Crime reporter murdered in Myanmar
Bangkok, December 13, 2016–Authorities in Myanmar should consider journalism as a motive in the murder of muckraking newspaper reporter Soe Moe Tun and bring his killers to swift justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Soe Moe Tun, a reporter with the local Daily Eleven newspaper, was found dead today by the side of…
A record number of journalists are in jail, CPJ census finds
Turkey holds at least 81 journalists, fueling global high of 259 New York, December 13, 2016–Turkey’s unprecedented crackdown on media brought the total number of jailed journalists worldwide to the highest number since the Committee to Protect Journalists began taking an annual census in 1990. As of December 1, 2016, there were 259 journalists in…
Weighing China jailed cases amid censorship and fear
My native China is consistently among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. This year, it has been eclipsed by Turkey, which is holding a record number of journalists behind bars. But since CPJ began conducting an annual census in 1990, China has topped the ignoble list 18 times.
Turkey’s crackdown propels number of journalists in jail worldwide to record high
At least 81 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, all of them facing anti-state charges, in the wake of an unprecedented crackdown that has included the shuttering of more than 100 news outlets. The 259 journalists in jail worldwide is the highest number recorded since 1990. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser
Radio reporter murdered in Mexico
Mexico City, December 12, 2016–Police in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua should conduct a full and credible investigation into the murder of Jesús Adrián Rodríguez Samaniego, a reporter for the radio stations Antena 102.5 FM and Antena 760 AM, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Rodríguez was fatally shot on December 10, his…
Press freedom on OGP agenda as authoritarianism rises
There was poignancy to the Paris summit of the Open Government Partnership, as leaders from government and civil society took the stage to defend a political ideology under siege: liberal democracy. French President François Hollande, who amid weak public support announced he will not seek re-election in 2017, called democracy “so fragile and so precious.”…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 11
Columnist jailed pending ‘insult’ trial for remarks on Syria Istanbul’s Ninth Court of Penal Peace this evening ordered Hüsnü Mahalli, a columnist for the leftist newspaper Yurt, jailed pending trial on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a board of civil servants in the course of discharging their duties,” the official Anatolia Agency reported.
Security risk for sources as US border agents stop and search journalists
French-American photojournalist Kim Badawi did not go home to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. He didn’t want to risk a repeat of November last year, when he says U.S. border security detained him at Miami airport and interrogated him in minute detail about his private life, political views, and journalistic sources.
CPJ Safety Advisory: Crossing the US border
Journalists traveling to or from the United States have been stopped, questioned and faced prolonged and invasive searches that have put the confidentiality of their sources into question. Over the past year, members of the A Culture of Safety (ACOS) Alliance, a coalition of news organizations, journalists, and press freedom groups that includes the Committee…