2021

Washington, D.C., September 3, 2021–Taliban leaders must instruct their fighters to immediately cease detaining and harassing journalists in Afghanistan and allow the media to operate freely and without fear of violence or reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 25, Taliban fighters detained Abdul Mateen Achakzai and Muhammad Ali, a reporter and…

Bangkok, September 3, 2021 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed alarm at the Singapore High Court’s ruling awarding Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong more than US$156,500 in damages in defamation suits against bloggers Terry Xu and Rubaashini Shunmuganathan. The High Court on September 1 ruled that Xu, chief editor of The Online Citizen news blog,…

Bogotá, September 2, 2021 – Ecuadorian authorities must investigate death threats made against journalist Virginia Suárez and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Suárez, who covers politics in the central town of Ventanas for her twice-weekly live news program called “Tus noches con Virginia” (Your nights with Virginia) on…

Saad Mohseni had a lot to worry about when the Taliban rolled into Kabul on August 15. Mohseni is CEO of the Moby Group, which owns and operates Afghanistan’s biggest news and entertainment networks, TOLO News and TOLO TV. The company’s 400 employees would have to adapt one way or another to the nation’s new,…

Washington, D.C., September 1, 2021 — Iranian authorities should immediately release journalist Amir-Abbas Azarmvand, drop the charges against him, and let him work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Today, Azarmvand, a financial reporter for the state run Iranian economic newspaper SMT, was arrested at 8:30 a.m. at his parents’ home in Tehran…