Tanzania switches track, charges Kabendera with economic crimes
Nairobi, August 05, 2019—Prosecutors in Tanzania today charged freelance journalist Erick Kabendera with money laundering, tax evasion, and assisting an organized crime racket, according to a copy of the charge sheet. When he was detained on July 29, the Dar es Salaam police chief said at a press conference that police were investigating Kabendera’s citizenship…
Nicaragua: A crackdown in four parts
When protests erupted in Nicaragua in April last year, it was clear from the beginning that the country’s media landscape would be a battleground. One day into the unrest, the government ordered cable providers to cut the signals of at least five TV channels. By the end of the year, CPJ had documented attacks, arrests,…
Two Guerrero state journalists killed in one week in Mexico
Mexico City, August 2, 2019—Mexican authorities must immediately investigate the killing of Guerrero state journalists Rogelio Barragán Pérez, founder of the news website Guerrero Al Instante, and Edgar Alberto Nava López, founder of the news website La Verdad de Zihuatanejo, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Russian journalist Mikhail Romanov found guilty of ‘abuse of freedom of information’ and ‘false’ news
Washington, D.C., August 2, 2019–Journalist Mikhail Romanov, a correspondent with the weekly Yakutsk Vecherniy, was found guilty on July 25 by the city court of Yakutsk, in eastern Russia, on charges of “abuse of freedom of information by publishing false information that poses a threat to the public,” according to news reports. He was fined…
Deyda Hydara’s daughter: ‘I am still crying’ for murdered Gambian journalist
At Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) on July 22, army officer Lieutenant Malick Jatta named former President Yahya Jammeh as the mastermind behind the murder of prominent editor Deyda Hydara on December 16 , 2004. He said Jammeh had given the direct order to assassinate Hydara, an outspoken critic who was the managing…
CPJ joins call for U.N. Human Rights Council to extend mandate of Burundi Commission of Inquiry
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined 40 other civil society organizations in calling on member and observer states of the U.N. Human Rights Council to extend for a year the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi.
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…
Chihuahua daily El Monitor de Parral suspends print edition after firebombing
Mexico City, August 1, 2019 — Mexican authorities must immediately investigate an attack on the newspaper El Monitor de Parral in the northern state of Chihuahua and provide its employees with adequate protection, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham detains Syrian reporter Jumaa Haj Hamdou in Aleppo
In the afternoon of July 24, 2019, at least 10 members of the Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham detained Jumaa Haj Hamdou, a reporter for the Syrian pro-civil rights opposition news website Zaman al-Wasl, at his home in Abian, a village in western Aleppo governorate under control of the militant group, according to the France-based…