Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 26
Shots fired at newspaper office, no one injured An unknown assailant in a moving taxi fired two shots from a handgun at the building housing the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet in Istanbul this morning, Cumhuriyet reported. A police investigation is in progress, the report said.
Iraqi Kurdish journalist killed by roadside bomb in Mosul
New York, February 25, 2017–Iraqi Kurdish reporter Shifa Zikri Ibrahim, known professionally as Shifa Gardi, was killed today by a roadside bomb while covering the Iraqi Army’s offensive against the Islamic State group in western Mosul for the Kurdish TV station Rudaw, the network said. A cameraman for the network, Younis Mustafa, was also injured…
Reporters barred from U.S. press secretary briefing
New York, February 24, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the decision today to bar nine news outlets from an informal briefing known as “a gaggle” by President Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Separately, at the Conservative Party Action Conference in Maryland today, Trump said that journalists should not be…
In China, sources face harassment, jail for speaking to foreign media
Zhang Lifan is a Beijing-based historian specializing in modern Chinese history. He is also an outspoken critic of the Chinese government who is interviewed regularly by the foreign press–even when it leads to harassment from officials. Last month alone, he was quoted in a New York Times article about the government revising the length of…
UN Secretary General pledges to take action on journalist safety
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged UN Secretary General António Guterres to take steps to address the urgent issue of safety of journalists. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Secretary General Christophe Deloire and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Joel Simon met with United Nations Secretary General António…
Sri Lankan military intelligence officers suspected in journalist’s murder
New York, February 23, 2017–Sri Lankan authorities should fully investigate the 2009 murder of an editor and bring his killers to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Five military intelligence officers were arrested this week in connection with the murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Sunday Leader and a fierce…
Hong Kong daily Sing Pao says its journalists and website are under attack
New York, February 22, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Hong Kong authorities to investigate the harassment of journalists at the daily Sing Pao. Sing Pao Media Enterprises, which owns the paper, released a statement yesterday saying that staff have been followed and harassed, and that the newspaper’s computer system was attacked.
Togolese journalist beaten, victim of hit-and-run
Lagos, Nigeria, February 22, 2017–Togolese authorities should ensure the safety of a journalist beaten by security forces and should fully and credibly investigate that assault, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Robert Avotor, a journalist for the biweekly newspaper l’Alternative, told CPJ that a vehicle intentionally hit him on February 19, in what he…
Ivory Coast detains six journalists for reporting on mutiny
Police in the Ivory Coast on February 12, 2017, detained Vamara Coulibaly, the publisher of the independent Soir Info and L’Inter newspapers; Hamadou Ziao, editor-in-chief of L’Inter; Jean Bédel Gnago, a journalist with Soir info; Bamba Franck Mamadou, the publisher of the pro-opposition newspaper Notre Voie; Yacouba Gbané, the publisher of the pro-opposition newspapers Le…