Syrian journalist killed while covering fighting in Daraya
New York, February 22, 2016 — Syrian freelance journalist Majid Dirani was killed on February 19 by Syrian military tank shells while covering fighting in a suburb of Damascus, one of his employers, Anadolu Agency, and other news outlets reported.
Bahrain upholds prison sentence against photographer
Washington, February 9, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned Bahrain’s imprisonment of photographer Ahmed al-Fardan. A Bahraini appeals court on February 3 upheld the photojournalist’s three-month prison sentence on charges of participating in an unlicensed protest, according to his lawyer and news reports.
CPJ Newsletter: January
Turkey releases jailed Iraqi journalist Following months of advocacy by VICE News, CPJ, and other groups, Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool was released from Turkish prison on January 5. Rasool was arrested in August along with his VICE News colleagues, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, while they were reporting from southeastern Diyarbakir province. The three…
Bahrain accuses journalist of supporting terrorism
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.
China, Egypt imprison record numbers of journalists
Egypt is second only to China as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2015. Worldwide, the number of journalists behind bars for their work declined moderately during the year, but a handful of countries continue to use systematic imprisonment to silence criticism. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser
China, Egypt are worst jailers of journalists worldwide
Total number imprisoned globally falls slightly, CPJ finds New York, December 15, 2015–China is holding 49 journalists behind bars, the highest number ever recorded there, making it the worst jailer of journalists worldwide for the second year in a row, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. The number of journalists jailed in Egypt and…
As police seize Newsnight laptop, concerns grow at reach of UK counter-terrorism measures
For journalists investigating jihadist networks, the UK is proving to be no safe haven. British police used special powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 in August to seize the laptop of Secunder Kermani, a reporter for BBC Two’s flagship news show “Newsnight,” according to reports. “They required the BBC to hand over communication between the…
Flaws discovered in TrueCrypt, but journalists still have options for encryption
Project Zero, a Google team that searches for bugs, has identified two flaws affecting the TrueCrypt disk encryption software program. While the flaws, which were found by computer security researcher James Forshaw, are not cryptographic–meaning they couldn’t be used directly to decrypt a disk or device–they present potential problems for user security.