CPJ Insider: 2018 Year-End Edition
December 30, 2018 10:02 AM ET
CPJ believes that all journalists should be able to report freely and safely without any fear of harassment or retaliation. That is why we do what we do. Yet our work is made possible only with your support. So, as we look back today on some highlights of 2018, we...
Ahead of inauguration day, Brazilian media braces for Bolsonaro
December 27, 2018 11:45 AM ET
Long before one of their photographers was harassed on election night in Brazil, the editors at Fortaleza newspaper O Povo were meeting with their readers and staff to discuss the increasingly polarized environment and how to deal with it....
Press Freedom in 2018- A note from CPJ Advocacy
December 26, 2018 10:10 AM ET
Dear friend of CPJ, There is no question that this year has been a tough one for press freedom. The number of jailed journalists topped 250 for the third year in a row, and the number of journalists targeted for murder in reprisal for their work nearly doubled, jumping from...
Nicaraguan police raid independent news station, arrest two journalists
December 22, 2018 5:52 PM ET
New York, December 22, 2018--Nicaraguan police last night entered the offices of 100% Noticias, a privately owned cable and internet news station in Managua, ordered the station off the air, and arrested the channel's director Miguel Mora and news director Lucía Pineda Ubau, according to news reports. In a...
Three Palestinian photojournalists injured covering Gaza protests since November 19
December 21, 2018 5:32 PM ET
Rashid Rasheed, a photojournalist and cameraman for the Associated Press news agency, was hit in his left leg by a live round fired by the Israel Defense Forces while covering a protest on a beach near the border fence west of the northern Gazan city of Beit Lahia on...
Lesotho military spokesman threatens investigative journalist
December 21, 2018 4:24 PM ET
New York, December 21, 2018--Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane must repudiate threats made by the military against Lesotho Times investigative journalist Pascalinah Kabi and ensure that the press can function without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
Severed human head and threat left outside Tamaulipas newspaper office
December 21, 2018 4:01 PM ET
Mexico City, December 21, 2018--Mexican authorities must immediately take all necessary actions to guarantee the safety of journalists in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas state, after a severed human head was left outside the offices of a local newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
In Zambia, journalist jailed for 18 months for contempt of court
December 21, 2018 1:47 PM ET
Nairobi, December 21, 2018--Zambia's Supreme Court yesterday sentenced Derrick Sinjela, editor-in-chief of the privately owned Rainbow Newspaper, to 18 months in prison for contempt of court. Sinjela was convicted in September in relation to articles that accused the Supreme Court of corruption and questioned its handling of a case...
Sudan must stop trying to censor newspapers, websites
December 21, 2018 1:44 PM ET
Washington D.C, December 21, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Sudanese authorities to stop trying to stifle news coverage of this week's widespread anti-government protests. Internet service in Sudan, including access to social media websites, was disrupted today, according to Access Now and NetBlocks, two organizations that...
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 16, 2018
December 20, 2018 1:21 PM ET
Journalist jailed over unpaid fines Hakan Gülseven, a journalist who used to work for the pro-opposition (CHP) daily Yurt, was imprisoned on December 20 after failing to pay 31,500 Turkish lira (US$5,974) in three unpaid fines over charges of insult, the news website Artı Gerçek reported....
CPJ calls on Cameroon's Biya to release critically ill journalist
December 19, 2018 3:35 PM ET
CPJ calls on Cameroon's president, Paul Biya, to release critically ill imprisoned journalist Thomas Awah Junior, the Northwest correspondent for privately owned Afrik 2 Radio in Yaoundé and publisher of the monthly Aghem Messenger magazine, on humanitarian grounds.
In Mexico, 'narcopolitics' is a deadly mix for journalists covering crime and politics
December 19, 2018 12:00 AM ET
It was 3 p.m. on January 13 when Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez stopped at a traffic light in Nuevo Laredo, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Two men approached the car of the well-known newspaper columnist, opened the driver's door, and stabbed him more than 20 times in front...
More journalists killed on the job as reprisal murders nearly double
December 19, 2018 12:00 AM ET
Journalists from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to the U.S. were targeted for murder in 2018 in reprisal for their work, bringing the total of journalists killed on duty to its highest in three years. The number of journalists killed in conflict fell to its lowest level since 2011. A...
Lawsuits and economic crisis drive Venezuela's journalists into exile
December 18, 2018 12:08 PM ET
When Ewald Scharfenberg, the founding editor of the Venezuelan investigative news website Armando.Info, holds editorial meetings, he pulls out his mobile phone. That's because most of his reporters are in Venezuela while Scharfenberg lives and works in neighboring Colombia....
Venezuela's biggest daily, El Nacional, latest casualty of newsprint restrictions
December 17, 2018 4:23 PM ET
New York, December 17, 2018--Venezuela's biggest independent daily, El Nacional, printed its last edition on December 14, its editor and owner Miguel Henrique Otero announced. In an interview published in the paper, Otero, who manages the paper from self-imposed exile in Madrid, said that El Nacional would be available...
