Features & Analysis

  
Sudanese protesters are seen with their smartphones in Khartoum on April 21, 2019. CPJ has called on South African telecommunications company MTN Group to end its role in Sudan's internet shutdowns. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

CPJ joins letter urging MTN Group to end participation in internet shutdowns in Sudan

The Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday joined 22 other organizations in signing a joint letter to executives at South African telecommunications company MTN Group, calling on them to end their roles in Sudan’s internet shutdowns.

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Journalists are seen in Hong Kong on July 7, 2019. The Hong Kong Journalists Association recently released a report showing a deterioration of press freedom in the special administrative region. (AP/Andy Wong)

Hong Kong Journalists Association finds government has done little to safeguard press freedom

The Hong Kong Journalists Association annual report, released on July 7, shows a deterioration of press freedom in the special administrative region as China toughens its “one country” policy.

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Ethiopians read newspapers in Addis Ababa on June 24. Following what the government refers to as a failed attempted coup, access to the internet was cut and journalists were arrested. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

In era of reform, Ethiopia still reverts to old tactics to censor press

On June 22, Ethiopia was plunged into an internet blackout following what the government described as a failed attempted coup in the Amhara region. In the aftermath at least two journalists were detained under the country’s repressive anti-terror law, part of an uptick in arrests that CPJ has noted in the country since May.

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Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks to the media outside a polling station near Tirana on June 30. A press freedom mission raised several issues with Rama last month, including unresolved attacks on journalists and draconian laws. (Reuters/Florion Goga)

Albania’s journalists tread fine line when covering organized crime, politics

The intersection of organized crime, corruption and politics in Albania is impacting the country’s press. During a joint mission by a coalition of press freedom organizations to Tirana in June, CPJ Europe Correspondent Attila Mong spoke with journalists about challenges including threats, attacks, political interference, and legal harassment.

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Patricia Espinosa, the sister of Rubén Espinosa, a photographer murdered in 2015, and Alejandro Encinas, undersecretary for human rights, population, and migration, speak at CPJ's press freedom summit. (Ian Garciafigueroa)

Press freedom summit urges Mexico to reform journalist protections

On June 18, more than 400 people converged in Mexico City for CPJ’s Mexico Press Freedom Summit. Energized by a sense that the country is at a point of profound political change under the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the conference delved into the threats for Mexican journalists.

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Kyrgyz journalist and rights advocate Azimjon Askarov is seen on January 24, 2017. CPJ recently signed on to a letter to Frederica Mogherini, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, urging for his release. (AP/Vladimir Voronin)

CPJ joins letter to EU’s Mogherini urging release of Kyrgyz journalist Askarov

CPJ joined seven other human rights and freedom of expression groups in writing a letter, made public today, calling on the government of Kyrgyzstan to release journalist and rights advocate Azimjon Askarov.

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People take pictures with cells phones during the formal announcement of election results in Pretoria on May 11. Journalists covering the election had to contend with online harassment, doxxing, and threats. (AFP/Phill Magakoe)

Discredited, threatened, attacked: challenges of covering South Africa’s election in the digital age

In the lead up to South Africa’s elections in May, the Electoral Commission of South Africa accredited CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal as an international observer, monitoring press freedom. Quintal found that unlike 1994–when she covered the violence of the country’s first democratic elections–journalists in 2019 cited online harassment and threats as the biggest…

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Moroccan investigative journalist Omar Radi, who at the time worked for the website Le Desk, the website's headquarters in Casablanca, Morocco, on September 18, 2015. Radi and other independent journalists told CPJ about a climate of pervasive surveillance and harassment in the country. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Moroccan independent journalists describe climate of pervasive surveillance, harassment

In March 2015, Hicham Mansouri emailed an anti-malware company, suspicious of possible signs that someone was able to access his device remotely, without permission. He remembers exchanging a few messages with the software company, but the correspondence was interrupted after a few days, when around 10 police officers in civilian clothes arrived at his home…

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People are seen holding photos of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Valletta, Malta, on April 16, 2018. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recently passed a resolution requiring the Maltese government to launch an independent public inquiry into her killing. (AFP/Matthew Mirabelli)

CPJ welcomes resolution demanding investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia killing

CPJ joined other press freedom and freedom of expression organizations today in welcoming a resolution condemning the lack of progress in determining responsibility for the October 16, 2017, car bomb killing of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks during a parliamentary group meeting at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara on June 25, 2019. Two journalists are to stand trial, in separate cases, on charges of insulting the president. (AFP/Adem Altan)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 23, 2019

‘Insult’ trial for Free Journalists Initiative spokesperson Hakkı Boltan, a spokesperson for the Free Journalists Initiative (ÖGİ), is due to stand trial in Diyarbakır on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a public servant because of their duty,” the news website Gazete Karınca reported. The charges are related to Boltan’s public statements about President…

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