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New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed yesterday’s ruling by Lesotho’s Constitutional Court that criminal defamation is unconstitutional, calling it a significant step toward safeguarding press freedom in the country.

New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over the detention of Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi blogger who writes about women’s issues, and urges the country’s authorities to confirm her whereabouts and release her immediately.

New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on North Korea to allow journalists access to cover the dismantling of a nuclear test site in the country.

Masrat Zahra, a Kashmiri freelance photographer, told CPJ that she faced online harassment and threats after a photograph of her, captioned with the word “mukhbir”–meaning “spy” or “army informer”–was circulated on social media around May 16, 2018.

New York, May 22, 2018–Pakistani authorities should immediately halt any restrictions on the distribution of Dawn newspaper in Pakistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Distribution of the newspaper has been disrupted in many parts of the country in recent weeks, Dawn editor Zaffar Abbas told CPJ.

New York, May 21, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Fiji authorities to drop sedition charges against the weekly Fiji Times, three newspaper executives, and an opinion columnist. A High Court judge tomorrow will make a final ruling in the case after a panel of three High Court assessors on May 18 found…

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of 25 other international press freedom organizations to call on Kazakh authorities to drop criminal defamation cases against media outlets Forbes Kazakhstan and Ratel and revise the law on dissemination of “false information” often used to silence critical media outlets and journalists.

New York, May 18, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev’s decision to drop defamation charges he pressed last year against independent news website Zanoza and its journalists Naryn Idinov and Dina Maslova, and urged the country’s new administration to release Azimjon Askarov, a Kyrgyz journalist jailed since 2010.

Beirut, May 18, 2018–Two unknown gunmen killed Ibrahim al-Munjar, a correspondent for the Syrian news website Sy24 in the southern Syrian province of Daraa. Al-Munjar was killed in the city of Saida on May 17, according to his employer, news reports, and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Assailants on May 13, 2018, attacked Hu Xiaoli and Yu Tao, the host and cameraperson, respectively, of a local television show, “Xiaoli’s Here to Help,” as they were filming for a story about a real estate dispute in Henan province’s Kaifeng City, according to the state-owned news website China News Service and the Weibo account…