Mauritanian appeals court upholds death sentence for blogger
New York, April 21, 2016– An appeals court in Nouadhibou today upheld the death sentence for Mauritanian blogger and freelance journalist Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was convicted of apostasy in 2014 for an article he wrote, according to news reports.
CPJ joins call for World Bank to adopt human rights policy
The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined Social Justice Connection and other press freedom and human rights groups in calling on the World Bank to adopt a human rights policy at its annual spring meeting in Washington D.C. In a letter to the president of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, the groups urged the bank…
News website Inkyfada hit with cyberattack after Panama Papers report
The independent Tunisian news website Inkyfada was hit with a cyberattack on April 4, 2016, hours after publishing a Panama Papers report that mentioned Tunisian politician Mohsen Marzouk, according to statements published by Inkyfada on its Facebook page. During the attack Inkyfada’s website was hacked and its content manipulated, with hackers attempting to publish names…
CPJ turns 35, jailed journalists walk free, reporters on trial in Turkey, and more
CPJ Newsletter: April edition Four imprisoned journalists freed in Azerbaijan The president of Azerbaijan in March issued a decree pardoning 148 people, including three imprisoned journalists–Hilal Mamedov, Tofiq Yaqublu, and Parviz Hashimli.
CPJ joins call for Egypt to end its persecution of journalists, civil society leaders
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 other organizations in calling on Egyptian authorities today to halt the persecution of journalists, press freedom advocates, and civil society leaders. Restrictive measures have included travel bans, asset freezes, and the re-opening of a five-year-old investigation into the foreign funding of human rights organizations.
Mission Journal: Rise in journalist arrests tarnishes Jordan’s image as reformist
The phone call came just as our conversation about the escalating crackdown on Jordanian media hit its stride. Lina Ejeilat, the co-founder of the news website 7iber (pronounced hebber), apologized and said she had to take the call. It was 7iber’s lawyer and it was important. For years the website had fought against a requirement…
Sudanese authorities confiscate newspaper edition
Sudanese authorities confiscated all 20,000 copies of the March 15, 2016, edition of the daily newspaper Al-Sudani, according to press reports. Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) appeared at the newspaper’s printers in Khartoum on the evening of March 14 and seized all copies of the daily, which had just been printed…