Statements

New York, June 8, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern about the seizure of phone and email records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins by the United States Justice Department in the first known incident that federal prosecutors have gone after a journalist’s data under President Donald Trump’s administration.

New York, June 4, 2018–Russian authorities should immediately release Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A Moscow city court sentenced Sushchenko, a Paris-based correspondent for Ukraine’s state news agency, Ukrinform, to 12 years in a high-security prison on espionage charges today, Russian and Ukrainian media reported.

New York, May 30, 2018– Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who had been reported shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital yesterday, has appeared alive at a televised news conference in Kiev. Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, said the agency faked Babchenko’s death to catch those who were trying to kill him. “We…

New York, May 24, 2018–Ukrainian authorities today published a presidential decree that extends for three years sanctions imposed in 2017 against Russian state-funded news outlets and their journalists, as well as other foreign entities and individuals, and added the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti-Ukraine to the sanctions list, according to media reports.

May 24, 2018, London–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the U.K.’s decision to pass into law legislation that addresses human rights abuses. The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, which yesterday received Royal Assent to be passed into law, includes a “Magnitsky amendment” that empowers the U.K. to apply sanctions against individuals suspected of human…

New York, May 24, 2018–In a one-day trial today, a criminal court in Béjaïa sentenced Algerian blogger Marzoug Touati to 10 years in prison and fined him 50,000 Algerian dinar (US$427) for communicating with a foreign entity and inciting civil disobedience, Touati’s lawyer, Salah Dabouz, told CPJ. The conviction is related to Touati’s interview with…

New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned the sentencing today of Egyptian freelancer Ismail Alexandrani. A military court in Cairo found Alexandrani guilty of being a member of a banned organization and spreading false news, and sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison, according to news reports.

New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed yesterday’s ruling by Lesotho’s Constitutional Court that criminal defamation is unconstitutional, calling it a significant step toward safeguarding press freedom in the country.

New York, May 18, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev’s decision to drop defamation charges he pressed last year against independent news website Zanoza and its journalists Naryn Idinov and Dina Maslova, and urged the country’s new administration to release Azimjon Askarov, a Kyrgyz journalist jailed since 2010.

Berlin, May 16, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Slovak authorities to respect the confidentiality of journalistic sources. Slovak police in Bratislava yesterday seized the mobile phone of Czech investigative reporter Pavla Holcova while questioning her for their investigation into the murder of her colleague, Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, and his girlfriend, the…