Iran

In Congress, bipartisan condolences for Khashoggi fiancée and calls for action For a moment, polarized politics took a back seat. Democratic and Republican congressional leaders gathered at an evening reception and lined up to offer condolences to Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who earlier that day shared gut-wrenching testimony…

Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri has once again been arrested by Nigerian authorities. Abiri was charged under the country’s cybercrimes, anti-sabotage, and terrorism prevention acts, to which he pleaded not guilty. Abiri was previously held without trial from July 2016 to August 2018. Also in Nigeria, new accreditation requirements have the potential to restrict press access…

Last Friday, between eight and 10 police officers executed a search warrant on freelance journalist Bryan Carmody’s San Francisco home. Police opened the gate with a sledgehammer, handcuffed Carmody, and executed a second search warrant on his home office. These actions were done as part of an investigation into how the reporter obtained a confidential…

This week, a Colombian court sentenced former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000. Pereira was sentenced to 40 years and six months in prison for the attack, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). The court…

The long-running political crisis in Venezuela escalated on April 30, 2019, after a civilian and military uprising was thwarted by the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to news reports. Opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, accompanied by members of the armed forces, congregated on a highway in eastern Caracas and called upon the armed…

On April 13, 2019, Albanian police fired tear gas into a crowd during a demonstration in the capital, Tirana, affecting several journalists, according to news reports and video footage of the protest.

British freelance journalist and blogger Alice Taylor, who writes for various international publications and for the Albania-focused news website Exit, has been targeted in a smear campaign by pro-government news outlets in Albania and had her residency permit renewal denied, the journalist told CPJ.

Venezuela’s press freedom crisis heats up CPJ’s Central and South America program and Emergencies Response Team have been in overdrive amid an intensifying press crackdown in Venezuela, which reached a new level when the Maduro government briefly detained Univision reporter and anchor Jorge Ramos and his crew on February 26.

New York Times correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick was denied entry into Egypt on Monday. His phone was confiscated and he was held in the airport for seven hours without food or water before authorities forced him onto a flight back to London without explanation. The move against Kirkpatrick comes after authorities detained a local journalist,…

“You work against us. In your work, you criticize militias. We watched your videos and you talk against us. You will pay the price for it,” an anonymous voice said on the other end of the line to freelance reporter Azhar Al-Rubaie.