CPJ sends letter to U.S. Agency for Global Media head encouraging unbiased coverage
The Committee to Protect Journalists urges new U.S. Agency for Global Media head Michael Pack to ensure editorial independence and unbiased coverage at Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Radio Free Asia (RFA).
China’s COVID-19 countermeasures include restricting press freedom
In the nearly 71 years of Communist Party rule in China, the country’s citizens have enjoyed brief periods of relatively free speech, as during the abortive Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1956-57, or the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when investigative journalists covered local corruption and pollution. When the coronavirus outbreak first began spreading in…
Li Xinde
Chinese journalist Li Xinde is serving a five-year prison sentence in Pizhou, Jiangsu province, on charges of operating an illegal business. The charges stem from his work at China Public Opinion Surveillance Net, a website he founded to document corruption. On October 23, 2019, Pizhou police arrested Li in Beijing and accused him of operating…
Hossam El-Sayyad
Egyptian freelance photojournalist Hossam el-Sayyad is detained in Cairo alongside his wife, Solafa Magdy, and their friend Mohamed Salah, both also journalists. El-Sayyad is a freelance photojournalist and multimedia reporter whose work appeared in news outlets including the Emirati news website Al-Roya, according to press freedom advocates who worked with el-Sayyad and who spoke with…
Solafa Magdy
Solafa Magdy, an Egyptian freelance reporter, is detained in Cairo alongside her husband, Hossam el-Sayyad, and their friend Mohamed Salah, both also journalists. Magdy produces multimedia reports for news outlets including the Emarati news website Al-Roya, the Turkish news agency TRT, the German news agency Deutsche Welle, the BBC, and the independent Egyptian news…
Memetjan Abliz Boriyar
Xinjiang police arrested Uighur editor Memetjan Abliz Boriyar in October 2018, and authorities are holding him on allegations of approving the release of books that were later banned by Chinese authorities. CPJ has been unable to determine where he is being held or whether he has been formally charged. Police arrested Boriyar in October 2018…
David Romero Ellner
In March 2019, David Romero Ellner began serving a 10-year prison sentence on defamation charges, after being found guilty in 2016 of defaming a former Honduran prosecutor, Sonia Inez Gálvez Ferrani, in his reporting for Radio Globo on corruption allegations. The plaintiff in the case was also an attorney in an earlier case against Romero….
Yang Hengjun
Australian blogger Yang Hengjun, also known as Yang Jun, is being held in China on espionage charges. Guangzhou police arrested Yang, a former Chinese diplomat turned blogger and political commentator, on January 19, 2019. He was tried in 2021 but no verdict has been publicized. Yang frequently posted commentary on Twitter, which later changed its…
Zuhair Kutbi
Independent journalist Zuhair Kutbi was arrested in January 2019. He had previously been imprisoned from 2015 to 2017. CPJ could not determine whether he was active as a journalist since his release from prison in 2017. His most recent arrest came amid a crackdown on journalists in Saudi Arabia, including several who had not been…
Guo Zhongxiao
Wang, publisher of two Chinese-language magazines in Hong Kong-New-Way Monthly and Multiple Face-and Guo, a reporter for the magazines, were detained by police in the southern city of Shenzhen on May 30, 2014, and accused of operating an illegal publication and suspicion of illegal business operations. Liu Haitao, an editorial assistant at the magazines, was…