Case

2019

  
News broadcasts are seen on televisions in Karachi, Pakistan, on July 26, 2018. The country's media regulator recently issued mixed messages regarding news anchors' abilities to express their opinions. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)

Pakistan media regulator walks back ban on news anchors expressing personal opinions

On October 27, 2019, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the country’s nominally independent media regulator, issued an order posted on its official Twitter account prohibiting news anchors from expressing opinions, stating that anchors hosting news programs “should not appear in talk shows,” and saying that news organizations would be held responsible for “any biased,…

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A man reads headlines of a daily newspaper on March 27, 2018, in Freetown. A freelance journalist was charged with criminal defamation in Sierra Leone in September 2019. (AFP/Issouf Sanogo)

Sierra Leone journalist Mahmud Tim Kargbo charged with criminal defamation

Mahmud Tim Kargbo, a freelance reporter in Sierra Leone, was arrested and detained twice in September 2019 after Miatta Samba, an appeals court judge, lodged a complaint with the police against him for a report published September 9, 2019, on his Facebook page and in a WhatsApp group that criticized Samba’s decision to grant bail…

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An aerial view shows a crowd gathered outside the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) headquarters in Kinshasa on May 30, 2019, as supporters await the return of the remains of former Congolese Prime Minister and opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who died in Belgium in 2017. A Congolese radio journalist was attacked by UDPS supporters at a Kinshasa rally on October 5, 2019. (AFP/Alexis Huguet)

Congolese radio journalist attacked by ruling party supporters at Kinshasa rally

On October 5, 2019, Dominique Dinanga, a reporter for the privately owned Top Congo FM radio station, was attacked by supporters of the ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party at a rally in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where former Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala was to receive…

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The office of newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaiso is seen after an arson attack in Valparaiso, Chile, on October 19, 2019. (Reuters/Rodrigo Garrido)

Demonstrators set fire to El Mercurio de Valparaíso newspaper office in Chile

On October 19, 2019, at around 8 pm, demonstrators broke into the headquarters of Chilean newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso and started a fire that damaged the newspaper’s offices and the offices of La Estrella de Valparaíso, a daily owned by the El Mercurio conglomerate, according to news reports and a report by El Mercurio…

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Downtown Tehran, Iran, is seen on July 10, 2019. Iranian authorities recently arrested exiled journalist Roohollah Zam. (WANA/Nazanin Tabatabaee via Reuters)

Iranian journalist in exile arrested, gives televised confession in Iran

On October 14, 2019, intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested journalist and activist Roohollah Zam, manager of Amad News, a popular anti-government news channel on the messaging app Telegram, according to a statement by the guard corps that was broadcast on state media.

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People look at front pages at a newspaper stand in Port Harcourt, after Nigeria's presidential election results were announced on February 27, 2019. Nigerian police beat two Inspiration FM journalists after covering a protest in Uyo, in Akwa-Ibom State, on September 24, 2019. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Nigerian police beat two Inspiration FM journalists after covering protest in Uyo

Owoidoho Udofia and Okodi Okodi, two journalists with the privately owned Inspiration FM radio station in Akwa-Ibom State, in southern Nigeria, on September 24, 2019, were forced by police to take off their shirts and roll on the ground, and were beaten with sticks after covering a protest in Uyo, the state capital, according to…

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A newspaper stand is seen in Beirut, Lebanon, on January 31, 2019. Judge Ziad Abu Haidar recently filed a criminal defamation suit against Lebanese newspaper Nida al-Watan. (Reuters/Mohamed Azakir)

Lebanese newspaper Nida al-Watan sued over alleged presidential criticism

On September 12, 2019, Lebanese judge Ziad Abu Haidar filed a criminal defamation suit against the Nida al-Watan newspaper as well as its editor-in-chief Beshara Charbel and managing director George Barbari, according to news reports and a report by regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom.

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Police officers are seen in Zagreb, Croatia, on August 1, 2019. Police recently arrested journalist Gordan Duhaček in Zagreb. (AFP/Denis Lovrovic)

Croatian journalist detained and fined for satirical tweet

On September 16, 2019, Croatian police arrested Gordan Duhaček, a reporter working for news website Index.hr, as he was about to leave the country at Zagreb airport, and detained him until a court hearing the following day, according to a report by his employer and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

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Police are seen in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India, on July 31, 2019. Police in Uttar Pradesh recently arrested, investigated, and filed complaints against several journalists. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

Uttar Pradesh police arrest, investigate multiple journalists since August 31

Police in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, have arrested, investigated, and filed complaints against journalists in several separate incidents since August 31, 2019, according to news reports and the journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

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A demonstrator holds up a sign showing the portrait of Hajar Raissouni, a Morrocan journalist of the daily newspaper Akhbar El-Youm, during a protest outside a courthouse in the capital, Rabat, on September 9, 2019. (AFP/Fadel Senna)

Moroccan authorities arrest journalist Hajar Raissouni

Moroccan security forces arrested Hajar Raissouni, a reporter for independent news website Akhbar al-Youm, on August 31, 2019, as she was leaving her doctor’s office with her fiancé in Rabat, according to her employer and Huffington Post Maghreb. Akhbar al-Youm reported that plainclothes agents also arrested her fiancé, the doctor, and two medical staff from…

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2019