On January 13, 2021, the Trinidad and Tobago High Court found that a police raid on the headquarters of the Daily Express newspaper the previous March was unconstitutional and infringed on the outlet’s right to press freedom, according to media reports and the court ruling. On March 11, 2020, a team of seven police officers…
The Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch today issued a joint statement calling on Guatemalan authorities to stop harassing the press, strengthen protections for journalists, and ensure the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic does not restrict press freedom or access to information. The statement notes that the administration of President Alejandro Giammattei,…
New York, February 18, 2021 – In response to today’s sentencing of Belarusian journalists Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova to two years each in prison over their coverage of protests in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “These prison terms are naked political persecutions designed to bully into silence any…
Last month brought mixed news in the quest for justice for 27-year-old Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, who was murdered with his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in their home outside Bratislava on February 21, 2018. The alleged mastermind, businessman Marián Kočner, is behind bars for forgery; on January 12 an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling sentencing Kočner to…
Mexico City, February 17, 2021 – Mexican authorities must undertake a swift and credible investigation into the attack on reporter Edgar Leyva Mendoza, determine whether he was targeted for his work, and guarantee his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On February 3, in Ocotlán, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, two…
New York, February 17, 2021 – Russian authorities should investigate the nonconsensual release of journalist Elena Solovyova’s financial information online and ensure that the perpetrators are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In several posts on February 4 and 10, the anonymous Telegram channel “Komi-Telega,” which has over 6,000 subscribers, published…
Bangkok, February 17, 2021 – Philippine authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Lady Ann Salem and refrain from filing any new charges against her, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On February 5, the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court dismissed illegal firearms possession charges against Salem, editor of the Manila Today English-language news website, stating that…
Vilnius, Lithuania, February 16, 2021 — Belarusian authorities should cease their raids against journalists and journalistic associations and return confiscated reporting equipment, records, and money, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Today, police in Belarus raided the Minsk headquarters of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a local advocacy and trade group, and the apartments…
On February 3, 2021, in Ikeja, the capital of Nigeria’s southwestern Lagos state, nine officers from the state Environmental Sanitation Corps assaulted and detained Benjamin Anaja, a reporter with the privately owned The Guild news website, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a statement by the International Press…
New York, February 16, 2021 — In response to a Bangladesh court’s sentencing today of five people to death for their involvement in the 2015 murder of blogger Avijit Roy, and another to life in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “We welcome the guilty verdicts against those involved in the…