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…
Iranian journalist Hossein Shanbehzadeh, others imprisoned ahead of presidential election
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2024—Iranian authorities must immediately release blogger and book editor Hossein Shanbehzadeh and drop the espionage charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Officers with the Iranian Cyber Police arrested Shanbehzadeh on espionage charges in the northwestern city of Ardabil, in Ardabil province, on Thursday, June 6. His social…
Turkmenistan releases journalist imprisoned for 4 years for COVID photo
Stockholm, June 10, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved by the Saturday release of Nurgeldi Halykov, a freelance correspondent for independent Netherlands-based news website Turkmen.news, after he completed a four-year prison sentence on trumped-up fraud charges. “We are relieved that Nurgeldi Halykov is free after enduring a shockingly unjust prison term in one of…
Journalist says Kenyan official threatened to kill him over report on ambulance shortages
Kampala, June 7, 2024—Kenyan authorities should credibly investigate reports that a government official threatened to kill reporter Douglas Dindi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Dindi, who works with the People Daily newspaper, told CPJ that on May 20, David Alilah, Chief Officer of Medical Services in Kenya’s western Kakamega County, threatened to kill…
South Africa police briefly detain journalist Sandiso Phaliso, force him to delete crime scene photographs
South African police arrested freelance journalist Sandiso Phaliso while he was photographing a crime scene in the country’s legislative capital of Cape Town on April 25 and held him for about two hours, the journalist told CPJ. Phaliso, who regularly writes for the non-profit news agency GroundUp, said that he went to a crime scene in…