Letters

  
The United Nations headquarters building is shown during the 79th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 24, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Ludovic Marin)

CPJ urges Ethiopia to commit to press freedom during UN human rights review

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopian authorities to accept and implement recommendations on improving press freedom conditions and guaranteeing the safety of journalists during the United Nations’ upcoming review of its human rights record. Earlier this year, CPJ submitted a report assessing Ethiopia’s press freedom and journalist safety record from 2019, as part…

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CPJ urges Bangladesh’s interim leader Yunus to protect press freedom

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday, November 11, wrote to Professor Muhammad Yunus urging him to protect press freedom in his role as chief adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh. On November 4, the interim information ministry announced that the Cyber Security Act would be repealed within a week. The law was passed…

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A sign for COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, on display in Baku, Azerbaijan, on September 16, 2024. (Photo: AP/Sergei Grits)

As COP29 nears, CPJ, partners urge EU to hold Azerbaijan to account over rights abuses

CPJ and 16 other international human rights organizations on Wednesday called on the European Union to press Azerbaijan to release around a dozen jailed journalists and improve its dire human rights record as the country hosts the United Nations Climate Change Conference on November 11-22, 2024. The statement highlights how, in the months leading up…

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CPJ, 14 organizations urge UK to pause economic cooperation with Egypt until Alaa Abd el-Fattah is freed

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 human rights organizations in a November 1 letter urging U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy to suspend all economic and financial partnerships with Egypt until the country frees British writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was due for release on September 29 after completing a five-year prison sentence. Egyptian authorities have refused…

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Journalists in Gaza

CPJ, partners support US Congress call to let international media access Gaza independently

The Committee to Protect Journalists and 18 other press freedom and human rights organizations issued a statement supporting a call from members of the U.S. Congress, led by Rep. Jim McGovern, asking the Biden-Harris administration to urge Israel to allow independent access to Gaza for U.S. and international journalists, in the interest of transparency, accountability,…

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CPJ, partners call for transparency as exiled Syrian journalist applies for UK citizenship

CPJ joined three other international press freedom and human rights organizations in an October 18 letter to U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper expressing concerns over delays in the citizen application of Zaina Erhaim, an award-winning exiled Syrian journalist who has lived in the U.K. since 2017 and has been targeted by Syrian authorities due to…

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CPJ joins call for Turkey to restore Açık Radyo’s broadcast license

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 63 press freedom and human rights organizations, media outlets, and NGOs in an October 18 joint statement condemning Turkey’s media regulator RTÜK for canceling independent Açık Radyo‘s (The Open Radio) broadcast license as an act of censorship. In May, RTÜK fined and issued a gag order after the outlet…

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SenseTime

CPJ, partners comment on U.S. Commerce Department’s proposed rules on surveillance technology export controls

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined eight human rights and digital rights organizations on October 15 to provide comments to the U.S. Commerce Department in response to its proposed rules to strengthen surveillance technology export regulations. The joint comments assess and offer recommendations for the Commerce Department to help curb the proliferation of such surveillance…

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CPJ joined Free Press Unlimited and Reporters without Borders in calling on Israeli authorities to authorize the evacuation of Fadi Al Wahidi (left) and Ali Al-Attar, both camera operators for Al Jazeera, who were critically injured while reporting in Gaza.

Press freedom groups demand Israel authorizes medical evacuation of 2 Al Jazeera journalists

Three leading press freedom organizations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on Tuesday, October 15, urgently called on the Israeli military office responsible for humanitarian coordination, known as COGAT, to authorize the evacuation of two critically wounded journalists who require immediate, lifesaving medical treatment. The letter,…

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Journalist Viktoria Roshchina disappeared while covering Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. (Photo: Courtesy Hromadske)

CPJ, partners demand justice for Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined nine media and civil society organizations, including five members of the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium in a letter welcoming the opening of an investigation into the killing of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina, whose death in Russian custody was confirmed to her father by authorities and multiple reports. The signatories urged Russian authorities to make the circumstances…

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