internet shutdown

Facebook threatened to prevent Australian users and publishers from posting news on its platform last week, raising questions about who benefits when people share journalism on social media—and who has the power to stop them. The company was responding to drafts of a news media bargaining code and related legislation published on July 31 by…

The impact of Hong Kong’s new security law was felt by journalists this week with the police raid of the Apple Daily newsroom and arrests intended “not just to thwart [the founder Jimmy] Lai and his media group, but to intimidate Hong Kong’s entire community of journalists,” wrote CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler in…

Between July 2 and July 18, 2020, security personnel in Ethiopia detained Kenyan freelance journalist Collins Juma Osemo, who goes by the name Yassin Juma, and four employees of the satellite outlet the Oromia Media Network: news director Melese Direbssa; journalist and TV show host Guyo Wariyo; news anchor Mohammed Siraj; and a driver with…

In the Philippines, the country’s broadcast regulator ordered the ABS-CBN network to stop broadcasting and “cease and desist” operations after its 25-year franchise agreement with Congress expired. In Colombia, the military carried out extensive monitoring of more than 130 individuals, including local and international journalists, according to a new report by the newsweekly Semana. One…

At a public hearing on Nigeria’s social media bill held in Abuja last month, the voice of Chris Isiguzo, president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), rang clearly across the room: “This bill…seeks to pigeonhole Nigerians from freely expressing themselves.” The NUJ is “totally opposed” to it, he said.

New Delhi, February 19, 2020—Jammu and Kashmir police have summoned three journalists this month, including photojournalist Kamran Yousuf, who was questioned about social media activity, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. In January, after a lengthy communications shutdown in the region, the Indian government restored access to under 1500 “white-listed” websites, not including social…

CPJ on Wednesday urged Senate authorities to reconsider proposed restrictions on journalists covering President Trump’s impeachment trial and to consider feedback from the Standing Committee of Correspondents. CPJ argued that increased restrictions would make it more difficult for journalists to cover a major news event and limit the public’s insight into the impeachment proceedings. In…

Repressive governments use sophisticated digital censorship and surveillance alongside more traditional methods to silence independent media. A special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Published September 10, 2019 Eritrea is the world’s most censored country, according to a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The list is based on CPJ’s research into the…

CPJ awardee Zaffar Abbas: The Pakistani government has decided ‘to kill journalism’ Pressure campaigns by press freedom groups are a vital line of defense against a rapidly deteriorating environment for independent media in Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan, said Zaffar Abbas, the editor of Dawn and CPJ’s 2019 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award winner,…

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! Three journalists were killed in Mexico in less than a week. CPJ is investigating to determine if they were killed in retaliation for their work. Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez, a reporter for the newspaper El Gráfico, was shot…