Features & Analysis

  
In this file photo, an Egyptian protests the government's crackdown on free expression to mark World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2016 (AP/Nariman El-Mofty)

Hunger-striking journalist injured in prison uprising

News of the hospitalization of an imprisoned photojournalist after security forces cracked down on an uprising in Borg al-Arab prison tops the list of attacks on the press last week in Egypt. Also last week: Two leaders of the Journalists’ Syndicate were sentenced to two years in prison each but remain free on bail; a…

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses farmers in Ankara, November 14, 2016. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Service/Pool/AP)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 20

After six months, wire reporter released pending trial Hakkari’s Second Court for Serious Crimes today ordered Şermin Soydan, a reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish DİHA news agency, released on probation the leftist newspaper Evrensel reported.

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In China, foreign correspondents continue to face harassment, restrictions

Conditions for foreign correspondents in China remain difficult, with journalists reporting cases of harassment, surveillance, and restrictions on where they can work, according to findings by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.

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A masked policeman gestures to a photographer in Cairo ahead of planned protests on November 11. At least four journalists were detained covering areas where rallies were due to take place. (AP/Amr Nabil)

Journalists detained during Egypt’s day of protests

Four journalists were detained November 11 amid a heavy deployment of security forces in Egypt’s cities in response to calls for nationwide protests over economic reforms. The protests were fewer and smaller than anticipated, but journalists were still harassed and, in some cases, arrested, according to local and international media. One journalist remains in custody.…

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gestures during an interview in New York, September 20, 2016. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 13

Two years in prison for newspaper editor Diyarbakır’s Fourth Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced İsmail Çoban, responsible news editor of the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat to two years and four months in prison for “propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classifies as a terrorist group.

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Supporters of President Edgar Lungu's party celebrate his re-election in August. The country's press has been harassed during Zambia's election year. (AFP/Dawood Salim)

For Zambia’s press, election year brings assaults and shut down orders

Zambia’s press has come under sustained assault in this election year, with station licenses suspended, journalists harassed or arrested for critical coverage, and one of the country’s largest privately owned papers, The Post, being provisionally liquidated in a move that its editors say is politically motivated.

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Posters calling for the release of photojournalists Mohammad al-Batawi, right, and Shawkan, are held up in Cairo. A U.N. working group says that Shawkan's detention is arbitrary. (AP/Amr Nabil)

In Egypt, censorship, an arrest, and court hearings for journalists

Restrictions against the press continue in Egypt, with ongoing trials of journalists, some of whom have been in detention for more than three years, allegations that a TV station was ordered to drop a planned broadcast of an interview with a former official, and a reporter detained while trying to cover a sensitive story. Egypt…

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Supporters of Cumhuriyet newspaper protest police's October 31, 2016, raid of the newspaper's office in Istanbul. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 6

Opposition newspaper CEO detained Police at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport detained Akın Atalay, CEO of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, as he disembarked from his flight from Berlin today, Turkey’s official Anadolu News Agency reported. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office for Press Crimes had issued a warrant for his arrest in the scope of authorities’ investigation…

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Indian security forces face protesters during unrest in Srinagar in September. Journalists are being caught in the crossfire during the recent unrest. (AP/Dar Yasin)

‘It’s worse this time,’ says photographer shot by police during latest Kashmir unrest

For four months, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has been under a curfew imposed after protests broke out when Burhan Wani, a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-independence militant organization that advocates for Kashmir’s independence from India, was killed in clashes with the Indian army. Journalists have been caught in the crossfire as…

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Supporters of Cumhuriyet newspaper protest a police raid of the daily's Istanbul's office, October 31, 2016. The signs read, "Free media cannot be silenced" (center), and "Don't bow down" (rear). (Reuters/Murad Sezer)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 30

Social media websites, WhatsApp blocked as police detain opposition leaders Turkey last night blocked access to social media websites and the text-messaging application WhatsApp as police arrested members of parliament for the opposition HDP party, including the party’s co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yuksekdag, according to press reports.

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