Anti-press attacks rise as tensions escalate in Ukraine
New York, April 14, 2014–Local and international journalists covering the volatile situation in eastern Ukraine have been harassed, attacked, detained, and had their equipment seized, according to news reports and regional press freedom groups.
UNESCO awards Ahmet Şık annual press freedom prize
New York, April 11, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists congratulates Turkish investigative journalist and book author Ahmet Şık on being awarded UNESCO’s prestigious Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The annual prize, named after slain Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, honors a journalist or organization that “has made an outstanding contribution to the defense of…
Ukraine must allow entry to Russian journalists
New York, April 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Ukrainian border guards have denied entry to the country to several Russian journalists over the past few days. Reports say that journalists with the newly reshuffled RIA Novosti news agency, TV channels Rossiya and Russia Today, the business daily Kommersant, and…
Journalist murders silence the press
CPJ to launch 2014 Impunity Index New York, April 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists will release its 2014 Impunity Index, a global tally of countries with the highest number of unsolved press murders. The index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population, shows that authorities are often unwilling or…
Turkey should reverse all anti-press measures and laws
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: We are writing to express our concern about the Turkish government’s recent steps to restrict the independent Turkish media. In the recent past, your country was hailed as a model for a region aspiring for freedom, democracy, and tolerance. But today Turkey is being criticized as a country that is drifting away from the principles and practices that define true democracy.
CPJ welcomes court ruling against EU data retention
Phoenix, April 8, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists hails today’s decision by the European Court of Justice invalidating the European Union’s mandatory data retention directive. The court found that the indiscriminate collection of metadata poses a “particularly serious” and disproportional interference with the right to privacy. Mass metadata surveillance is “likely to generate in the…
Kazakh authorities shut down another newspaper
New York, April 3, 2014–An independent paper, the Assandi Times, was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns recent measures taken by Kazakh authorities to shut down independent news outlets in the country.
Morocco accuses Spain’s El País of inciting terrorism
Morocco’s inclination for wielding terrorism accusations against journalists and news outlets who report on extremist groups has extended to Spain, where authorities are investigating El País newspaper and one of its journalists at the behest of the Moroccan government.
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, March 2014
Pakistani PM pledges justice, journalist security to CPJ A CPJ delegation traveled to Pakistan this month and met with high-level Pakistani officials including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who pledged to continue to expand Pakistan’s media freedoms and address the insecurity plaguing the country’s journalists.