Imprisoned

New York, February 2, 2026— The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalists Mehdi Mahmoudian and Vida Rabbani and to end the ongoing crackdown on journalists. Mahmoudian and Rabbani were arrested after signing a statement, alongside other Iranian journalists and activists, expressing their support of the recent mass…

Dakar, January 30, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to immediately release journalist Brand Kamga, who was arrested on January 19 and charged with attempting to abduct the child of a woman he was investigating. Kamga, editor of the online channel Naja TV, phoned and met with the plaintiff, Annette Josiane Wandji…

Ahead of a February 2 decision by Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court, the Committee to Protect Journalists and seven other human rights groups called on Kyrgyzstan authorities to comply with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s opinion and release journalist Tajibek kyzy without delay. Director of anti-corruption investigative outlets Temirov Live and Ait Ait Dese,…

The Committee to Protect Journalists has written to Bangladesh’s major political parties ahead of a national election scheduled for February 12, calling for urgent steps to safeguard press freedom and journalists’ safety. In separate letters, CPJ called on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the National Citizen Party, and the Jatiya Party to make public…

Berlin, January 28, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) January 27 ruling that Azerbaijan violated the rights of journalist Khadija Ismayilova by prosecuting and imprisoning her in retaliation for her reporting, but calls on Azerbaijan to immediately enforce the judgment.      Ismayilova, an award-winning investigative journalist, was detained in December 2014 and subsequently sentenced to…

Bangkok, January 28, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the alleged physical abuse of imprisoned Myanmar journalist Myat Thu Kyaw at Yangon’s Insein Prison and calls on authorities to immediately release him on humanitarian grounds. Prison authorities orchestrated an assault on Myat Thu Kyaw and three other political prisoners using members of an incarcerated…

Istanbul, January 26, 2026—Turkish authorities should immediately cancel the order of house arrest for reporter Furkan Karabay and let him do his job, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.  Police in Istanbul took Karabay, a court reporter currently with the news website Medyascope, into custody and a court placed him under house arrest on the suspicion of “publicly spreading…

New York, January 26, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the three-and-a-half year prison sentences handed down to prominent Tunisian journalists Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies for tax evasion, which are widely seen as in retaliation for their reporting.  Zghidi and Baaies, who work for the local independent radio station IFM, have been behind bars…

Tacloban City, January 22, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday condemned the harsh 12- to 18-year prison sentence handed down to Philippine journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio after she was found guilty of financing terrorism, and called on authorities to immediately free her and stop targeting journalists. “This absurd verdict shows that the various pledges…

China, Myanmar, and Israel lead jailers of journalists in 2025 New York, January 21, 2026 — For the fifth consecutive year, more than 300 journalists were behind bars at year-end, according to a new report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). China, Myanmar, and Israel were the leading jailers of journalists on the…