Press Freedom News and Views
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Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 21, 2018
May 24, 2018 4:45 PM ET
Turkey will continue to block Wikipedia During a May 18 press conference, Turkish Transportation, Maritime Affairs, and Communication Minister Ahmet Arslan said that Wikipedia will remain blocked in the country because the website portrays Turkey as a supporter of the Islamic State militant group, the daily Cumhuriyet reported....
CPJ joins calls for Kazakhstan to revise false news law and drop charges against critical media
May 18, 2018 5:21 PM ET
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of 25 other international press freedom organizations to call on Kazakh authorities to drop criminal defamation cases against media outlets Forbes Kazakhstan and Ratel and revise the law on dissemination of "false information" often used to silence critical media outlets...
Greater transparency welcome but social media sites should allow independent audits of content takedowns
May 18, 2018 11:18 AM ET
In recent days, some of the world's largest tech companies released new transparency reports, opened up their content moderation guidelines, and adopted approaches to fighting pernicious content as they tried to head off government regulation amid concerns about "fake news," harassment, terrorism and other ills proliferating on their platforms....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 14, 2018
May 17, 2018 3:40 PM ET
Journalists imprisoned Turkish authorities in the western province of Edirne on May 11 transferred Kemal Sancılı, the publisher of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, to Istanbul's Silivri Prison, two days after he was detained on suspicion of terrorism-related activities, according to a report from the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency....
Covering LGBTQ issues brings risk of threats and retaliation for journalists and their sources
May 17, 2018 10:00 AM ET
To mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, CPJ spoke with journalists and news outlets based in Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, the U.S., Uganda, and Russia, about the challenges they face reporting on LGBTQ issues....
CPJ joins calls for Congress to make human rights a focus of Uzbek president's US visit
May 16, 2018 10:04 AM ET
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined a coalition of 11 other international press freedom and human rights advocacy groups, in calling on U.S. Congress to require lasting human rights protection in Uzbekistan during President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's first official visit to the U.S. on May 16 and 17....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 7, 2018
May 10, 2018 4:44 PM ET
Journalists arrested On May 3, authorities in the southern city of Mersin transferred İsmail Çoban, former news editor for the shuttered Kurdish language daily Azadiya Welat, to the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, where he will remain in custody pending trial, according to reports....
CPJ joins call for Tanzanian government to respect human rights
May 10, 2018 3:25 PM ET
CPJ, along with 64 other non-governmental organizations, today wrote to Tanzanian President John Magufuli to express concern about a worrying decline in the respect of human rights, including freedom of expression....
People need to know why our journalists were arrested in Myanmar, Reuters tells CPJ
May 10, 2018 12:14 PM ET
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have spent nearly five months in detention in Myanmar, on charges of violating a colonial-era Official Secrets Act. At the time of their arrest in Yangon on December 12, the reporters were investigating a mass killing of Rohingya men by Buddhist...
Make solving journalist murders a priority, CPJ tells US Helsinki Commission
May 9, 2018 3:33 PM ET
"Being a reporter in much of the world is dangerous work. Being an investigative reporter can be deadly," CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission, at a briefing in Washington, D.C. today....