‘Living in fear’: Exiled Afghan journalists face arrest, hunger in Pakistan
Stuck with no income for more than a year after fleeing Afghanistan for Pakistan, Samiullah Jahesh was ready to sell his kidney to put food on the table for his family. “I had no other option, I had no money or food at home,” Jahesh, a former journalist with Afghanistan’s independent Ariana News TV channel,…
Sierra Leone journalist Alie Melvin Tokowa beaten while filming political dispute
Abuja, April 10, 2023—Sierra Leone authorities should thoroughly investigate the recent attack on journalist Alie Melvin Tokowa and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On March 28, a group of about seven people kicked, choked, and beat Tokowa, manager of radio broadcaster FOP 89.7FM Moyamba, as he attempted to…
Russian authorities in Crimea deny medical treatment for jailed journalist Iryna Danylovych
Paris, March 28, 2023—Authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea should allow journalist Iryna Danylovych access to swift and thorough medical care, and should release all members of the press held for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Russian authorities have held Danylovych, a nurse and freelance journalist covering the healthcare system, since April 2022….
Newly released from Turkish prison, Kurdish journalist Nedim Türfent reflects on sham prosecution
Nedim Türfent knows why he spent six and a half years of his life behind bars as a convicted terrorist in Turkey. The court that sentenced him explained the verdict in official documents: Because he writes “exaggerated and disturbing news stories” about the state. After his prison term ended in November 2022, “It was…
‘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…
How UK Online Safety Bill threatens encryption, secure communication, and reporting on migration
Does the image above, depicting the rescue of a child who attempted to reach the U.K. by sea, present the act of immigration in “a positive light”? It’s an absurd question, of course. It’s journalism – an effort to convey in visual terms the stark truth that tens of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers try to get…
In an Iran roiled by protests, journalists face a war of attrition
In mid-September, an enterprising young Iranian reporter named Niloofar Hamedi went to Tehran’s Kasra Hospital to report on a woman arrested by the county’s morality police for not properly wearing her hijab. That woman, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, was in a coma after allegedly being beaten by police; she later died of her injuries. Hamedi, a…
What CPJ is thankful for in 2022
While this newsletter usually spotlights cases of journalists under attack globally, we wanted to take this week, ahead of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving, to reflect on what we have been grateful for this past year. Journalists have inspired us continuously throughout 2022, governments have taken steps to protect press freedom, and justice has finally…