2024
CPJ calls for probe into attack on Ghana radio journalist David Kobbena at ruling NPP office
Abuja, January 26, 2024—Authorities in Ghana should credibly investigate an attack on Cape FM morning show host David Kobbena at the offices of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. About 15 people, several of whom were wearing pro-NPP T-shirts, confronted…
14 years on, wife of missing Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda fights for justice
“I don’t know how long it will take, but I will get justice for my Prageeth,” Sandya Ekneligoda, wife of abducted Sri Lankan journalist and government critic Prageeth Ekneligoda, told CPJ via video call. It has been 14 years since Prageeth’s disappearance. Prageeth, a then 50-year-old cartoonist and columnist for the news website Lanka e…
CPJ condemns acquittal of suspected organizer of 1992 murder of Polish journalist Jarosław Ziętara
Berlin, January 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a recent Polish court ruling that, in a final, non-appealable verdict, acquitted former member of the Polish Senate and entrepreneur Aleksander Gawronik, who has been accused of being the initiator of the 1992 murder of investigative journalist Jarosław Ziętara. “We are deeply disappointed that the long…
Turkish journalist Sinan Aygül convicted for ‘insulting’ men who beat him; attackers get suspended sentences
Istanbul, January 25, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday called on Turkish authorities to ensure justice in the case of journalist Sinan Aygül, who was hospitalized by an assault last year. The 1st Tatvan Court of First Instance in the eastern province of Bitlis found Aygül, chief editor of the privately owned…
DRC journalist Blaise Mabala detained on insult charge; Stanis Bujakara Tshiamala remains jailed
Kinshasa, January 24, 2024—Authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo should immediately release journalists Blaise Mabala and Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, drop legal proceedings against them, and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On December 29, 2023, police officers arrested Mabala at a provincial police…
CPJ, partners, call on EU to help journalists in Israel-Gaza war
The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday joined 17 other partner organizations in sending a letter to Josep Borrell, the High Representative for the European Union on Foreign and Security Policy, urging him to call for press freedom and journalists’ rights to be respected during the Israel-Gaza war. The unprecedented killing of so many journalists…
Pegasus spyware used to target Togolese journalists Loïc Lawson and Anani Sossou
New York, January 23, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by findings that the phones of Togolese journalists Loïc Lawson and Anani Sossou were infected with Pegasus spyware in 2021, and repeats its calls for an immediate moratorium on the use of such surveillance technologies and for legal proceedings against the journalists to be…
CPJ calls for immediate release of Sudanese journalist Haitham Dafallah and his brother
New York, January 22, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked by reports that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group, arrested journalist Haitham Dafallah and his brother Omar Dafallah, and calls for their immediate release. On Friday, RSF soldiers arrested Dafallah, editor-in-chief of local independent news website al-Maidan, and his brother from their…
Taliban detains Ehsan Akbari, Afghan journalist with Japan’s Kyodo News
New York, January 22, 2024—Taliban authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Afghan journalist Ehsan Akbari and stop harassing and detaining members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On January 17, the Taliban’s Government Media Information Center (GMIC) summoned Akbari, the assistant bureau chief of Japanese media outlet Kyodo…
CPJ calls for immediate release of Sudanese journalist Ogail Ahmed Naime
New York, January 19, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group, arrested journalist Ogail Ahmed Naime and calls for his immediate release. On Thursday, January 18, RSF soldiers arrested Naime, a freelance journalist, from his home in Khartoum, according to news reports. As…