2025

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, September 3, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to swiftly investigate the motive behind the shooting of journalist Hemn Mamand in Sulaymaniyah on Tuesday. Mamand was shot while leaving a restaurant, hours after broadcasting his talk show “Sarinj – Comment” on Sterk TV, where he discusses human rights, including…

Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh has spent more than a year imprisoned in Iran, enduring severe psychological torment and relentless interrogations for the simple fact that he is a journalist. Initially detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison, his already dire situation deteriorated significantly after a devastating Israeli attack on the facility. Valizadeh was transferred to the dangerously overcrowded and medically inadequate Fashafouyeh Prison, where extreme neglect and inhumane…

Bangkok, September 3, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports of journalists being assaulted, harassed, and threatened while covering recent nationwide protests in Indonesia, and calls on authorities to swiftly investigate the incidents and hold those responsible to account. At least 16 journalists have reported physical attacks, verbal threats, equipment confiscation, and other…

New Delhi, September 2, 2025—Indian authorities should appeal the acquittal of three men accused of the 2016 murder of journalist Rajdev Ranjan, including the police’s suspected mastermind, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday, following an August 30 ruling in which three other men were found guilty. “The Bihar state government and federal investigators must…

Editor’s note: Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu signed the Maldives Media & Broadcasting Bill into law on September 18, 2025. The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 20 other civil society groups calling on Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu to withdraw the proposed Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, warning it poses a grave threat to press freedom…

New York, August 29, 2025–Ahead of National Press Freedom Day in the Philippines on August 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists and partners have called on the country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his administration to immediately release journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio as her trial nears its conclusion.  The 26-year-old journalist has been held in prison for more than…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined an amicus brief on August 25, 2025, authored by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) in support of Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk in her appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Also joined by PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and the…

Paris, August 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, to respect the Tehran Journalists’ Association’s right to function without undue interference after the mayor’s office of the Iranian capital city ousted the organization, in what the group described as retaliatory action. “We strongly oppose the forced closure of…

New York, August 28, 2025—A massive, early morning Russian attack on Ukraine damaged the offices of at least three news outlets on August 28, 2025. In Kyiv, the offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda were damaged in a drone and missile attack. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, in eastern Ukraine, a drone strike damaged the office of local newspaper Mezhivsky Merydian. No media…

New York, August 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an independent investigation into Monday’s killing of five journalists by multiple Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza. A preliminary Israeli military report said “it appears” that a Hamas camera was the target of the attack and named six “terrorists who were…