Sport for Rights

New York, December 1, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Russian court’s decision in a closed-door hearing on Friday to extend the pretrial detention of U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until February 5, 2024. “Each day Alsu Kurmasheva spends in Russian detention on absurd criminal charges is another blow to press freedom and journalists’ rights…

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, has been in Russian detention since October 18, when authorities in the western city of Kazan charged her with failure to register herself as a foreign agent. If found guilty, Kurmasheva faces up to…

Istanbul, November 2, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Turkish authorities on Thursday to immediately release journalists Tolga Şardan and Cengiz Erdinç, drop “disinformation” charges against them, and overturn an order for editor Dinçer Gökçe to read and summarize books about his profession. In two separate cases on Wednesday, police in the Turkish capital of…

From pariah to potential partner. That’s how far Saudi Arabia has come for President Joe Biden in the five years since Riyadh sent a death squad to butcher journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The administration’s ongoing rehabilitation of the petrodollar kingdom and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, seems to…

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…

Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, journalists and news outlets across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.   In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while…

New York, October 18, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by Wednesday’s detention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in the western Russian city of Kazan and calls on Russian authorities to release her immediately. “CPJ is deeply concerned by the detention of U.S-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on spurious criminal charges and calls on Russian…

Bangladesh is scheduled to hold general elections by January 2024. Amid questions over the potential legitimacy of the elections, clashes are already on the rise both between and within the political parties, and journalists have frequently been caught in the crosshairs. Ahead of the upcoming election, Bangladeshi police have procured large amounts of shotgun bullets,…

Iran one year later: key trends from CPJ’s research In the year since Iranians took to the streets to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by morality police for alleged “improper” wearing of the hijab, CPJ documented the arrests of around 100 journalists swept up in a crackdown on the…

When Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died in custody last September after morality police detained her for alleged “improper” wearing of her headscarf, Iran’s already embattled press corps paid a heavy price for reporting on her death and the nationwide protests that followed. Scores of journalists were among those arrested as Iranian authorities cracked…