Alerts

New York, November 20, 2017–Mauritanian authorities on November 16 approved an amendment to the country’s penal code that could allow courts to retroactively retry freelance blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was convicted of blasphemy in 2014, and potentially re-sentence him to death, the state-owned news agency AMI and Agence France-Pressereported. The Committee to Protect…

New York, November 17, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should immediately release community reporter Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Bangkok, November 16, 2017–Two former reporters with the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia were detained in Cambodia on November 14 on suspicion of illegally producing and disseminating news, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Cambodian authorities to immediately release the pair and drop any charges against them.

New York, November 13, 2017–The Russian government-funded international news network RT, formerly Russia Today, said that it complied today with a U.S. Department of Justice order for it to register as a foreign agent. Ordering foreign outlets to register could set a troubling precedent, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Bangkok, November 10, 2017–A Myanmar court today sentenced two foreign journalists who were on assignment for Turkey’s state broadcaster, along with their interpreter and driver, to two months in prison on charges of filming with a drone without official permission, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentencing and calls on…

Beirut, November 9, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iraqi authorities to release freelance journalist and political commentator Samir Obeid immediately.

New York, November 7, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the attack on a television station today in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen and suicide bombers this morning attacked Shamshad TV, a leading Pashto-language station, killing one security guard and injuring at least 20 people including television staffers, Shamshad TV’s CEO and broadcast director, Nasim Pakhtoon,…

Bogotá, Colombia, November 6, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Venezuelan authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the disappearance of Jesús Medina Ezaine, a Venezuelan freelance photographer who went missing on November 4.

Indian regional police arrested freelance journalist Vinod Verma on October 27, 2017, on claims that he used a sex tape to extort and blackmail a minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Chhattisgarh region– claims the journalist denies, according to news reports.