2018

New York, May 7, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from custody today of Uzbek journalists Bobomurod Abdullaev and Hayot Nasriddinov, who had been on trial in Tashkent since March 5, 2018. With the pair’s release, there are no journalists behind bars in Uzbekistan for the first time in two decades, according to…

New Delhi, May 2, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed a Mumbai court’s convictions today of nine people, including the mastermind of the murder of investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey nearly seven years ago. A court that hears organized crime cases found crime boss Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, alias Chhota Rajan, guilty of ordering Dey’s murder because…

Washington, D.C., April 30, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned today’s double suicide bombing attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, in which at least 25 people were killed, including at least eight journalists, according to media reports. The second blast, about 30 minutes after the first, appeared targeted at journalists who arrived to cover the first…

Istanbul, April 25, 2018–An Istanbul court today convicted 14 people affiliated with the independent daily Cumhuriyet of aiding terrorist organizations and sentenced them to jail terms ranging between three and seven years, the newspaper reported. The court placed the journalists on probation and banned them from traveling until the appeals process has ended, according to…

Washington D.C., April 25, 2018–Ahmed Abu Hussein, a Palestinian photographer for the Gaza-based Voice of the People Radio, died today from bullet wounds to his abdomen sustained on April 13 while he was covering protests in the northern Gazan city of Jabalia, according to news reports citing Gazan Health Ministry officials. Hussein is the second…

New York, April 25, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the outcome of a trial in Copenhagen at which Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen was convicted of killing freelance journalist Kim Wall on his submarine in August 2017. Madsen received the maximum sentence of life in prison, according to news reports.

Mexico City, April 24, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the arrest of a suspect in the murder case of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas. At a press conference today, police named the alleged accomplice to the 2017 murder as 26-year-old Heriberto ‘N’, alias “El Koala,” and said that Valdez was killed for his…

Brussels, April 23, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the appointment of Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt as the special rapporteur of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The rapporteur will monitor the ongoing murder investigation in Malta, examine the broader circumstances surrounding the journalist’s…

New York, April 20, 2018–At least nine journalists have been injured and at least five independent television channels have been blocked in Nicaragua, as escalating protests against pension reform since April 18 have left at least three people dead, according to news reports.

New York, April 20, 2018–A prosecution witness in the case against two imprisoned Reuters journalists in Myanmar today testified that a police chief ordered officers to trap one of the reporters by handing him “secret documents” during a meeting, according to Reuters and other news reports.