Police, 'yellow vest' protesters both target journalists in France, Belgium
December 17, 2018 10:36 AM ET
Dozens of journalists covering anti-government protests in France and Belgium in November and December of 2018 suffered attacks by the demonstrators and the police, according to press and social media reports....
Two Jordanian journalists jailed for 2 days for publication of photomontage
December 14, 2018 7:14 PM ET
An Amman prosecutor on December 10, 2018, ordered the arrest of Mohammad al-Wakeel, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the news website Al-Wakeel News, and intern editor Ghadir al-Rabihat on charges of inciting sectarian strife after a complaint was filed over an altered image of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper"...
Nicaraguan police raid independent news organization, take equipment and documents
December 14, 2018 4:35 PM ET
Bogotá, December 14, 2018--Nicaraguan police last night broke into one of the country's few remaining independent news organizations and hauled away documents, computers, and TV cameras, according to news website Confidencial, which is one of the outlets affected, and other news reports....
CPJ calls on Brazil to end its use of criminal defamation to persecute journalists
December 13, 2018 6:18 PM ET
New York, December 13, 2018--Brazilian authorities should cease prosecuting journalists for defamation and repeal the country's outdated criminal defamation laws, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police took Paulo Cezar de Andrade Prado, a blogger known as "Paulinho," into custody on November 9 to serve a prison sentence...
Spanish police search newsroom, seize journalists' equipment in leaks investigation
December 13, 2018 5:50 PM ET
Berlin, December 13, 2018--Spanish authorities should immediately return equipment and documentation seized from the news agency Europa Press and from journalists working for the Diario de Mallorca daily newspaper and ensure that journalists can protect the confidentiality of their sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 6, 2018
December 13, 2018 1:22 PM ET
Anti-state charges for 5 journalists Five journalists from the opposition daily Sözcü were indicted for "willingly and knowingly helping a [terrorist] organization without being in its hierarchical structure," BBC Turkey reported on December 10. Chief editor Metin Yılmaz, online chief editor Mustafa Çetin, online news coordinator Yücel Arı, and...
News fixer deported from Thailand to Cambodia on 'false news' accusation
December 13, 2018 12:55 PM ET
Bangkok, December 13, 2018--A Cambodian news fixer who helped to produce a documentary on sex trafficking for Russian government-funded international news network Russia Today, or RT, was deported yesterday from Thailand to Cambodia on accusations of abetting the production of false news, according to news reports....
Hundreds of journalists jailed globally becomes the new normal
December 13, 2018 12:00 AM ET
For the third year in a row, 251 or more journalists are jailed around the world, suggesting the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike. China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia imprisoned more journalists than last year, and Turkey remained the world’s worst jailer. A...
Serbian investigative journalist targeted with arson attack
December 12, 2018 3:45 PM ET
New York, December 12, 2018--Serbian authorities must ensure the safety and well-being of investigative journalist Milan Jovanović and bring those responsible for today's arson attack on his property to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
Journalists fleeing threats at home trapped in ICE detention over US asylum seeker policy
December 12, 2018 12:00 AM ET
When Cuban police escorted Serafín Morán Santiago on to a plane to Guyana in 2016, they warned the journalist he could be jailed for 15 years if he tried to return. Authorities there had already detained and tortured him for his reporting. But when he was attacked in Guyana...
Militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham threatens to execute Syrian journalist Amjed al-Maleh
December 11, 2018 4:32 PM ET
Beirut, December 11, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern about the fate of Syrian journalist Amjed al-Maleh. According to news reports, Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham threatened to execute al-Maleh, a Syrian freelance journalist and media activist from the southwestern Syrian city of Madaya whom...
Israel raids Palestinian news agency, detains journalist in the West Bank
December 10, 2018 4:57 PM ET
Washington D.C., December 10, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern at today's raid on the offices of the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah and the detention of Al-Quds News Network writer and Quds Radio Tulkarm correspondent Sameh...
CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering protests in France and Belgium
December 6, 2018 3:12 PM ET
Despite the French government announcing it will drop a proposed fuel tax rise, the gilets jaunes (yellow jackets) group, truckers, and farming groups have called for more protests, according to The Guardian. Mass demonstrations have taken place across France and Belgium as initial protests over the proposed increase in...
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 2
December 6, 2018 12:37 PM ET
Journalists in court A Diyarbakır Court on December 5 ordered Rojhat Doğru, a journalist formerly with the northern Iraq outlet Gali Kurdistan TV, to be detained pending investigation, the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency reported. According to the report, Doğru was taken into custody in Istanbul on the accusation of "being...
CPJ Insider: December 2018 edition
December 5, 2018 9:39 AM ET
CPJ's 2018 awardee Maria Ressa under increasing threat Days before Maria Ressa came to New York to accept CPJ's 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, the Philippine government announced that it planned to indict her and the news website she founded, Rappler, for tax evasion and failure to file tax...
Mexican journalist shot dead in Nayarit
December 4, 2018 5:35 PM ET
Mexico City, December 4, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mexican authorities to immediately undertake a credible and rigorous investigation into the killing of journalist Alejandro Márquez Jiménez, whose body was found on December 1 near Tepic, the capital of the northwestern state of Nayarit, according to news reports....