Features & Analysis

2017

  
A young man on July 9 with a Turkish flag during a rally in Istanbul to mark the end of a 25-day-long protest against the detention of lawmaker Enis Berberoglu. The word in red means justice. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 8, 2017

Two media workers released from state custody, trial ongoing A Turkish court yesterday released Şirin Çoban and İlker İlkan, two employees of the shuttered Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, from state custody during their first trial hearing, according to the online newspaper Gazete Karınca. The trial is ongoing.

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A timeline on the wall at the La Estrella de Panamá office highlights important dates in the newspaper's history.(CPJ/Natalie Southwick)

US Treasury Department decision risks future of two Panama newspapers

La Estrella de Panamá has kept Panama’s citizens informed since 1849. Now, as the country prepares for elections next year, the existence of the major newspaper, along with that of its sister title, El Siglo, may depend on the U.S. Treasury Department.

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Russia and former Soviet states emboldened by declining press freedom in US, Europe

Receding media freedom in established European democracies and in the United States has emboldened authoritarian governments in Russia and other former Soviet countries to crack down on independent voices at home. I am sharing this information today with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe-known as the Helsinki Commission-and the House Freedom of…

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Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet, accompanied by his Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, talks to media as they leave the Justice Palace in Istanbul, Turkey May 6, 2016. Dundar is now in exile in Germany. (Reuters/Osman Orsal)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 1, 2017

Turkish court banned coverage of alleged police beating incident A local Turkish court yesterday moved to ban news coverage of a story about two policemen allegedly beating a woman on the street in the southern coastal city of Alanya, the online newspaper Diken reported.

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Draft legislation on access to information in Canada, proposed by Member of Parliament Scott Brison, second from left, is inadequate, a group of press freedom organizations said in a letter to Brison today. (AP/Cliff Owen)

Canada’s proposed reform of access to information is inadequate

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with a coalition of more than 30 international and Canadian civil society organizations, sent a letter on September 28 to Canadian Member of Parliament Scott Brison, the president of the Treasury Board of Canada, calling for proposed access to information legislation to be replaced with a more robust reform.

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A press freedom activist holds a copy of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet during a demonstration in solidarity with the jailed members of the opposition newspaper outside a courthouse, in Istanbul on September 25. (Reuters/Osman Orsal)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 24, 2017

Spain releases Turkish journalist arrested on Ankara’s request Spanish authorities yesterday released the leftist writer Hamza Yalçın, who they had arrested in August at the request of the Turkish government, according to the daily Evrensel.

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey on September 8, 2017. An Istanbul court found Çağlar Özbilgin, an editor for the online newspaper Sendika and columnist for leftist newspaper Halkın Sesi, guilty of insulting the Turkish president for referring to the leader as a

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 17, 2017

Istanbul officials cancel press freedom award ceremony Officials in Istanbul today canceled a press freedom awards ceremony, according to the anti-censorship platform Susma.

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A Warao man fishes on the Orinoco Delta in 2009. A group of journalists from the indigenous community are running a news website to cover issues affecting the Venezuelan region. (Reuters/Jorge Silva)

From power cuts to powerful threats, Venezuela’s indigenous journalists face a series of challenges in their reporting

Three twentysomethings huddle over a desk in a small room in Tucupita, a low-slung city of about 90,000 people that spills across the Orinoco river delta region in northeastern Venezuela. Far from the tear gas and street conflicts roiling cities including Caracas and Valencia, these journalists are focused on reporting the latest story from the…

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Images of 43 missing students from Guerrero state hang from a tree in Mexico City . Journalists reporting on violence in the state, and on the case of the students, face threats and violence. (AP/Marcos Ugarte)

On the front lines of reporting in Guerrero, Mexico’s most-violent state

Several months ago, during a three-day journalism congress in Mexico City, a reporter from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero took out his cell phone and scrolled through a series of pictures. The photos showed teenagers smiling at the camera, carrying automatic rifles, and sporting bulletproof vests.

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Protesters in Silivri, Turkey demonstrate in support of journalists and staff from the Cumhuriyet newspaper who Turkish officials have accused of aiding terror organizations. Their trial is part of a larger media crackdown under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 10, 2017

Court orders four Cumhuriyet managers and journalists to remain in custody for trial A Turkish court remanded four members of the Cumhuriyet newspaper yesterday who are on trial for terrorism-related charges, according to reports from their employer and Reuters.

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2017