Journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah found jailed in Pakistan after going missing in Malaysia
On August 23, 2022, freelance Pakistani journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah went missing in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, according to news reports. Shah had lived in Malaysia as a registered refugee since 2011, according to his wife Syeda, who spoke with CPJ. Syeda, who asked to be identified by her first name, said…
Journalists detained, harassed while covering Nigerian election
At least 14 journalists and media workers were detained, harassed, or attacked while covering Nigeria’s presidential and federal elections on February 25. WikkiTimes editor Haruna Mohammed Salisu was among those arrested, and was held until Thursday, when he was released on bail. Those incidents came after political protesters attacked journalist Jonathan Ugbal on February 22,…
Russian legislature adopts bill extending censorship on war reporting
Paris, March 2, 2023 – In response to multiple news reports that the lower house of the Russian parliament adopted amendments on Thursday, March 2, to expand existing penalties for spreading “fake” information about or discrediting participants on Russia’s side of the war in Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of…
Iraqi Kurdistan university official attacks journalists covering student protest
On February 19, 2023, an official at the girls’ dormitories of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Erbil Polytechnic University attacked several journalists covering student protests and broke some of their equipment, according to news reports, videos posted on social media, and phone interviews with some of the journalists. The students were protesting the lack of water, fuel, electricity,…
CPJ appalled by killing of journalist reporting on Florida shootings
On Wednesday, Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons was shot and killed in Orange County, Florida, while covering a separate fatal shooting earlier in the day. Another member of the news crew, photographer Jesse Walden, was critically injured in the shooting, which also killed a 9-year-old girl and injured her mother. Police arrested a 19-year-old…
Bangladesh shutters newspaper run by political opposition party
New York, February 21, 2023–Dainik Dinkal, the newspaper of Bangladesh’s main opposition party, was forced to close on Monday after its printing license was canceled in what the outlet’s managing editor, Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, said were invalid grounds. Dainik Dinkal suspended operations on February 20 after the Bangladesh Press Council, a quasi-judicial, government-funded body…
‘No other option to survive’: After one year of war, Ukrainian journalists are equipped for the long haul
In January, Ukrainian photojournalist Anton Skyba rushed to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine to report on a town near the front line, Chasiv Yar. He came prepared. In a phone call with CPJ, he ticked off the items in his suitcase: personal protective equipment, including a helmet and an individual first aid kit with a chest patch “for…
‘I turned around and said goodbye to Nicaragua’: A bitter freedom for 2 deported journalists
Nicaraguan journalists Juan Lorenzo Holmann and Miguel Mendoza had served more than 500 days of their nine-year prison sentences when guards ordered them from their cells and put them on the buses that would take them to a plane bound for Washington, D.C. Holmann, the publisher of La Prensa newspaper, and Mendoza, a veteran sports…
Nicaragua’s Miguel Mendoza on his bittersweet deportation from his ‘kidnapped’ country
Miguel Ángel Mendoza Urbina, a veteran sports journalist with over 30 years of experience, made a life-changing decision on April 19, 2018, when anti-government protests erupted in Nicaragua. He realized he could not just focus on sports while his country was in turmoil. Mendoza used his Twitter and Facebook accounts, with a combined following of…
Belarus tries 3 NEXTA journalists on myriad of criminal charges
Paris, February 16, 2023 – In response to multiple news reports that the trial of Belarusian journalists Raman Pratasevich, Stsypan Putsila, and Yan Rudzik started on Thursday, with Pratasevich facing trial in person and the others being tried in absentia from exile, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement calling for the many…