2019

  
President Miguel Díaz-Canel talks to the press in Havana on February 24 after voting in a referendum on a new constitution in Havana. Several critical news sites were blocked in Cuba on the date of the vote. (AP/Ramon Espinosa)

Critical news websites blocked during Cuba referendum vote

Miami, February 25, 2019– Cuban authorities should immediately ensure citizens have access to news websites, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Several critical news sites were blocked in the country yesterday, as Cuba held a national referendum on proposed changes to its constitution, news sites reported.

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A man reads a newspaper in street in N'djamena, Chad, on April 12, 2016. A publisher was recently handed a suspended jail term in a defamation suit involving the president's brother. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP)

Chad publisher handed suspended jail term for critical reporting on president’s brother

Deli Nestor, publisher of the privately owned semi-weekly investigative newspaper Eclairage in Chad, was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence by a criminal court in N’Djamena on February 13, 2019, after he was convicted of defaming the brother of President Idriss Deby, according to Nestor, who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Cars drive on a highway in Kiev, Ukraine, on January 18, 2017. Journalists in Kiev have recently reported being watched and followed. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Ukrainian investigative journalists report being followed, monitored

Kiev, February 25, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern for the safety of journalists working at Ukraine’s Schemes and Bihus.Info investigative journalism outlets after both reported being followed and surveilled last week, and called on authorities to swiftly investigate the matter.

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The 100% Noticias building is seen in Managua on December 22, 2018, one day after it was raided and closed by the Nicaraguan police. Two journalists from the broadcaster remain in detention. (Maynor Valenzuela/AFP)

CPJ, RSF call on Nicaragua to release two journalists held on terrorism charges

The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders today condemned the detention of two independent journalists in Nicaragua, and called on Nicaraguan authorities to immediately release them and drop all charges against them.

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A sign reading 'Cumhuriyet will not be silent' is held during a protest outside Istanbul's court house in September 2017. An appeals court in February upheld the convictions of six staff at the paper. (AFP/Yasin Akgul)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 17, 2019

Appeals court upholds Cumhuriyet verdict An Istanbul appeals court on February 19 upheld the terrorism-related convictions of staff from the daily Cumhuriyet who were earlier sentenced to five years or less in prison, according to reports. CPJ condemned the decision. The decision means that at least six defendants, including a cartoonist, journalists, a lawyer, an…

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Freelance journalist Sherwan Amin Sherwani has been detained by Kurdish authorities for weeks; CPJ is calling for his release. (Photo by Hushyar Sherkawaye)

Journalist detained for weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan, accused of anti-state acts

Beirut, February 21, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the prolonged detention without charge of freelance journalist Sherwan Amin Sherwani by Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq and called for his immediate release.

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Lester Holt, Matt Murray, and Norman Pearlstine join CPJ board of directors

Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes news veterans New York, February 20, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today announced that Lester Holt, anchor at “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and “Dateline NBC;” Matt Murray, editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires; and Norman Pearlstine, executive editor of The Los Angeles…

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CPJ calls on Mauritania government to release blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed

CPJ calls on Mohamedoun Daddah, Mauritania’s ambassador to the United States, to meet to discuss the wrongful imprisonment of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was scheduled to be released in late 2017.

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Demonstrators attend a protest in Bratislava, Slovakia, on May 4, 2018. Authorities have not identified the mastermind of the murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee. (Vladimir Simicek/AFP)

CPJ and IPI urge Slovak officials to expedite Kuciak case

Bratislava, February 19, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute (IPI) called on Slovak authorities to expedite charges against all parties allegedly involved in the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak. A delegation from the two groups today met with Ministry of Interior officials and representatives of the special prosecutor’s office tasked…

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A vendor of magazines, newspapers, and calendars sits in an underground walkway in central Kiev, Ukraine, on November 18, 2016. A Ukrainian court granted the prosecutor general access to a news magazine's files and reporter's emails in February 2019. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Ukrainian court grants prosecutor access to newsmagazine’s files, reporter’s emails

Kiev, February 19, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a ruling by the Pechersk District Court of Kiev granting investigators from Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office access to internal documents of independent newsmagazine Novoye Vremya and email conversations of its reporter Ivan Verstiuk in an attempt to discover a source.

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