CPJ joins statement calling on Kyrgyz authorities to investigate death of journalist Azimjon Askarov
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined four other human rights and free expression organizations in a joint statement calling on Kyrgyzstan authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the death in prison of journalist Azimjon Askarov. The statement notes that authorities have failed to thoroughly and credibly investigate the circumstances of Askarov’s July 25,…
Azerbaijani journalist Sevinj Vagifgizi was ‘astonished’ to learn of Pegasus spyware on phone
Azerbaijani authorities have long had a firm grip on the media by imprisoning, harassing, and persecuting journalists both at home and abroad as well as blocking their websites. Now authorities are alleged to have used a new tool in their quest to muzzle independent reporting: spyware. Several Azerbaijani journalists have been named in the collaborative…
Investigative reporter Bradley Hope: Pegasus spyware revelations a ‘wake-up call for journalists’
Bradley Hope was in Abu Dhabi in 2009, the year the BlackBerry devices overheated. “If you put it next to your face it would almost burn,” he told CPJ in a phone interview. The BBC that year reported that a UAE telecom company had prompted local BlackBerry owners to install a rogue surveillance update disguised…
‘Fear and anxiety’ rules among local journalists, Hong Kong Journalists Association finds
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) found that authorities use the national security law to silence journalists, systematically limit the media’s ability to access to public databases, and force public and private broadcasters to minimize their political content and, in the case of at least one public broadcaster, spread government propaganda in its annual report,…
‘Obviously very chilling’: Peter R. de Vries killing shows the danger of Dutch crime reporting
The brutal slaying of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries has shocked the Netherlands. Although still one of the least violent countries for journalists in the world, reporters, parliament, and local press freedom groups warn that threats, intimidation, and violence against outlets and individual journalists reporting on organized crime are on the rise. More than 80 percent of Dutch journalists experienced…
CPJ, U.S. media organizations urge U.S. to provide visas to Afghans who worked with press
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined a coalition of U.S. news and press freedom organizations in joint letters to President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Congressional leadership asking the U.S. government to provide humanitarian assistance and emergency visas to Afghans who have worked with U.S. media outlets. In 2020, at least five journalists…
Capital Gazette shooter found criminally responsible, while questions of justice linger
In a county courthouse in Annapolis, Maryland, a scaled model of the old Capital Gazette newsroom was perched at an angle on a table toward the jury. One by one, four reporters, a photojournalist, and an advertising sales representative, approached the model to show where they were sitting when a loud noise — some thought it was a…
Botswana police use Israeli Cellebrite tech to search another journalist’s phone
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe was not expecting security agents to appear at her home in a village outside Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, in July 2019, she told CPJ in a recent interview. But they didn’t come to arrest or charge her, she recalled – they came for her devices, hunting for the source for an article published by…
CPJ joins letter to UN and AU rapporteurs expressing concern about free expression in Zimbabwe
The Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday joined the Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights groups in an open letter to six special rapporteurs at the UN and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, expressing concern about the targeting of journalists and human rights…
CPJ joins letter urging Eswatini King Mswati III to guarantee journalists’ safety
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined 20 other media freedom organizations in an open letter to Eswatini King Mswati III, urging him to guarantee the safety and security of journalists and media workers in the country. Since late June, Eswatini authorities have fired tear gas at reporters and partially shut down the internet amid…