2025

  
Sri Lankan journalist Kanapathipillai Kumanan

Sri Lanka’s counter-terrorism police summon Tamil journalist documenting mass graves

New Delhi, August 12, 2025—Sri Lankan authorities must immediately stop harassing photojournalist Kanapathipillai Kumanan, who has been summoned by the counterterrorism police for questioning, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. A police notice, reviewed by CPJ, ordered Kumanan to appear in the northern town of Alampil’s Counter Terrorism and Investigation Division (CTID) office on…

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Pakistani journalist Asad Ali Toor is seen on his YouTube channel Asad Toor Uncensored.

Pakistani authorities block journalist Asad Ali Toor from traveling overseas

New York, August 11, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Pakistani authorities to drop all travel restrictions against independent journalist Asad Ali Toor, who was blocked from traveling to the United States at the Islamabad airport on August 8, according to the journalist. Toor, who had been arrested and beaten prior years, said he was on his…

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Asaduzzaman Tuhin was chased and hacked to death by a group of armed assailants on August 7, 2025.

Bangladeshi journalist hacked to death for filming assault

New Delhi, August 11, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and thoroughly investigate the brutal killing of journalist Asaduzzaman Tuhin and bring all those responsible to justice. Tuhin, a staff reporter for the Bangla-language daily Protidiner Kagoj in Gazipur, a suburb of Dhaka, was chased and hacked to death by…

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A journalist inspects the damage the day after an Israeli strike on a tent near Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital on August 10, 2025, in which four Al Jazeera journalists were killed.

Israel kills Al Jazeera journalists in targeted Gaza City airstrike

New York, August 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by Israel’s killing in Gaza on Sunday of four Al Jazeera staff — correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal —  and two freelancers, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi. The six journalists were killed and two others were injured by a targeted…

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Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani approved an amendment the 2014 cybercrime law that criminalizes publishing or circulating photos or videos of individuals in public places without their consent. (Photo: Mohd Rasfan/Pool via REUTERS)

Qatar cybercrime law amendments raise press freedom concerns

Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025—Qatari authorities should reconsider the implications of an amendment to the country’s cybercrime law, which could be used to prosecute journalists, photojournalists, and bloggers for doing their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On August 4, Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani approved an amendment to a 2014 cybercrime law that adds a new provision that criminalizes publishing…

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Israeli soldiers guard the Israeli-Syrian border, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, on July 17, 2025. (Photo: AP/Leo Correa)

Israeli forces chase, hold, and shoot at journalists in southern Syria

Journalists in southern Syria are being chased, detained and intimidated by live fire by members of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to reporters who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The months-long escalation of harassment raises concerns about press freedom and has sometimes forced journalists to play a dangerous game of hide-and-seek to protect…

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Espérant Kasongo and Glody Ndaya were arrested separately on August 4, 2025, on charges of defamation.

2 DRC journalists jailed following defamation complaints

Kinshasa, August 7, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to swiftly release Glody Ndaya, director general of the privately owned news site Eventsrdc.com, and freelance commentator Espérant Kasongo.  “DRC authorities should unconditionally release journalists Glody Ndaya and Espérant Kasongo and end the use of laws that have censorious…

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Demonstrators and journalists protest against hunger in Gaza City on July 19.

CPJ, partners demand an end to Israel’s starvation and killing of journalists in Gaza

CPJ joined 15 other media and human rights organizations in a joint letter demanding an end to the forced starvation and targeted killing of journalists in Gaza by Israel. The letter calls on governments, international organizations, the media, and civil society to ensure access for food and medical supplies; end to the blockade on foreign…

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Mzia Amaglobeli

‘Outrageous’: Georgia sentences Mzia Amaglobeli to 2 years for slap

New York, August 6, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is horrified by the two-year sentence given to prominent Georgian media manager Mzia Amaglobeli on Wednesday, in a case previously denounced by CPJ and partners as “disproportionate and politicized.” “The outrageous two-year sentence meted out to widely respected journalist Mzia Amaglobeli is emblematic of Georgia’s increasing use…

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Gerry Ortega’s wife, Patria, holds a photo of the Philippine broadcast journalist, who was murdered in 2011. The alleged mastermind behind his killing, former Palawan governor Joel T. Reyes, has been sentenced to 110 years on graft charges.

CPJ, partners welcome 110-year graft sentence for main suspect in Philippine journalist’s murder 

August 5, 2025—Press freedom organizations Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcome the corruption conviction of former Palawan governor Joel T. Reyes – the alleged mastermind behind the 2011 murder of journalist Gerry Ortega – handed down last week by the Sandiganbayan, the Philippines’ anti-graft court in Quezon City.  Reyes…

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2025