CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering protests in France and Belgium
Despite the French government announcing it will drop a proposed fuel tax rise, the gilets jaunes (yellow jackets) group, truckers, and farming groups have called for more protests, according to The Guardian. Mass demonstrations have taken place across France and Belgium as initial protests over the proposed increase in fuel duty on diesel spread to…
Kashmiri journalists face multiple restrictions, attacks in October
Journalists in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir faced numerous incidents of restrictions and attacks between October 8 and October 30, 2018. During this period, journalists attempted to cover urban local elections in the state, as well as events surrounding the killing of militant commander Manan Wani by the security forces.
Panic buttons, cameras, and a gun under the desk: Local newsrooms update security in wake of Capital Gazette attack
The Capital Gazette shootings in Annapolis in June, in which a gunman killed five staff, forced many newsrooms across the U.S. to reassess the security of their offices. While journalists acknowledged that threats come with the job, the shooting comes in a year of increased hostility toward the press, including pipe bombs being sent care…
Angela Quintal recounts CPJ’s ordeal in Tanzania
Johannesburg, November 13, 2018–“We drove down a dirt road and entered the premises of what appeared to be a safe house, through a large gate. Several men in plain clothes stood in the front yard. At least one appeared to be armed with a rifle. Their animosity was palpable… We were ordered out of the…
Damascus journalist has a million stories but none she can safely report
Joudy Boulos has a million stories she wants to write. But as a Syrian freelance journalist living in Damascus, her ability to report is severely limited by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is so dangerous that “Joudy Boulos” is a pseudonym the journalist sometimes uses when reporting and to protect her safety.…
Two journalists shot, injured covering effects of Turkish shelling in Syria
Two reporters for the Hawar News Agency (ANHA), Gulistan Mohammad and Ibrahim al-Ahmed, were injured by Turkish gunfire while covering the effects of Turkey’s shelling of the northern Syrian city of Tell Abbyad on the Turkey-Syria border on November 2, 2018, according to news reports, the journalists’ employer, footage provided by Brazilian photojournalist and filmmaker…
How the Saudis may have spied on Jamal Khashoggi
Omar Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi Arabian dissident, can still remember the time Jamal Khashoggi, the storied Saudi journalist, unfollowed him on Twitter. It was in 2015, and Khashoggi had been tapped to head a new TV network called Al-Arab, a partnership between a member of the royal family and Bloomberg. Abdulaziz started haranguing Khashoggi online,…
Video journalist killed in Maoist rebel attack in Chhattisgarh
New Delhi, October 30, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities in Chhattisgarh to ensure the safety of media covering elections after a journalist embedded with police was killed in an ambush. Video journalist Achyutananda Sahu, who worked for the government-run broadcaster Doordarshan, was killed in Chhattisgarh today during a firefight between police and…
CPJ calls on Trump to dial back rhetoric against media and critics
New York, October 26, 2018–Federal authorities today arrested a Florida man, identified as Cesar Sayoc, suspected of mailing 13 bombs addressed to prominent figures and critics of President Donald Trump, two of which were addressed care of CNN at their New York studio.