Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of July 17
Police raid and seal Meydan offices Istanbul police raided the offices of the pro-Hizmet daily Meydan at about 5 p.m. yesterday, local press reported. Police searched the offices in the Şirinevler district for three hours and confiscated documents, before sealing the building. The website of Meydan has not been updated since yesterday. The raid comes…
Mahmoud Abou Zeid, Egypt
Mahmoud Abou Zeid, a freelance photographer also known as “Shawkan,” was detained on August 14, 2013. The journalist was covering clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi during the dispersal of the pro-Morsi sit-in at Raba’a Al-Adawiya Square in Cairo. After Morsi’s ouster on July 3, 2013, the military-supported government…
Óscar Martínez, El Salvador
Óscar Martínez is the co-founder, coordinator, and reporter for “Sala Negra” (Black Room), the investigative unit that covers gang violence for Central America’s first online-only newsmagazine El Faro (The Lighthouse). After working as a freelance reporter in Mexico, Martínez joined El Faro in 2008 to help carry out an in-depth investigation of Central American migration…
Malini Subramaniam, India
Malini Subramaniam, a contributor to the news website Scroll.In, was among the few journalists reporting from the Bastar area in the state of Chhattisgarh–the epicenter of the conflict between Maoist and security forces–until early 2016. Most journalists work in Chhattisgarh temporarily and are based in safer areas like the state capital, Raipur. In contrast with…
Can Dündar, Turkey
Can Dündar, chief editor of the Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, was arrested along with his colleague, Erdem Gül, on November 26, 2015, on charges of disclosing state secrets, espionage, and aiding a terrorist group. The two spent 92 days in custody before being released, pending trial, on February 26, 2016. The charges relate to a…
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour was honored with the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for her extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom on November 22, 2016. The text of Amanpour’s acceptance speech, as prepared for delivery, is below. I never in a million years thought I would be up here on stage appealing for the…
In Turkey, one journalist killed, several newsrooms seized in attempted coup
Istanbul, July 16, 2016 – Turkish soldiers shot and killed one journalist and seized control of several newsrooms last night as factions of the Turkish military attempted to topple the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A night of violence, which was most severe in Ankara, left…
Two Congolese journalists held by police for critical reporting on military
New York, July 15, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arbitrary detention of two radio journalists in the Ituri district of Oriental Province in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and calls on Congolese officials to release them both immediately.
CPJ advocacy director testifies at HRC hearing on blasphemy laws and censorship
Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing that will examine blasphemy laws, state censorship, actions by non-state actors, and other threats to freedom of expression around the world. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14, 2016 at 2 PM and will take place at 2322 Rayburn House Office Building.