2018

  
People cross a road during a heavy snowfall in Kiev, Ukraine in January 2018. Journalists at Media Holding Vesti remain blocked from their newsroom in central Kiev one week after dozens of law enforcement agents raided the office, editor-in-chief Oksana Omelchenko told CPJ. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Week after raid, office of Ukraine’s Vesti remains blocked

Kiev, February 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Ukrainian authorities to ensure that journalists at Media Holding Vesti are able to access their office and continue their work without fear of retaliation. Journalists at Media Holding Vesti remain blocked from their newsroom in central Kiev one week after dozens of law enforcement agents raided…

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The flag-wrapped coffin of a Turkish soldier who was killed during the operation against Syria's Afrin region, is carried by guard of honor members during his funeral ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey in February 2018. Yusuf Ozan, a morning news host for the Islamist Akit TV channel, said journalists with the daily Cumhuriyet should be

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 12, 2018

Journalist released, said he was sexually abused in custody Turkish authorities on February 14 released from prison photojournalist Çağdaş Erdoğan after an Istanbul court decided he should be tried without arrest, the online newspaper Artı Gerçek reported.

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A general view shows the capital city of Kampala in Uganda, in July 2016. Five unidentified men dressed in military camouflage seized journalist Charles Etukuri outside the newspaper's office in Kampala on February 13, 2018. (Reuters/James Akena)

Ugandan journalist seized in Kampala following investigative report

Nairobi, February 14, 2018–Ugandan authorities must make every effort to secure the safe release of Charles Etukuri, an investigative journalist for the state-owned New Vision newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Five unidentified men dressed in military camouflage seized Etukuri outside the newspaper’s office in Kampala yesterday, days after he published an investigation…

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Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega was released on February 14, 2018, after serving nearly seven years in prison. (Befekadu Hailu)

Ethiopian journalists Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye released from prison

New York, February 14, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes news that Ethiopian journalists Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye are free from prison after each served nearly seven years.

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A supporter of Gambia's President Adama Barrow waves an ECOWAS flag at his swearing-in ceremony in February 2017. An ECOWAS court ruling calls on Gambia to repeal its criminal libel and false news laws. (Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon)

ECOWAS court rules Gambia violated rights of journalists

New York, February 14, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Gambian government to act on a judgment passed today by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to immediately repeal its laws on criminal libel, sedition, and false news.

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Rights groups call for an investigation into claims jailed journalists Hayot Nasriddinov, left, and Bobomurod Abdullaev, were tortured and mistreated in Uzbekistan. (AsiaTerra/Fergananews)

CPJ joins call for Uzbekistan to investigate claims jailed journalists were tortured

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of 11 other international press freedom and human rights advocacy groups, in calling on Uzbek authorities to conduct an investigation into allegations of torture and ill-treatment of jailed journalists Bobomurod Abdullaev and Hayot Nasriddinov. The coalition, led by Human Rights Watch, called for the journalists to…

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A boulevard in Casablanca, Morocco as seen in October 2012. A Casablanca court on February 12, 2018, convicted journalist Taoufik Bouachrine of criminal defamation in a lawsuit filed by two government ministers, according to news reports. (AP/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Moroccan court convicts local publisher of criminal defamation

New York, February 14, 2018–Moroccan authorities should drop all charges against Akhbar al-Youm columnist and publisher Taoufik Bouachrine on appeal, and allow him to work without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Workers set up street decorations in front of the national flag in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in September 2017. Kyrgyz authorities charged freelance journalist Elnura Alkanova with seeking and disclosing confidential commercial information following the publication last fall of investigative reports on the allegedly corrupt sale of government property near the capital Bishkek, the independent online news site 24.kg reported. (Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov)

Kyrgyz journalist charged, put under travel ban following investigative report

New York, February 13, 2018–Kyrgyz authorities should immediately drop all charges against freelance journalist Elnura Alkanova, lift her travel ban, and allow her to report without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A man reads a newspaper outside a Dhaka flower stall in 2015. Bangladesh's press say a climate of fear amid legal action, attacks, and threats makes covering sensitive issues difficult. (AP)

Bangladesh’s press say they are losing the courage to report amid threats from all sides

Nazmul Huda pointed his TV camera at garment workers demonstrating for higher wages in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, and at the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them. It took a while for police to notice the ETV reporter, and they were furious. After all, they had ordered him to leave…

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A Myanmar border guard stands next to fencing near Maungdaw, Rakhine state, where structures to process Rohingya refugees are being built. Local and international journalists face challenges reporting on the crisis and other politically sensitive issues. (AFP/Cape Diamond)

Threats, arrests, and access denied as Myanmar backtracks on press freedom

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Esther Htusan is no longer safe to report from her home country, Myanmar. The Associated Press reporter fled the country late last year after being threatened for her critical reporting on various topics that authorities deem sensitive, from the ethnic Rohingya refugee exodus, the military’s controversial counterinsurgency operations in Rakhine State, to…

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