2025

As Gaza faces a humanitarian catastrophe, Palestinian journalists are among those going hungry. Cut off from food, aid, and support from the international press, they continue to report, not only on the war, but on their own malnutrition. “Palestinian journalists are the last witnesses on the ground,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Their reporting…

Berlin, July 18, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a bill under consideration in the Russian State Duma that would introduce fines for accessing or searching for “extremist” online content, threatening to further restrict press freedom and access to information.  The bill, which passed its second reading on July 17, 2025, is the “most serious step in censorship and…

Reporter’s arrest–on charges that have since been dropped–poses grave threat to press freedom and the public’s right to know New York, July 18, 2025—Lawyers representing Mario Guevara, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Free Press, and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation will hold a press conference on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, at 10 a.m. to…

Dakar, July 17, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Beninese authorities to release Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè, publishing director of the banned online Beninese weekly newspaper Olofofo Info, following his arrest in Ivory Coast on July 10 and extradition to Benin. “The forcible transfer of journalist Comlan Hugues Sossoukpé by Ivory Coast to Benin, despite his refugee status in…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and Freedom House called on the U.S. government to maintain Cameroon’s ineligibility for preferential trade benefits ahead of its July 18 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) review hearing, citing Cameroon’s continued repression and imprisonment of journalists. Cameroon is consistently among Africa’s worst jailers of journalists, with five journalists—Amadou Vamoulke, Manch Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior, Tsi Conrad,…

On July 16, CPJ and nine other organizations wrote to the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about reforms needed to address ongoing media freedom concerns in the country.  The letter notes the persistence of serious issues in Greece, including surveillance, threats, harassment, physical attacks, and murders of journalists. It also cites government pressure on editorial…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, July 16, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi authorities to investigate and hold to account the officers who arrested and severely assaulted four journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region over the past week. “The arrest, abuse, and intimidation of journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region are deeply concerning and reflect a broader pattern of hostility…

New Delhi, July 15, 2025—Authorities in India’s western state of Maharashtra must bring all of journalist Sneha Barve’s attackers to justice and take decisive steps to ensure press members can safely do their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.  Barwe, the founder of the Samarth Bharat Pariwar YouTube-based news channel, was brutally beaten July 4…

New York, July 15, 2025—President Sadyr Japarov signed amendments to the Kyrgyz Code of Offenses on July 8, introducing administrative penalties for spreading “false or unreliable” information via mass media or the internet — another in a series of ongoing moves toward cracking down on the country’s independent press. The law, whose signing was announced July 11, will go…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 180 journalists, civil society organizations, and academic researchers in a joint letter urging Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye to end the prolonged detention of journalist and writer René Capain Bassène, who has been behind bars since January 2018 and convicted of complicity in murder. A CPJ investigation found Bassène could…