Online smear campaign targets freelance reporter in Nicaragua
New York, September 25, 2018–Nicaraguan authorities should investigate a targeted online harassment campaign against freelance journalist Carl David Goette-Luciak, find those responsible, and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Ugandan security personnel arrest, assault journalists covering electoral unrest
Nairobi, August 17, 2018– Authorities in Uganda should immediately drop charges of incitement and malicious damage to property against two journalists and investigate allegations that security personnel on August 13 and August 14 assaulted members of the press reporting on political unrest in northern Uganda’s Arua District, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Four Palestinian journalists injured by gunfire and shrapnel covering Gaza protests
At least four Palestinian journalists were injured by gunfire and shrapnel while covering protests in the Gaza Strip between July 27 and August 10, 2018, according to news reports, the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, reports, pictures, and videos shared on social media, and Gazan photojournalist Moneeb Saada.
Cameroon community radio destroyed in alleged arson attack
Johannesburg, August 9, 2018–Cameroonian authorities should speedily investigate an alleged arson attack on community radio station Sky FM in the volatile Northwest region and ensure those responsible are prosecuted, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Guatemalan minister uses law preventing violence against women to silence critical journalist
A Guatemalan judge on July 17, 2018, approved a court order allowing a government official to sue journalist José Rubén Zamora for psychological violence and discrimination, and barring Zamora from writing about the official under a law created to prevent violence against women, according to a CPJ phone interview with Zamora on July 19, 2018,…
Belarus sentences critical journalist to four years in a low-security prison colony
Kiev, July 17, 2018–A Minsk court today found Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Halko guilty of assaulting a police officer, sentenced him to four years’ labor at a low-security prison colony, and ordered him to pay restitution of 850 Belarusian rubles (US$430) to the officer, according to Halko’s wife, Julia Garkusha, and media reports. Halko was released…
Lebanon charges journalists with defamation, false news
Beirut’s Publication Court, headed by Judge Raffoul Bustani, on July 5, 2018, convicted and fined five Lebanese journalists for offenses including criminal defamation and spreading false news, according to news reports and the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. The court, which deals with media regulation, issued the fines in…
Syrian militia detains reporter in western Idlib
Members of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on June 24, 2018, detained Syrian journalist Mohammed Fadl al-Janoudi (also known as Mohammad al-Shami), a correspondent for the pro-opposition Qasioun News Agency in western Idlib and northern Lattakia, at his home in a displaced persons camp in the town of Bedama, between the villages of Ayn…
Palestinian journalist shot while covering Gaza protests
Beirut, June 8, 2018–Mohammed al-Baba, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, was hit by a live round fired by the Israel Defense Forces while covering a protest east of the northern Gazan city of Jabalia, according to news reports, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, reports shared by news outlets on social media, and CPJ interviews with local…
Ukraine authorities search Russian news agency, detain director
New York, May 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over the Ukraine Security Service’s (SBU) search of the Kiev office of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and detention of the office director, Kirill Vyshynsky.