2024

Mexico City, October 18, 2024—CPJ is highly concerned after unidentified attackers fired at the offices of the El Debate newspaper at 11 p.m. on October 17, in Culiacán, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. No one was hurt; the building’s facade, two outlet cars, and two staff members’ personal vehicles were damaged…

CPJ joined three other international press freedom and human rights organizations in an October 18 letter to U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper expressing concerns over delays in the citizen application of Zaina Erhaim, an award-winning exiled Syrian journalist who has lived in the U.K. since 2017 and has been targeted by Syrian authorities due to…

Lusaka, October 18, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Zambian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release investigative journalist Thomas Allan Zgambo who has been held at a police station in the capital Lusaka since October 16, without charge. “Zambian authorities should drop all criminal cases against investigative journalist Thomas Zgambo and allow him to…

Washington, D.C., October 18, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Saudi authorities to release Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a Saudi cartoonist for the Qatar-based Lusail newspaper, who was sentenced on an undisclosed date in 2024 to 23 years in prison on charges that his cartoons were sympathetic to Qatar and insulted the Saudi government. “By sentencing…

Abuja, October 16, 2024–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the continued detention of journalists Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Roland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, whose criminal charges were amended by prosecutors on October 14. “Nigerian authorities should release journalists Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Roland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, and end the deepening criminalization…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 63 press freedom and human rights organizations, media outlets, and NGOs in an October 18 joint statement condemning Turkey’s media regulator RTÜK for canceling independent Açık Radyo‘s (The Open Radio) broadcast license as an act of censorship. In May, RTÜK fined and issued a gag order after the outlet…

New York, October 18, 2024—More than 1,500 emails threatening a bomb attack were sent on October 14 to Ukrainian media outlets, government agencies, schools, business centers, and hotels, as well as dozens of Ukrainian embassies abroad. The sender blamed three journalists with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) — Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna,…

The Committee to Protect Journalist and 18 other civil society organizations called on Guatemalan authorities to respect the independence of the judiciary at an October 18 hearing over the release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora from pre-trial detention. The statement highlights a “deeply troubling trend” of criminalizing and intimidating human rights defenders, including Judge Rodolfo…

Washington D.C., October 17, 2024—CPJ is alarmed by reports that Iranian authorities arrested Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh in September in the capital, Tehran, and have since detained him in Evin prison without access to a lawyer, according to a former colleague, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of government reprisal….

São Paulo, October 17, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Paraguayan President Santiago Peña to reject a law that would impose burdensome restrictions on nonprofit news outlets and threaten their independence. On October 9, Paraguay’s Congress approved the Establishing Control, Transparency, and Accountability of Non-Profit Organizations Act and passed it to Peña, who has…