Pakistani journalist Khalil Jibran shot dead following threats from militants
New York, June 20, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the continued killing of journalists in Pakistan, including six in 2024 thus far, and calls on the country’s authorities to swiftly investigate the fatal attack on veteran journalist Khalil Jibran and hold those responsible to account. On the evening of June 18,…
Niger reinstates prison sentences for journalists for defamation, insult
Dakar, June 20, 2024—Nigerien authorities must decriminalize defamation and ensure that the country’s cybercrime law does not unduly restrict the work of the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. On June 7, Niger’s head of state Abdourahamane Tchiani, who overthrew the democratically elected president in July 2023, reintroduced prison sentences of one…
Fleeing prolonged media crackdown, Ethiopian journalists struggle in exile
When Belete Kassa’s friend and news show co-host Belaye Manaye was arrested in November 2023 and taken to the remote Awash Arba military camp known as the “Guantanamo of the desert,” Belete feared that he might be next. The two men co-founded the YouTube-based channel Ethio News in 2020, which had reported extensively on a conflict that…
Serbia court rules to extradite journalist Andrey Gnyot to Belarus
Update: A Serbian appeals court announced on September 11 that it has sent the extradition case of Belarusian filmmaker Andrey Gnyot for a third review to the Belgrade Higher Court. Gnyot told CPJ on September 12 that he expects the next hearing “will not happen earlier than a month,” saying that “the most dangerous thing” about the…
Forced to flee: Exiled journalists face unsafe passage and transnational repression
By Lucy Westcott/CPJ Emergencies Director Threats, repression, conflict, and unrest: across the world, these and other factors are pushing journalists into exile in record numbers. In a striking development, exiled or soon-to-be exiled journalists now make up more than half of the people CPJ assists. Between January and June 2024, CPJ provided financial support to…
Drug-related violence fuels an exodus of Ecuador’s press
On the only radio station in the remote Ecuadorian town of Baeza, morning show host Juan Carlos Tito updates listeners on the weather, recent power outages, and repairs to a bridge spanning a nearby river. For the last 24 years, Tito, 53, has been the trusted voice of Radio Selva, broadcasting important community news to…
Leading press freedom organizations submit amicus brief in Maria Ressa case
CPJ, ICFJ and RSF introduced expert legal opinion arguing the Supreme Court of the Philippines should close cyber libel case New York / Paris / Washington D.C., June 18, 2024 — In an effort to deter the legal persecution of trailblazing journalist and Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa and her former colleague Reynaldo Santos, and to…
Russia expels Austrian journalist Maria Knips-Witting in retaliatory response
Berlin, June 14, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the expulsion of Austrian journalist Maria Knips-Witting from Russia and calls on the country’s authorities to immediately reinstate the journalist’s credentials and cease turning journalists into political pawns. Russian authorities revoked the accreditation of Knips-Witting, a journalist with the Moscow bureau of public broadcaster Austrian Radio…
“State of Silence” premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival: Documentary traces attacks on the press in Mexico
On Monday at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Mexico Representative Jan-Albert Hootsen joined a panel discussion following the global premiere of “State of Silence,” a documentary tracing attacks on journalists in Mexico, and the urgent need to strengthen the country’s federal protection mechanism for the press. The film, which charts…
Hostile climate intensifies for Slovak press after PM Fico shooting
The day after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot on May 15, the heads of 27 news outlets condemned the attack and called on politicians not to further divide society by looking for culprits. “Just like after the murder of our colleague Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, we are once again at…