Troubling police raids on Australian journalists
In the past week, the Australian Federal Police twice targeted the media in the country in connection with leak investigations. On Tuesday, Annika Smethurst, a politics editor for the Sunday Telegraph, had her home raided and her property, computer, and cellphone searched. One day later, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Sydney was raided in…
Journalists covering clashes in Syria ‘deliberately targeted and attacked’
Since May 22, at least three journalists have been injured in attacks by suspected pro-government forces in two separate incidents in northwestern Syria. Following one of those incidents, Alex Crawford, a reporter for U.K. broadcaster Sky News who was reporting in Idlib, wrote that the news crew was “clearly identified as journalists” and was “deliberately…
Online attacks by lawmakers force journalists to leave Colombia
Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri has once again been arrested by Nigerian authorities. Abiri was charged under the country’s cybercrimes, anti-sabotage, and terrorism prevention acts, to which he pleaded not guilty. Abiri was previously held without trial from July 2016 to August 2018. Also in Nigeria, new accreditation requirements have the potential to restrict press access…
‘I can’t wait to go to my newsroom,’ says freed Myanmar journalist
This week, a Colombian court sentenced former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000. Pereira was sentenced to 40 years and six months in prison for the attack, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). The court…
On World Press Freedom Day, we demand justice
This World Press Freedom Day, CPJ remembers the at least 1,340 journalists who have been killed in relation to their work worldwide since 1992. We salute the bravery of those who continue to risk their lives to bring us the news. In 2018, CPJ recorded 54 journalists killed for their work worldwide. Of those, 34…
#WeStandWithLyra
Freelance journalist Lyra McKee was fatally injured on April 18 during rioting and a police operation in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She was hit with a bullet when a gunman opened fire on police, and died in the hospital. CPJ joins family and friends of Lyra, as well as the global community, in standing with Lyra….
‘You cannot muzzle the media’
Earlier this week a CPJ mission to the Philippines, led by Board Chair Kathleen Carroll, found increasing levels of intimidation and a shrinking space for the free press in the country. A series of 11 legal cases against the news website Rappler, that appear to be politically motivated, have helped created a climate of fear,…
U.S. prosecution of Assange has potential implications for press freedom
CPJ expressed concern about the potential press freedom implications of the U.S. prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. UK authorities arrested Assange April 11 at the Ecuadoran Embassy as part of an extradition agreement with the U.S., according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice. The statement said Assange faces a single count…
#WhereIsAzory?
Egyptian journalists Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, and Alaa Abdelfattah may be out of jail, but they are not free. Their parole conditions mean both must return to police cells every night. Despite recent releases, Egypt remains one of the worst jailers of journalists. At least 25 were in jail at the time of…
Mexican journalists face physical and digital attacks
Last Wednesday, Hiram Moreno, a Mexican journalist enrolled in a federal protection program, was the victim of a gun attack in Oaxaca state when an unidentified man shot him as Moreno left a convenience store. Just a few days earlier, radio reporter Santiago Barroso was shot dead in Sonora state. Mexico currently ranks seventh on…