2017

  
Pravit Rojanaphruk stands outside the Bangkok military base where he had been summoned on May 25, 2014. (AFP)

Pravit Rojanaphruk, CPJ honoree, accused of sedition in Thailand

New York, August 3, 2017–Authorities in Thailand should cease harassing Pravit Rojanaphruk and should drop any criminal proceedings against him for his writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Pravit, a columnist at Khaosod English who will be honored with CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award this year, told CPJ that he learned late on…

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Artist and activist Thiyazen al-Alawi paints a mural on a wall of a hospital in Sanaa as part of a cholera-awareness campaign. In one of the biggest outbreaks of the disease in modern history, more than 425,000 people in Yemen have contracted cholera, nearly 2,000 of whom have died, since the Saudi-led coalition began bombing the country in 2015. (REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah)

Yemeni journalists injured in airstrike

Shawqi Hussein, a reporter for the broadcaster Al-Maseerah, and cameraman Kamal al-Kabsi were injured in an airstrike on July 30, 2017, in the Shabwa province town of Bayhan, Yahya al-Kabsi, a graphic designer in Al-Maseerah’s Beirut office, told CPJ.

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Women read newspapers in a Mogadishu market in 2010. Somali authorities are proposing changes to the country's media law, that include new restrictions for the press. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Q&A: Somali editor says efforts to make media law less restrictive don’t go far enough

On July 13, Somalia’s Cabinet approved proposed changes to the country’s national media law as part of a review to overhaul the regulatory framework under which journalists currently work. But Somali journalists and local media rights groups have criticized the government for not doing enough to provide journalists with a less restrictive environment.

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Four Lebanese TV journalists fined for defamation and false news

Beirut’s Publication Court, headed by Judge Roukoz Rizk, on July 17, 2017, fined Mariam al-Bassam, head of News and Political Programs at the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Riyad Kobaissi, the head of the station’s investigative unit, Rami al-Amine, a reporter for the station, and Layal Mousa, an assistant reporter at the station, 2 million Lebanese pounds…

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New website to track press freedom violations in United States

Coalition of more than 20 organizations launch nonpartisan U.S. Press Freedom Tracker New York, August 2, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists joined more than 20 press freedom organizations announcing the launch today of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a new nonpartisan website dedicated to documenting press freedom abuses across the United States. Led by the…

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A Colombian miner waits for news of his colleagues after an explosion in a coal mine, June 24, 2017. Documentary filmmaker Bladimir Sánchez Espitia, who has reported on alleged human rights abuses in the country's mining industry, told CPJ his life has been repeatedly threatened over the past five years.

Colombian documentary filmmaker repeatedly threatened with death

New York, August 1, 2016–Colombian authorities should swiftly and credibly investigate threats against documentary filmmaker and activist Bladimir Sánchez Espitia and should ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sánchez told CPJ a man with a gun came looking for him in the early hours of July 30.

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A farmer waits for customers to buy his goats in a Dhaka market, December 18, 2017. (AFP/Farjana Khan Godhury)

Bangladeshi journalist arrested for reporting death of goat

New York, August 1, 2017–Bangladeshi authorities should drop all charges against Abdul Latif Morol and should release him without delay, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police in Dumaria, roughly 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Dhaka, yesterday arrested the journalist on defamation charges after he wrote on Facebook that a goat had died.

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