2017
Bahrain orders independent outlet Al-Wasat to cease publication
New York, June 5, 2017–Bahraini authorities should revoke an order barring the independent news outlet Al-Wasat from publishing and stop harassing the newspaper and its journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Ministry of Information Affairs yesterday ordered Al-Wasat to cease publishing in print and online indefinitely, the outlet’s editor-in-chief Mansoor al-Jamri, told…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 4, 2017
News websites blocked for 25th, 44th time, respectively The Turkish telecommunications regulator BTK blocked access to the website of the pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Özgürlükçü Demokrasi–for the 25th time–and to the leftist news website sendika.org–for the 44th time, the press freedom collective Ben Gazeteciyim (“I am a journalist”) reported yesterday. Özgürlükçü Demokrasi continues to publish at…
Released recording highlights polarized atmosphere for Brazil’s political reporters
The release of a private conversation between a well-known journalist and his source has shaken the journalistic community in Brazil and highlighted the increasingly polarized and uneasy terrain in which political reporters work.
Editor and columnist detained on criminal defamation charges in Myanmar
Bangkok, June 5, 2017–Authorities in Myanmar should immediately drop criminal defamation charges against Kyaw Min Swe, editor of The Voice newspaper, and Ko Kyaw Zwa Naing, a columnist at the newspaper who writes under the pen name British Ko Ko Maung, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police detained the journalists on June 2,…
Myanmar: One year under Suu Kyi, press freedom lags behind democratic progress
When Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her long-persecuted National League for Democracy party won elected office in November 2015, bringing an end to nearly five decades of authoritarian military rule, many local journalists saw the democratic result as a de facto win for press freedom.
Venezuelan court fines news website $500,000 for ‘moral damage’ to politician
Bogotá, Colombia, June 2, 2017–A Venezuelan court’s ruling ordering a news website to pay the equivalent of nearly half a million U.S. dollars in damages for republishing an article about a politician threatens press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Court fines Benin media regulator for wrongfully closing broadcaster
A court in Benin on May 22, 2017, ordered the reopening of Sikka TV, which the High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC by its French acronym), the state’s broadcast regulator, had ordered closed in November 2016, according to media reports. The court also ordered HAAC to pay 50 million West African francs (U.S.$86,000) in…
For Mosul journalists, no work or safety in post-Islamic State Iraq
For nearly three years, Mosul journalist Mohammad Talal al-Nuaimi lived in constant fear of being discovered and killed. The seizure of Mosul by the militant group Islamic State, or IS, in early June 2014 and the subsequent targeting of local journalists had forced him into hiding. He was unable to do any media-related work under…
Morocco deports Algerian journalist
New York, June 1, 2017–Moroccan authorities should lift any restrictions on Algerian journalist Djamel Alilat’s ability to enter Morocco following his May 30 deportation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested Alilat as he left a protest he was covering in northern Morocco two days prior, according to the journalist and other news…
Reporter threatened and has part of ear cut off in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state
Mexico City, June 1, 2017–Authorities in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo must undertake a swift investigation into the attack on journalist Carlos Barrios, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. An unidentified man threatened Barrios, who reports for the news website Aspectos, and cut off part of his ear with a knife, his editor…