‘We are journalists’: Delegation in Turkey to discuss press freedom
Reuters editor-at-large Harry Evans had a question for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Would he be willing to meet with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute (IPI) when it visited Turkey?
Journalists investigating deaths of Russian soldiers are threatened and attacked
Journalists investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers that news reports claimed were killed during Russia’s alleged involvement in Ukraine’s conflict have been targeted in a series of attacks since late August, according to a press freedom group. Russia has denied that its soldiers were involved in the conflict, but journalists who spoke to the Committee…
Journalist’s death in North Caucasus calls for independent investigation
On July 31, 26-year-old reporter, blogger, and civil activist Timur Kuashev disappeared in Nalchik, the regional capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. When such news breaks in the volatile region–where journalists and human rights defenders are slaughtered regularly and with impunity–families prepare for the worst. The next day, a body resembling Kuashev’s turned…
No press freedom without Internet freedom
Four years ago, when CPJ launched its Internet Advocacy program, we were met with lots of encouragement, but also some skepticism. “Why do you need a program to defend the Internet?” one supporter asked. “You don’t have a special program to defend television, or radio, or newspapers.” But the Internet is different. Increasingly, when it…
Mission Journal: Attacks on journalists in Ukraine lead to information vacuum
“There are no [independent] Ukrainian journalists left in Donetsk,” said Aleksei Matsuka, chief editor of the regional news website Novosti Donbassa (News of Donbass). “They have fled the region since pro-Russia separatists started targeting and kidnapping reporters,” Matsuka told CPJ during our brief meeting in Kiev.
In Ukraine, some updates on this week’s abducted and missing journalist(s)
On Wednesday, we reported that in Ukraine this week, at least two journalists had gone missing, while pro-Russia separatists abducted a fixer and briefly detained a reporter. Also, the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said it was banning journalists from the conflict area. We noted that press freedom violations “are happening at dizzying speed in eastern…
Rushed data legislation would give UK worrying surveillance powers
The British government’s attempt to rush through a bill on data retention before the House of Commons summer recess next week has run into opposition–not from members across the aisle but from Internet companies, civil liberty defenders, and lawyers, who say the law would extend the authorities’ already vast snooping capabilities.
CPJ meets with Kyrgyz prosecutor-general, calls for reopening Askarov case
This month, the prosecutor-general of Kyrgyzstan, Aida Salyanova, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that her office is working hard to fight corruption and ensure transparency in government activities. We are not convinced.
Hungary’s independent media struggle against economic pressure, intimidation
“This is a new wave of clampdowns by the government–they want to have another four-year term with even less critical media than before,” said Szabolcs, a 21-year-old economics student, one of thousands of people who marched in the streets of Budapest in June, chanting “Free Country, Free Press!” The demonstrations were in reaction to several…
French muckraker Mediapart to appeal to European Court of Human Rights
In the course of a couple of hours on Wednesday, France was rocked by two judicial decisions with profound political repercussions for French politics and the press’ right to publish. Just as a baffled public learned that former President Nicolas Sarkozy had been put under formal investigation for corruption and influence-peddling, France’s highest court, the…