CPJ submits report on Iraq to UN’s human rights review
The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a report on the state of press freedom and journalist safety in Iraq and semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its January to February 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session. The U.N. mechanism is a peer review of each member state’s human…
CPJ welcomes return of Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, says Russia must stop stifling journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) editor Alsu Kurmasheva as part of a prisoner exchange, and called on Russia to release other jailed journalists and stop harassing those in exile. “Evan and Alsu were detained and sentenced on spurious charges…
CPJ calls on Biden, US lawmakers to push Netanyahu on press freedom
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and nine other human rights and press freedom organizations called on the White House and U.S. Congressional leaders to press the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the unprecedented number of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip and the near-total ban on international media entering the Strip, during his…
After 8 months in detention, Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed faces spying charges in Iraq
Sulaymaniyah, June 24, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to immediately and unconditionally free Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed, who has been detained for eight months, and drop all charges against him. Ahmed — an Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews — is due to stand trial before Duhok Criminal…
Iranian journalists face jail, raids, legal threats
CPJ is closely monitoring what is becoming an epidemic of arrests and legal threats against journalists in Iran. In the last two months, we have documented over a dozen jailings, sentencings, lawsuits, and raids on journalists’ homes in the country. These arrests show that “Iranian authorities are desperate to silence their critics,” said CPJ Middle…
Israel among top jailers of journalists worldwide, as imprisonments globally continue unabated, CPJ finds
New York, January 18, 2024—Amidst a months-long war, Israel emerged for the first time as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 17 recorded behind bars as of December 1, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) annual prison census. This is the highest number of Palestinian journalists in detention since…
2023 prison census: Jailed journalist numbers near record high; Israel imprisonments spike
By Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director Worst Jailers | New Developments | Regional Repression | Census Methodology Israel emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists following the October 7 start of the Israel-Gaza war, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2023 prison census has found. Israel ranked sixth – tied with Iran – behind…
Impunity for the killers of journalists at nearly 80% on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
Today, as we mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the rate of impunity for killers of journalists continues unabated at nearly 80% worldwide, according to CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index. For the first time, Haiti is on the index, ranking as the world’s third-worst impunity offender, behind Syria and Somalia…
Haiti joins list of countries where killers of journalists most likely to go unpunished
By Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director The persistent lack of justice for murdered reporters is a major threat to press freedom. Ten years after the United Nations declared an international day to end impunity for crimes against journalists – and more than 30 years after CPJ began documenting these killings – almost 80% of their killings…
At least 65 journalists missing globally
August 30 marked the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, with CPJ documenting at least 65 journalists missing globally. Official indifference and failure to investigate these disappearances cast a chill on other reporters and devastate the journalists’ families, who are often left in the dark with little to no support. ➡️ Mexican journalist Jorge…