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Audrey Tang prefers precise language. During an interview, Taiwan’s minister without portfolio – Tang’s name card simply says “digital minister” – makes a swift correction when we mention the term “fake news.” The preferred term is “disinformation” because, Tang says, it has a legal definition in Taiwan: “That is to say, intentional, harmful untruth, and…

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…

In Saudi Arabia, journalist Zuhair Kutbi was arrested on unknown charges, and Eman Al Nafjan and Hatoon al-Fassi, two of the four female journalists critical of the ban on women driving whom Saudi authorities arrested last year, were tried. They appeared in court Wednesday on charges under the cybercrime law, including supporting “hostile elements.” In…

Washington, D.C., February 6, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Japanese government to allow freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka to leave the country to conduct reporting. Tsuneoka was stopped by immigration officials at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport while trying to leave Japan for a reporting trip to Yemen on February 2 and, in a…

CPJ expressed concern that at least four journalists were surveilled under Project Raven, a United Arab Emirates cybersurveillance and hacking operation, according to a Reuters report. CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour called the involvement of U.S. intelligence officials in the operation “disturbing.” CPJ North America Research Assistant Stephanie Sugars took…

Journalists from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to the U.S. were targeted for murder in 2018 in reprisal for their work, bringing the total of journalists killed on duty to its highest in three years. The number of journalists killed in conflict fell to its lowest level since 2011. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

For the third year in a row, 251 or more journalists are jailed around the world, suggesting the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike. China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia imprisoned more journalists than last year, and Turkey remained the world’s worst jailer. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

Prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul more than a week ago, and Turkish authorities told the media they believe that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. In Bulgaria, TV host Viktoria Marinova was found dead on Saturday, and CPJ is looking into whether the killing…

Hanoi, July 26, 2018–A Sichuan province court on July 13 sentenced Chinese freelance political cartoonist Jiang Yefei to prison for six years and six months on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” and “illegally crossing a national border,” during a secret trial, according to the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia and the independent news…

Taipei, July 11, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Chinese authorities to immediately release Chen Jieren, an independent blogger who frequently published articles critical of the Communist Party officials on his blog, Jieren Guancha (Jieren Watch).