CPJ joins civil society letter calling on the European Parliament to support the European Media Freedom Act
The Committee to Protect Journalists and 43 civil society organizations on Thursday, February 9, wrote to the European Parliament to ask them to ensure that the upcoming European Media Freedom Act is as strong as possible. The draft EU law is seeking to strengthen media freedom and pluralism in EU member states. The text of…
CPJ joins demand for investigation into death of Rwandan journalist John Williams Ntwali
CPJ on Tuesday joined about 100 other human rights and press freedom organizations in a joint statement calling on the Rwandan government to ensure an “independent, impartial, and effective investigation” into the death of journalist John Williams Ntwali. Authorities said that Ntwali died on January 18 in a road accident in Kigali. However, the organizations…
How UK Online Safety Bill threatens encryption, secure communication, and reporting on migration
Does the image above, depicting the rescue of a child who attempted to reach the U.K. by sea, present the act of immigration in “a positive light”? It’s an absurd question, of course. It’s journalism – an effort to convey in visual terms the stark truth that tens of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers try to get…
Opinion: Pompeo’s attack on Khashoggi’s reputation is a gift to enemies of press freedom
In the week that CPJ reported a near-50% surge in the killings of journalists worldwide, the former head of the CIA and the U.S. State Department dismissed the reaction to one of the most brazen murders of journalists in the past half century as “faux outrage…fueled by the media.” In his memoir “Never Give an…
Four years since murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, Ghana’s journalists still attacked with impunity
The January 16, 2019, murder of Ghanaian journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, who was gunned down by unidentified men months after threats by a local politician, sent shockwaves through the country’s press corps and yielded promises from leaders to find the killers and bring them to justice. But four years later – despite police assurances of progress and two arrests – nobody has been…
CPJ joins RSF and 76 journalists, press freedom orgs in calling for release of Senegalese journalist Pape Alé Niang
CPJ joined Reporters Without Borders and 76 press freedom organizations and journalists on Friday, January 6, in calling on Senegalese authorities to drop the charges against and immediately release journalist Pape Alé Niang, who is on a protracted hunger strike deteriorating his health. Niang was refused provisional release this week by a judge, his lawyer…
Forensic tools open new front for using phone data to prosecute journalists
On April 13, police in Russia’s Khakassiya republic arrested Mikhail Afanasyev and seized his digital devices. Afanasyev, chief editor of the online magazine Novy Fokus, was detained based on an article about riot police in southern Siberia refusing to serve in Ukraine. He faces a possible 10-year prison sentence for spreading “false” information. It’s not surprising for…
In an Iran roiled by protests, journalists face a war of attrition
In mid-September, an enterprising young Iranian reporter named Niloofar Hamedi went to Tehran’s Kasra Hospital to report on a woman arrested by the county’s morality police for not properly wearing her hijab. That woman, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, was in a coma after allegedly being beaten by police; she later died of her injuries. Hamedi, a…
After 20 years in prison, Turkish journalist Hatice Duman says she has no hope of release
Hatice Duman is Turkey’s longest-serving jailed journalist. Now 50, she has been behind bars since April 9, 2003, 20 years into a life sentence on charges including propaganda and being a member of the banned Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP). Duman, a former editor for the socialist Turkish weekly Atılım, has denied the charges and…
Myanmar’s jailing of journalists enters harsh new phase
Myanmar’s military regime has doubled down on its repression of journalists as it tightens it grip on the country following its democracy-crushing coup on February 1, 2021. After arresting scores of journalists to block coverage of its abuses and resistance to the takeover, its second year in power saw the handing down of harsh prison…