A group of about 30 men with clubs attacked journalists Gerald Kankya and Simon Amanyire in the town of Fort Portal in western Uganda on January 23, 2015, Kankya told CPJ. The assailants beat the journalists, breaking one of Kankya’s teeth and bruising his legs and arms, the journalist said. Amanyire escaped without serious injury.
The Skopje Court of Appeals in the capital, Skopje, on January 15, 2015, reduced Tomislav Kezarovski’s prison term from four and a half years to two years, but ordered the journalist to serve the remaining time–four and a half months–in jail, according to regional and international press. Kezarovski had been serving the term under house…
On January 11, 2015, attackers firebombed the offices of the German daily Hamburger Morgenpost, in Hamburg, northern Germany, in apparent retaliation for the tabloid’s reprinting of several cartoons from the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on its front page, according to news reports. The press reported that arsonists threw a firebomb and stones through a…
Aleksandr Alesin, journalist with the Minsk-based independent newspaper Belorusy i rynok (Belarusians and the Market), was released from prison on December 10, 2014, but banned from traveling outside Belarus pending investigation, local and international press reported.
On December 2, 2014, a special war crimes court convicted Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman of contempt in connection with his reporting, according to news reports. The court ruled that Bergman’s writing “portraying derogatory criticism” had “hurt the feelings of the nation,” and ordered him to pay a 5,000 taka (US$65) fine or serve seven…
Unidentified gunmen fired shots at Azizullah Hamdard, a reporter for the independent Kabul-based Pajhwok News agency on August 2, 2014, according to news reports. The attack took place near the journalist’s home in Kabul, the capital. The gunmen fled the scene immediately. Hamdard sought treatment at a local hospital for injuries to his left arm.
On August 30, 2014, the Lesotho military took control of police headquarters, jammed radio and television stations as well as telephone lines, and handed control of the tiny landlocked country to its deputy prime minister, according to news reports. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled to safety in South Africa for four days.