ATR

The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to Russian President Vladimir Putin to express its deep concern at the menacing language employed on social media and in the press by officials in Chechnya against critical journalists and rights activists.

A coalition of free expression and human rights advocacy groups led by the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Chief Minister Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh to ask him to intervene to ensure that police and prosecutors swiftly release journalists Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav.

New York, January 12, 2016–Unknown gunmen shot to death two journalists working for the independent Al-Sharqiya TV station in Iraq today, according to the channel and news reports. The attack marks the first killings of journalists to be documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2016.

New York, January 6, 2016–Bahraini authorities should immediately release journalist Mahmoud al-Jaziri and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The terrorism charges were announced amid escalating sectarian tensions in Bahrain and other Gulf countries.

Of 69 journalists killed for their work in 2015, 40 percent died at the hands of Islamic militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. More than two-thirds of the total killed were singled out for murder. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

New York, December 22, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkey to end its crackdown on the press. Since the release of CPJ’s annual prison census, three journalists working for pro-Kurdish outlets have been arrested in Turkey on terror accusations, according to news reports.

As of December 1, 2015 Analysis: China, Egypt imprison record numbers of journalists Blog: None jailed in Americas | Blog: Q&A with Vietnam’s Ta Phong Tan

Plainclothes police arrested Somaru Nag on July 16, 2015, at his family’s mobile phone shop on the outskirts of Darbha town, according his brother, Sonaru, who was cited by the South Asian media watchdog group The Hoot. The family was told of his arrest three days later.

On November 22, 2015 Rajib Sen Prince, the Chittagong district correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Mohona TV, was injured when unidentified assailants opened fire on the press vehicle he was in. Sen had been covering the burial of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, an opposition leader executed for war crimes, including the murder of scores of…

São Paulo, November 11, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of radio journalist Israel Gonçalves Silva, who was shot dead Tuesday in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The attack comes as at least four journalists have been murdered in direct retaliation for their work in Brazil this year.