Stockholm, July 27, 2021 – Belarusian authorities should reverse their decision to dissolve Press Club Belarus and allow the organization and its staff to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 21, the Minsk City Executive Committee, the city administration headed by a presidential appointee, initiated the dissolution of the independent…
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined four other human rights and free expression organizations in a joint statement calling on Kyrgyzstan authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the death in prison of journalist Azimjon Askarov. The statement notes that authorities have failed to thoroughly and credibly investigate the circumstances of Askarov’s July 25,…
Stockholm, July 22, 2021 – Belarus authorities should immediately drop all proceedings against the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and allow members of the press and their trade organizations to operate freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, the Justice Ministry of Belarus applied to the country’s Supreme Court to dissolve BAJ, the…
Azerbaijani authorities have long had a firm grip on the media by imprisoning, harassing, and persecuting journalists both at home and abroad as well as blocking their websites. Now authorities are alleged to have used a new tool in their quest to muzzle independent reporting: spyware. Several Azerbaijani journalists have been named in the collaborative…
Istanbul, July 21, 2021 – Turkish authorities must ensure that journalists can cover political events without being harassed or attacked by police, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, police in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district disrupted a political march commemorating the victims of the 2015 Suruç bombing and shoved, hit, and fired tear gas and…
The brutal slaying of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries has shocked the Netherlands. Although still one of the least violent countries for journalists in the world, reporters, parliament, and local press freedom groups warn that threats, intimidation, and violence against outlets and individual journalists reporting on organized crime are on the rise. More than 80 percent of Dutch journalists experienced…
Stockholm, July 20, 2021 – Russian authorities should allow the independent investigative news outlet Proekt and its staff to operate freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 15, the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Russia classified the outlet’s parent company as “undesirable,” thereby banning its operations in the country, and the Justice…
Stockholm, July 16, 2021 – In response to Belarusian authorities’ raids today of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, searches of numerous journalists’ homes, and the detention of several members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “With today’s raid on the offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty…
Stockholm, July 15, 2021 – Belarusian authorities must cease their raids on independent news outlets and press freedom groups, and refrain from charging or imprisoning journalists over their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Early yesterday morning, Belarusian law enforcement officers raided the Minsk headquarters of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a…
On the evening of July 7, 2021, Erk Acarer, an exiled Turkish journalist who is a columnist for the Turkish leftist daily BirGün, was attacked outside his home in Berlin by three assailants who used “fists and knives” while one told him, “you will not write,” according to journalist’s video and written accounts on Twitter, and to news reports. Acarer tweeted…