washington, D.C., February 27, 2017–Algerian authorities should immediately drop all criminal charges against Marzoug Touati, an editor of the news website Al-Hogra, and release him without condition or delay, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Algerian security forces arrested Touati from his home in the coastal city of Béjaïa on January 18 and have…
CPJ Highlights: February edition
Press freedom in the US–and what CPJ’s doing about it CPJ continues to advocate for journalists and press freedom in the United States. In a February 25 op-ed published in The New York Times titled “Trump is damaging press freedom in the U.S. and abroad,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon argued that the U.S. administration’s…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 26
Shots fired at newspaper office, no one injured An unknown assailant in a moving taxi fired two shots from a handgun at the building housing the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet in Istanbul this morning, Cumhuriyet reported. A police investigation is in progress, the report said.
Iraqi Kurdish journalist killed by roadside bomb in Mosul
New York, February 25, 2017–Iraqi Kurdish reporter Shifa Zikri Ibrahim, known professionally as Shifa Gardi, was killed today by a roadside bomb while covering the Iraqi Army’s offensive against the Islamic State group in western Mosul for the Kurdish TV station Rudaw, the network said. A cameraman for the network, Younis Mustafa, was also injured…
Reporters barred from U.S. press secretary briefing
New York, February 24, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the decision today to bar nine news outlets from an informal briefing known as “a gaggle” by President Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Separately, at the Conservative Party Action Conference in Maryland today, Trump said that journalists should not be…