Pakistan journalists’ choice: Face death or jail
CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index, an annual ranking of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes, found unsolved journalist murders have increased in Pakistan.In an interview with the Associated Press, Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator, describes the escalating violence against journalists in Pakistan’s province of Baluchistan. Click here for the full…
Amid execution debate, the Gambia censors newspapers
Lagos, Nigeria, September 17, 2012–State security agents in the Gambia on Friday ordered two independent newspapers to cease publication immediately but provided no explanation, according to local journalists and news reports.Agents from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in the capital, Banjul, visited the offices of the daily The Standard and the paper Daily News, which publishes three times…
Indian daily attacked for the fourth time in six months
New York, September 17, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Wednesday’s attack on two media workers outside the offices of local daily The Arunachal Times in India and calls on police in Arunachal Pradesh state to increase security for the paper, which has been attacked three other times since March.
Japan’s independent journalism on trial with Tanaka
It doesn’t take a baseball bat to silence a reporter in Japan–increasingly the blunt weapon being wielded by corporations, power brokers, and politicians is the court gavel. In May of this year, a writer for the weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi was sued by one of Japan’s most powerful nuclear industry figures, for a total of…
Lebanon must free a journalist detained without charge
New York, September 14, 2012–Authorities must immediately release journalist Rami Aysha who has been detained without charge and abused since being seized more than two weeks ago while investigating alleged arms smuggling in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The Gambia orders BBC journalist to leave country
Gambian authorities detained Thomas Fessy, the West Africa correspondent of BBC World News, for several hours at the capital’s international airport on September 5, 2012, and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, the BBC reported. Fessy returned to Senegal on September 7, 2012.
Critical Bahraini journalist detained for four months
New York, September 13, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the ongoing imprisonment of Ahmed Radhi, a freelance journalist who was first detained four months ago after making critical comments about Bahraini-Saudi relations. Radhi now faces terrorism and other anti-state charges which he says were lodged after he was abused and forced into…
CPJ Press Freedom Awards: Honoring tenacity and courage
New York, September 13, 2012–Four journalists who risked their lives and liberty to reveal abuses of power and human rights violations in Brazil, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Liberia will be honored with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2012 International Press Freedom Awards, an annual recognition of courageous reporting. The awardees–Mauri König (Gazeta do Povo, Brazil), Mae…
Mauri König, Brazil
2012 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee (Courtesy of CNN) To watch Mauri König’s acceptance speech, click here. Mauri König’s 22-year career as a journalist has led him to become one of Brazil’s premier investigative reporters. His extensive investigations, in which he has exposed human rights abuses and corruption, have brought him worldwide acclaim and numerous…