2019

Turkish courts opened their new judicial year on September 2, 2019, with delayed sentences of jailtime, fines, and mandatory library time for journalists, according to news reports.

On August 15, 2019, in Sulmona, central Italy, unidentified individuals burned the car of Claudio Lattanzio, a photojournalist for local daily Il Centro and collaborator with Italian news agency Ansa, according to a report by the daily.

On August 21, 2019, in Topzawa, Iraqi Kurdistan, Asayish security forces affiliated with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) arrested Roj News journalist Bryar Muhamad Mustafa, according to a report by his employer and a statement by the Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy, a local press freedom group.

On August 27, 2019, police in Bata, in central Equatorial Guinea, arrested and detained presenter Milanio Ncogo and reporter Ruben Dario Bacale, both employees of the privately owned broadcaster Asonga TV, and held them without charge until September 8, according to Ncogo, who spoke to CPJ over messaging app.

On August 5, 2019, Nigerian police arrested and detained at least four journalists covering protests that took place across Nigeria in connection with the hashtag #RevolutionNow, according to journalists who spoke with CPJ and media reports.

On August 6, 2019, Pakistani broadcaster Channel 24 HD cancelled the “Najam Sethi Show,” a news and political commentary program, after the broadcaster’s management received a phone call from an unidentified individual demanding the show be dropped, according to Najam Sethi, the show’s host, who spoke with CPJ on the phone.

On August 12, 2019, intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested freelance photojournalist Forough Alaei and five women’s rights activists, accusing them of attempting to illegally enter Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, according to a report by the BBC’s Persian service. The six were released on bail on August 17, according to Iranian press freedom…

On August 17, 2019, a group of men physically attacked Owen Jones, a columnist for the U.K. daily newspaper The Guardian, his employer reported.

On July 30, 2019, police in the breakaway region of Somaliland arrested four journalists from privately owned Eryal TV, according to statements issued by the press rights group Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA) and the non-governmental organization Human Rights Centre-Somaliland.

Gunmen in civilian clothing abducted Abdel Hafiz al-Samadi from his house in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on July 27, 2019, according to a statement from the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate and the Saudi network Al-Arabiya.