2024

The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a report on the state of press freedom and journalist safety in Iraq and semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its January to February 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session. The U.N. mechanism is a peer review of each member state’s human…

Washington, D.C., August 28, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the news that jurors had reached a decision in the trial of Robert Telles, who was found guilty of killing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. “While Wednesday’s ruling will not bring Jeff German back to his family, friends, and colleagues, the conviction sends an…

Taipei, August 28, 2024—Beijing authorities shut down independent journalist Gao Yu’s internet, landline, and cellular connection on Monday, August 26, after she published a Sunday article analyzing an Al Jazeera interview with Victor Gao, vice president of the Chinese think tank Center for China and Globalization. “Chinese authorities must restore journalist Gao Yu’s internet connection…

Mae Sot, Thailand, August 28, 2024 – Myanmar authorities should immediately release journalists Aung San Oo and Myo Myint Oo, who were sentenced to 20 years and life in prison respectively, and stop using terrorism charges to harass the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. A military court inside Myeik Prison sentenced the…

Istanbul, August 27, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges X, formerly Twitter, site administrators not to comply with a Turkish court’s order to block accounts belonging to several journalists and media outlets. “Turkish authorities continue to practice the ‘virtual patrolling’ and censorship of social media users under the false guise of national security,” said Gulnoza…

Editor’s note: Bakr al-Kassem was released without charge on September 2, according to media reports. Beirut, August 27, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Monday’s detention of freelance journalist Bakr al-Kassem in northern Syria and his transfer to Turkish intelligence custody, and calls for his immediate release. “We are deeply concerned that Syrian opposition…

Mexico City, August 27, 2024—Nicaragua has escalated its persecution of critical voices since 2018, pushing freedom of expression to a nearly nonexistent state, according to a joint submission to the United Nations by the Committee to Protect Journalists and eight other journalism and human rights groups. The submission, prepared for Nicaragua’s Universal Periodic Review in…

New York, August 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha, who received a presidential pardon after serving 30 months of a four-year prison sentence. “Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha unjustly served 2 ½ years behind bars when he shouldn’t have spent a day in jail,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program…

New York, August 26, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans in an attack that also injured three journalists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. “The missile strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and injured three other journalists is a sad and sobering…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and 59 partners on Monday, August 26, wrote to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, and EU member state foreign ministries asking that the EU “take action against the Israeli authorities’ unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom.” The letter condemns widespread and…