Gado blames government pressure as cartoonist’s contract at Kenya’s Nation ends
For 23 years Godfrey Mwampembwa has been a prominent and quick-witted observer of the political scene in East Africa. But all that changed last month when the cartoonist, known as Gado, was told his contract at Kenya’s biggest newspapers, the Nation, would not be renewed.
Criminal Defamation Laws in The Caribbean
Contents Critics Are Not Criminals: Comparative Study of Criminal Defamation Laws in the Americas I. Antigua and Barbuda A. Criminal Laws Restricting Freedom of Expression Defamation remains a criminal offence in Antigua and Barbuda under the Libel and Slander Act, which dates to 1876 and was last updated in 1976. The Act, which governs both…
Criminal Defamation Laws in South America
Contents Critics Are Not Criminals: Comparative Study of Criminal Defamation Laws in the Americas I. Argentina A. Criminal Laws Restricting Freedom of Expression Argentina’s Law 26.551 of November 2009 amended articles 109 to 117 of the Criminal Code to eliminate criminal sanctions for libel and slander, replacing them with monetary penalties. 1. Libel Libel consists…
CPJ calls on Turkey to drop charges against Cumhuriyet journalists
Istanbul, February 26, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the conditional release today of Turkish journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, and calls on authorities to drop all charges against them. The two, who spent 92 days in pre-trial detention, still face multiple life sentences if convicted of exposing state…
79 cases and counting: Legal challenges pile up for Daily Star editor who admitted error in judgment
When Mahfuz Anam, editor of one of Bangladesh’s most respected newspapers, admitted recently to a lapse in editorial judgment several years ago, he could not have predicted the legal backlash that would ensue. Anam’s admission that he published unsubstantiated information accusing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of corruption has led to a barrage of defamation and…
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
Balancing Act
The rule of law mechanism The Hungarian crisis in which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán brought in a succession of media laws and regulations that have crippled the independent press showed that most national governments and a significant number of MEPs underestimated Orbán’s threat to the EU as an institution and a community of values. They…
Conflict Reporting: Safety and Security in the Field
Join CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney for a panel on conflict reporting. Risks for journalists covering conflict and political strife continue to rise each year, with a reported 38 journalists killed in 2015 alone and hundreds threatened, attacked, kidnapped and/or targeted. This panel of journalists and practitioners will explore the radically changing landscape of conflict…
Zone 9 Bloggers, Ethiopia
In April 2014, Ethiopian authorities arrested six bloggers affiliated with the Zone 9 collective. The bloggers–Abel Wabella, Atnaf Berhane, Mahlet Fantahun, Natnail Feleke, Zelalem Kibret, and Befekadu Hailu–were charged with terrorism. Additional Content Acceptance Speech The Zone 9 blogging collective was formed in May 2012 in response to the evisceration of the independent press and…