Shukri Zaynadin
Zaynadin, a Kurdish News Network (KNN) cameraman and correspondent, died in unclear circumstances in the countryside near Amedi in the Iraqi Kurdistan province of Duhok, on November 29, 2016, according to his family and the station he worked for. Mirza Karo, a friend of the journalist who was cited in reports as saying the pair…
Widad Hussein
Iraqi journalist Widad Hussein, an ethnic Kurd and a reporter for Roj News, a pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) news website, was killed on August 13, 2016, his employer told the Committee to Protect Journalists, confirming media reports. Hussein’s body was discovered with signs of torture on the Semel-Duhok highway in Iraqi Kurdistan that night. It…
#KeepItOn, Burundi!
Burundian authorities blocked social media access during the country’s presidential elections on Wednesday, despite the calls from CPJ and 30 partner organizations to #KeepItOn. Burundi’s media landscape has been deteriorating, with the recent detention of four journalists and bans on the BBC and Voice of America. Jorge Miguel Armenta Ávalos, a Mexican journalist who had…
‘Like visiting hell’: How an Italian journalist is reporting on COVID-19 from the frontlines
CPJ Europe Correspondent Attila Mong spoke with Stefania Battistini, a reporter for Italian public broadcaster RAI, about her experience covering the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit regions in the world. Battistini compared the experience to reporting in a warzone. “The enemy is everywhere and you don’t know how to defend yourself,”…
CPJ Insider, November: Face-to-face with Pakistani border control and a northern Syria crisis
On a strange ‘stop list,’ CPJ staffer is refused entry to Pakistan The man at the Lahore airport customs point looked puzzled. Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, was holding a U.S. passport with a valid, newly issued visa to enter Pakistan. But the computer showed he was on a “stop list” from the Interior…
CPJ Insider October 2019: Khashoggi’s murder anniversary, Sulzberger’s warning, threats to women journalists unpacked
CPJ marks one year since Khashoggi’s murder with court action What did the U.S. government know, and when did it know it? As CPJ enters year two of advocacy to secure justice for Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, these are central questions.
Censorship 2.0: #MostCensored countries use digital and traditional tactics to silence media
CPJ released its report on the world’s 10 most censored countries on Tuesday. We found that repressive governments are using sophisticated digital censorship and surveillance alongside more traditional methods to silence independent media. Read more here. On July 4, the Cuban government issued Decree 370 that establishes the “informatization of society.” Article 68 bans “hosting…
Chinese court sentences journalist Huang Qi to 12 years in prison
Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! On Monday, a Chinese court in Sichuan province sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of “deliberately leaking state secrets,” and “illegally providing state secrets to…
Honoring brave journalists
Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! On July 12 in Hyderabad, India, police detained Mojo TV’s Revathi Pogadadanda. In a series of tweets, Pogadadanda said police arrived without a warrant to arrest her and tried to seize her phone. The case stemmed from a…