Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 10
Merkel approves prosecution of German comic for insulting Erdoğan German Chancellor Angela Merkel today told reporters the German government would allow prosecutors to act on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s request that television satirist Jan Böhmermann be prosecuted for a profane poem about Erdoğan he read on the March 31 episode of his television program.
Secular blogger hacked and shot to death in Bangladesh
New York, April 7, 2016–Unidentified assailants attacked blogger Nazimuddin Samad with sharp weapons and then fatally shot him in Dhaka Wednesday night, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Bangladeshi government to determine the motive for the killing, and to take immediate steps to bring his attackers to justice
CPJ turns 35, jailed journalists walk free, reporters on trial in Turkey, and more
CPJ Newsletter: April edition Four imprisoned journalists freed in Azerbaijan The president of Azerbaijan in March issued a decree pardoning 148 people, including three imprisoned journalists–Hilal Mamedov, Tofiq Yaqublu, and Parviz Hashimli.
Second Indian journalist arrested in Chhattisgarh in one week
New York, March 28, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Indian authorities to release journalist Deepak Jaiswal, and to cease harassing and jailing journalists for their work. Police arrested Jaiswal, a reporter for the Hindi-language daily Dainadini, in the Bastar region of the central Indian state Chhattisgarh on Saturday. He is…
Singapore court sentences online editor for sedition
Bangkok, March 24, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Singaporean court’s sentencing Wednesday of an Australian editor of a now-defunct independent Singaporean news website, and calls on authorities to stop jailing journalists and censoring websites.
Journalist arrest another sign of deteriorating climate for press in Chhattisgarh
New York, March 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to immediately release Prabhat Singh, a reporter for the Hindi daily Patrika, who was arrested in the south Bastar region Monday, and to investigate a claim that he was mistreated in custody. Singh’s arrest comes as…
Venezuelan government newsprint squeeze forces newspaper to stop printing
Bogotá, March 18, 2016 – Blaming the refusal of the government to sell it newsprint, the independent Venezuelan daily El Carabobeño printed its final edition on Thursday, according to news reports. The newspaper has published for 82 years and was one of the few independent media outlets in Valencia, the capital of Carabobo state.