Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

Journalists inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building hit by an Israeli bombardment in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025. After a ceasefire was declared on January 15, CPJ called on Israel to unconditionally allow journalists and human rights investigators into Gaza. (Photo:/ AFP/Omar Al-Qatta) — Journalists inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building hit by an Israeli bombardment in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025. After reports of a ceasefire on January 15, CPJ called on Israel to unconditionally allow journalists and human rights investigators into Gaza. (Photo:/ AFP/Omar Al-Qatta)

After 15 months of war, Israel and Hamas have reportedly reached a ceasefire deal on January 15 in which Hamas will release the hostages it holds and fighting will be paused.

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the reports of the deal, and calls on authorities to grant unconditional access to journalists and independent human rights experts to investigate crimes committed against the media during the war.

“Journalists have been paying the highest price – with their lives – to provide the world some insight into the horrors that have been taking place in Gaza during this prolonged war, which has decimated a generation of Palestinian reporters and newsrooms,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg in New York.

“We call on Egyptian, Palestinian, and Israeli authorities to immediately allow foreign journalists into Gaza, and on the international community to independently investigate the deliberate targeting of journalists that has been widely documented since October 2023,” Ginsberg said.

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Tajik journalist Ahmad Ibrohim sentenced to 10 years in prison

A court in Tajikistan’s southern city of Kulob on January 10 sentenced Ahmad Ibrohim, chief editor of the independent weekly newspaper Payk, to 10 years in prison on charges of bribery, extortion, and extremism.

The closed-door trial was held in the city’s pretrial detention center, with authorities reportedly classifying the case as secret.

“With Tajik authorities having all but obliterated the independent press over the past decade, the hefty sentence meted out to Ahmad Ibrohim shows the lengths they will go to stamp out critical reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Tajik authorities should immediately release Ibrohim, along with seven other journalists serving lengthy sentences on retaliatory charges, and reform the country’s repressive media environment.”

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan