Features & Analysis

Finding a suitcase full of documents is every journalist’s dream. But for the investigative outlet Rise Project, it quickly turned into a legal nightmare after Romanian authorities filed a complaint under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ordering the outlet to reveal its sources or pay a fine of up to 20 million euros…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined more than 20 rights organizations and the #KeepItOn Coalition to call for authorities in Zimbabwe to restore internet and social media services, commit to maintaining internet access, and encourage accountability from telecommunication and internet service providers to respect human rights.

Erdoğan says Turkish media is ‘more democratic’ In a message to mark Working Journalists’ Day–a local press freedom day on January 10–Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “The reforms actualized in the past 16 years have enabled the Turkish press to be richer, diverse, and meet a more democratic and liberal structure,” Duvar reported.

Polish security agents enter the house of a prominent TV journalist over accusations that he propagated Nazi propaganda. Police summon a reporter over claims that he breached the privacy of the vice-head of the constitutional court. And Poland’s central bank files gagging orders against two papers, demanding they remove several articles about a corruption scandal…

Media watchdog fines and blocks two critical stationsTurkey’s official media watchdog RTÜK has fined and censored the critical channels Halk TV and FOX TV Turkey for allegedly “provoking the people into hatred and animosity,” reports said.

Long before one of their photographers was harassed on election night in Brazil, the editors at Fortaleza newspaper O Povo were meeting with their readers and staff to discuss the increasingly polarized environment and how to deal with it.

Journalist jailed over unpaid fines Hakan Gülseven, a journalist who used to work for the pro-opposition (CHP) daily Yurt, was imprisoned on December 20 after failing to pay 31,500 Turkish lira (US$5,974) in three unpaid fines over charges of insult, the news website Artı Gerçek reported.

It was 3 p.m. on January 13 when Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez stopped at a traffic light in Nuevo Laredo, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Two men approached the car of the well-known newspaper columnist, opened the driver’s door, and stabbed him more than 20 times in front of his family.

When Ewald Scharfenberg, the founding editor of the Venezuelan investigative news website Armando.Info, holds editorial meetings, he pulls out his mobile phone. That’s because most of his reporters are in Venezuela while Scharfenberg lives and works in neighboring Colombia.

Anti-state charges for 5 journalists Five journalists from the opposition daily Sözcü were indicted for “willingly and knowingly helping a [terrorist] organization without being in its hierarchical structure,” BBC Turkey reported on December 10. Chief editor Metin Yılmaz, online chief editor Mustafa Çetin, online news coordinator Yücel Arı, and columnists Emin Çölaşan and Necati Doğru…