Internet Governance Forum
On December 6, join CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch at the Internet Governance Forum. The IGF is a multistakeholder platform that faciliates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the internet. On Monday, December 5 at 1P.M. Courtney is organizing a session on “Countering Violent Extremism and Human Rights Online.” In the wake of…
Zambian police arrest five radio journalists
Police on November 15, 2016, detained five journalists who work for Zambia’s private Mano Radio station, before releasing them roughly 17 hours later, pending trial on insult charges, according to a written account the station emailed to the Committee to Protect Journalists on November 18, and a report on the news website Lusaka Times.
Dutch journalist Okke Ornstein jailed in Panama for criminal defamation
New York, November 29, 2016–Authorities in Panama should immediately release Dutch journalist Okke Ornstein, who has been detained since November 15, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Ornstein, a Panama-based journalist who runs the news website Bananama Republic, was arrested in relation to a 2012 criminal defamation conviction when he arrived at Panama City…
Gambian journalist sentenced to two years in prison
A Gambian court on November 8, 2016, convicted Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay, an exiled radio journalist and manager of community station Taranga FM, of three counts of sedition and spreading false news, according to media reports. The court, convicting the journalist in absentia, sentenced Ceesay to two years in prison and a fine of 200,000 Gambian…
Journalists honored for courageous reporting
International Press Freedom Awards go to Indian freelance reporter, Egyptian photojournalist, Turkish editor, and El Salvadoran investigative reporter New York, November 23, 2016–Journalists from India, Egypt, Turkey, and El Salvador were honored Tuesday night at the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 26th annual International Press Freedom Awards for courageous work amid risks including imprisonment, threats, and…
Sri Lankan government blocks Tamil website
Sri Lankan regulators blocked access to a Tamil-language news website on October 26, 2016, over allegations that the website carried false information and incited ethnic hatred, according to news reports and the website’s editor, who is based overseas and who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. The order to block the site…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 13
Two years in prison for newspaper editor Diyarbakır’s Fourth Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced İsmail Çoban, responsible news editor of the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat to two years and four months in prison for “propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classifies as a terrorist group.
Brazilian journalist convicted of criminal defamation for environmental reporting
A Salvador court sentenced Brazilian journalist Aguirre Talento to six months and six days in jail for criminal defamation on October 31, 2016, reduced to community service and a fine, according to the journalist and his lawyer. The case was the second of three separate defamation cases filed the same day over a 2010 story…