In Focus

  
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Ethiopia in 2025.

South Sudan’s new cybercrime law ramps up threat of jail for journalists

Kampala, April 9, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in South Sudan to urgently reform its new cybercrimes law, which punishes defamation with up to five years in prison, criminalizes speech on overbroad grounds, and fails to protect whistleblowers and public interest reporting. While government officials maintain the law is intended to address…

Read More ›

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to parliament in Budapest. Ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, CPJ recommends ways to stem a declining media landscape.

Hungarian elections: CPJ calls on all candidates to commit to 10 key steps to restore press freedom 

Berlin, April 8, 2026—Ahead of Hungary’s parliamentary elections on April 12, the Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on all political parties to commit to restoring press freedom, starting with 10 priority issues.  Hungary’s media landscape has declined severely in the last 16 years under the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. His ruling Fidesz party…

Read More ›

A press briefing at the Pentagon in April. Worrying guidelines on how the military can categorize the press during conflict are contained in the Defense Department's Law of War Manual. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

How US media consolidation endangers press freedom

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a government agency that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in the United States. Although the agency is supposed to be independent of the executive branch, recent actions by the FCC and comments by its chairman, Brendan Carr, represent a worrying politicization of the agency. In…

Read More ›

A Palestinian man attempts to access the internet using an eSIM in Gaza City after the internet and fixed-line communications services were cut off amid the Israeli offensive, in June.

How Middle East journalists report during internet blackouts

Washington D.C., April 2, 2026—Iran is now in the grip of the longest internet blackout in its history, a near-total shutdown that has stretched more than 30 days and reduced connectivity to almost zero. Imposed amid war and unrest, the sweeping, government-imposed blackout has effectively sealed off the country, cutting journalists’ access to sources and…

Read More ›

Ugandan journalists cover the announcement of presidential results in January.

Uganda declares criminal defamation unconstitutional, strikes down cybercrime law

Kampala, March 19, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Tuesday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court of Uganda to declare criminal defamation unconstitutional, the latest African court to abolish the crime in recent years. In a consolidated judgment, in response to three petitions filed by rights groups in 2022, the court also nullified the Computer Misuse…

Read More ›

People with children on a scooter weave between cars, as Beirut traffic surges after Israeli army warning prompts residents to evacuate the city's southern suburbs amid the Iran war.

‘I’m displaced too’: Lebanese journalists cover war after fleeing home

Beirut, March 18, 2026—In early March, as the Iran war spread across the Middle East and Israeli strikes rained down on Lebanon, many journalists covering the country’s growing displacement crisis found themselves living it. For freelance video journalist Hadil Iskandar, who has worked for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and pan-Arab outlet Daraj Media, it was…

Read More ›

Estefany Rodríguez - Screenshot: WKRN News 2/YouTube

Timeline: Estefany Rodríguez’s arrest and ICE detention

Nashville Notícias reporter Estefany Rodríguez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on March 4, 2026, despite being in the United States legally. She arrived in the U.S. in 2021 and sought asylum after facing death threats in relation to her reporting in her native Colombia. At the time of her detention, Rodríguez…

Read More ›

Journalists in DRC are suffering repression during the ongoing conflict between Congolese soldiers, seen here, and the armed group M23.

Journalists in eastern DRC detained over war coverage, broadcasters occupied 

Journalists in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo face constant danger as warring parties seek to control information.  In January, February, and early March, government forces and rebel groups both detained journalists over their reporting, including several for simply conducting interviews, while the rebel forces that control parts of the country’s eastern provinces held military positions in…

Read More ›

Brand Kamga Cameroonian journalist

Cameroonian journalist jailed in child kidnapping trial

Dakar, January 30, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to immediately release journalist Brand Kamga, who was arrested on January 19 and charged with attempting to abduct the child of a woman he was investigating. Kamga, editor of the online channel Naja TV, phoned and met with the plaintiff, Annette Josiane Wandji…

Read More ›

Major-General Horta Inta-a, the new transitional president, attends the swearing-in ceremony of Major-General Tomas Djassi as the new chief of staff of the Armed Forces in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, on November 27.

Journalists at risk as Guinea-Bissau junta bans ‘unauthorized’ press conferences

New York, January 20, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on military authorities in Guinea-Bissau to rescind an order prohibiting unauthorized press conferences and public statements, as reporters warned of an increasingly repressive media environment following the junta’s November 26 seizure of power. “During times of political instability, freedom of expression and access to information…

Read More ›