This week in press freedom: Egyptian photojournalist free after over 5 years in prison
Egyptian photojournalist and CPJ’s 2016 International Press Freedom Award winner Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, was released from prison on Monday after spending over five years in detention on anti-state charges. The conditions of his release, however, are arduous: he will be under “police observation” for five years, meaning he will have to appear…
CPJ Insider: March 2019 edition
Venezuela’s press freedom crisis heats up CPJ’s Central and South America program and Emergencies Response Team have been in overdrive amid an intensifying press crackdown in Venezuela, which reached a new level when the Maduro government briefly detained Univision reporter and anchor Jorge Ramos and his crew on February 26.
Caracas press crackdown goes from bad to worse
Venezuela’s political crisis continues to unfold, and the country’s press crackdown intensified over the past week. On Monday, a Univision news crew headed by reporter and anchor Jorge Ramos was detained for over two hours at the presidential palace in Caracas because Nicolás Maduro allegedly did not like the questions asked by Ramos. The crew’s…
Justice for Jamal
Justice for Jamal On October 2, 2018, Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered shortly after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Since that day, CPJ has been at the forefront of global efforts to secure transparency, accountability, and justice for Khashoggi’s murder. Our efforts continue today. The CIA reportedly concluded…
Philippines’ Maria Ressa detained and released over ‘political’ charge
The Philippine government’s legal harassment of the news website Rappler and Maria Ressa, its founder and executive editor, took an alarming turn Wednesday when officers from the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Ressa at Rappler‘s bureau in Manila and held her overnight over a cyber libel case filed against her by the Justice Department. Ressa’s…
#JusticeForJamal campaign culminates with call for administration to respond to Senate inquiry
Washington D.C, February 7, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists held a press conference this morning in front of the White House to demand accountability in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one day before the February 8 deadline for the Trump administration to deliver a report to the Senate on its findings on the…
UAE hired former NSA employees to surveil journalists and human rights activists
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…
Q&A: Rodney Sieh on how Liberia’s press is faring under Weah presidency
Rodney Sieh, editor-in-chief and publisher of Liberian investigative outlet FrontPageAfrica, knows first-hand the harassment and risks critical journalists in his country face. In 2013, CPJ documented how he was sentenced to prison over unpaid fines in a criminal defamation case.