CPJ calls on Sierra Leone to release newspaper editor
Abuja, Nigeria, December 18, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Sierra Leone to release Jonathan Leigh, managing editor of the Independent Observer. Leigh was arrested Thursday on accusations of publishing false information, according to news reports and local journalists with whom CPJ spoke.
CPJ condemns murder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently journalist
New York, December 16, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Ahmed Mohamed al-Mousa, a member of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. Al-Mousa was killed today by a group of masked men in Idlib, Syria, according to the citizen journalist group, which CPJ honored last month with its 2015 International Press Freedom Award.
CPJ joins call for Nigeria to drop anti-social media legislation
The Committee to Protect Journalists alongside 19 Nigerian, African and international organisations today signed an open letter addressed to the upper chamber of Nigeria’s parliament calling for the rejection of a bill which would undermine press freedom, stifle public opinion, and criminalize freedom of expression in Nigeria.
CPJ to release annual report on killed journalists
New York, December 16, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists will release its annual report on journalists killed in relation to their work. CPJ’s report includes a comprehensive catalog of journalists worldwide who were killed in connection to their work. A breakdown of the cases by country, medium, gender, freelancers, and the number of local versus…
Wife of Argentina reporter who denounced drug trafficking is raped
New York, December 15, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack Friday on the home of Argentine radio journalist Sergio Hurtado, who reported on drug trafficking. The journalist’s wife was raped in the attack in the town of San Antonio de Areco.
In Nigeria, journalist beaten outside court, has camera seized
At least 10 people, including officers of the Nigerian Prisons Service, allegedly beat Emmanuel Elebeke, a journalist with the independent daily Vanguard, at the premises of a high court in the capital Abuja on November 12, 2015, according to news reports. The reporter, who also takes photographs for the paper, told CPJ he was attacked…
“EU must stop its double standards with Turkey”
The Committee to Protect Journalists will take part in a joint press conference on Turkey’s press freedom record, alongside Reporters Without Borders and the European Federation of Journalists. The press conference, “EU must stop its double standards with Turkey,” will be held in Brussels on December 15, 2015. CPJ’s EU correspondent Jean-Paul Marthoz, along with…
Tanzania’s press wait to see if new president will reform troubling media laws
Elections in Tanzania passed smoothly in October, but several local journalists and a media lawyer told me the spectre of anti-press laws is casting a pall over critical reporting in the country and that hopes for legal reform under the newly elected President John Pombe Magufuli remain muted.
China, Egypt imprison record numbers of journalists
Egypt is second only to China as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2015. Worldwide, the number of journalists behind bars for their work declined moderately during the year, but a handful of countries continue to use systematic imprisonment to silence criticism. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser