Statements

Miami, May 8, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing on May 6 of former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000.

Bangkok, May 7, 2019– Reuters’ journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were released today from a Yangon prison in Myanmar as part of a presidential pardon, after spending more than 500 days behind bars, Reuters reported. The journalists were released in a mass amnesty of prisoners granted today by President Win Myint, according to…

Addis Ababa, May 2, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Uganda’s media regulator to immediately rescind an order yesterday suspending staff from 13 radio and television stations in connection to their coverage of opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine.

Miami, April 30, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today renewed its calls for Nicaraguan authorities to immediately released detained journalists Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora. Their trial, which was scheduled to begin yesterday, was instead postponed without a new date set, according to local news reports.

New York, April 22, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep disappointment today after the Myanmar Supreme Court upheld Reuters’ journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s convictions. Reuters reported that the Supreme Court justice said the appeal was rejected and did not elaborate further.

New York, April 19, 2019 – Freelance journalist Lyra McKee was fatally injured late last night during riots and a police operation in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, according to multiple news reports.

Washington, D.C., April 15, 2019 — Today, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in Los Angeles, unsealed a civil lawsuit against former Sri Lankan Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a dual U.S.-Sri Lankan citizen, seeking damages for his alleged involvement in the 2009 killing of journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga,…

New York, April 10, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes commitments made by Daniel Hahn, the chief of police of Sacramento, California, to make changes to the way the department treats journalists during protests.

New York, April 5, 2019–A Belgrade court today convicted four former Serbian state security officers of the 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, owner of the mass-circulation Dnevni Telegraf, Serbia’s first private daily, and the weekly magazine Evropljanin, independent regional news website Balkan Insight reported. Ćuruvija, 51, was shot and killed on April 11, 1999,…

New York, April 5, 2019 — The trial of Kirill Vyshynsky, Kiev bureau chief of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, started yesterday in the Podil district court in Kiev, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. The court heard the prosecutor’s indictment and will convene again on April 15, the news agency said.