Letters

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), along with 17 press freedom, human rights organizations and media outlets, is urging the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Sherwan Sherwani, who remains unjustly imprisoned for his independent reporting and has been subjected to systematic judicial harassment. On August 20, 2025, the Erbil…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and Free Press led a coalition of 28 local and national press freedom, civil rights, human rights, and First Amendment organizations in a joint statement calling for journalist Mario Guevara’s immediate release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after 100 days in detention since his June 14 arrest. An Emmy-winning, Spanish-language reporter…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined more than 300 journalists from 25 countries—representing 62 international press freedom organizations—in a solidarity statement supporting IDL-Reporteros founder and director Gustavo Gorriti after Lima, Peru Mayor Rafael López Aliaga suggested the journalist should be killed at a September 9 press conference inaugurating the first 5 kilometers of the city’s Via Expresa Sur construction project. Gorriti,…

CPJ joined 13 local and international organizations in urging the Lebanese Parliament to ensure the draft media law under consideration upholds free expression. The draft law, submitted to the parliamentary committee in May 2025, included significant advancements in protecting free expression in Lebanon, including abolishing pretrial detention and prison sentences for all speech-related violations. It…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined eight local and regional organizations in calling on Cambodian authorities to release journalists Pheap Phara and Phon Sopheap and drop all charges against them. The two were detained on July 31 after reporting on a Cambodia-Thailand border dispute and later charged under Section 445 of the criminal code, which covers treason…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 22 other international and Egyptian rights organizations in urging United Nations member states not to vote for Egypt in October’s elections to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The letter highlights Egypt’s alarming human rights record, noting that the country regularly ranks among the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists,…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and more than 20 partner organizations called on Czech political parties to commit to 10 priority measures to safeguard press freedom in the run-up to parliamentary elections on October 3–4. The recommendations, developed with experts and inspired by the recently adopted European Media Freedom Act, address urgent challenges, including attacks…

Editor’s note: Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu signed the Maldives Media & Broadcasting Bill into law on September 18, 2025. The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 20 other civil society groups calling on Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu to withdraw the proposed Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, warning it poses a grave threat to press freedom…

New York, August 29, 2025–Ahead of National Press Freedom Day in the Philippines on August 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists and partners have called on the country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his administration to immediately release journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio as her trial nears its conclusion.  The 26-year-old journalist has been held in prison for more than…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined six other international and local press freedom organizations in a joint statement alerting the UN Human Rights Council on the state of press freedom in Honduras ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) pre-sessions on Tuesday.  In the letter, the organizations expressed grave concern over recent attacks on journalists…