Censored

Freedom is like air or water: something you appreciate only when it’s gone. Freedom for Turkish journalists was never as abundant as air or water–but nor was it ever as scarce as it has become in the last year.

New York, July 13, 2017–Sudanese authorities should stop confiscating newspapers and censoring their coverage, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In recent days, the country’s security service has confiscated or censored the coverage of at least five newspapers, according to press reports.

Turkish president tells German newspaper jailed correspondent is a terrorist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an interview published yesterday, told the German newspaper Die Zeit that Die Welt Turkey correspondent, Turkish-German dual national Deniz Yücel, is a terrorist because he interviewed a leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist…

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt to drop demands that Qatari-funded media be closed as a condition for the lifting of the partial blockade they have imposed on Qatar.

New York, June 23, 2017–A group of Arab countries today issued Qatar a list of demands, including that the Gulf nation close media outlets that it funds, among them the broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Arabi 21, and the websites Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye. The demands are a prerequisite for lifting diplomatic and economic sanctions…

New York, June 21, 2017–The Palestinian Authority should cease blocking access to news websites in the West Bank, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Palestinian Authority’s attorney general, Ahmad Barrak, on June 15 ordered internet service providers to block access to at least 11 news websites, according to news reports.

On June 17, 2017, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services summoned Akhir Lahza’s editor-in-chief Saleh Abdelazim to its offices in Khartoum and told him that copies of the daily Arabic-language newspaper would be confiscated indefinitely, according to the newspaper’s managing editor Luay Abdelrahman and news reports.

Egyptian authorities blocked access to at least 64 websites, including dozens of news websites, between May 24 and June 12, 2017, according to Egyptian human rights group the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and news reports. The number was substantially higher than the 21 websites security officials on May 24 told Egypt’s official…

As Egypt’s crackdown on the press extends to social media and other communication platforms, many journalists say phishing attempts, trolling, software to monitor social media posts, and a draft law that would require registration for social media users are making them think twice before covering sensitive issues.

Twelve witnesses against journalist say testimony extracted under torture Twelve out of 13 witnesses prosecutors called yesterday to testify that Nedim Türfent, a former reporter for the shuttered, pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), was a member of a terrorist organization recanted their written testimony, saying police extracted it under torture, the daily Evrensel reported. Police…