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Connecting Cuba

Outdated laws and limited, expensive internet access slow the island nation’s progress By Carlos Lauría Cuba’s media landscape has begun opening up in recent years, transformed by a lively blogosphere, an increasing number of news websites carrying investigative reporting and news commentary, and an innovative breed of independent reporters who are critical of, yet still…

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Chinese Import

Russia tries to emulate Beijing’s model of information control By Emily Parker Russia has embarked on an ambitious social experiment. Just a few years ago, Russians had a mostly free internet. Now Moscow is looking toward Beijing, trying to imitate the Chinese model of internet control. Yet the Kremlin will likely find that once you…

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Disrupting the Debate

Governments use copyright laws and Twitter bots to curb criticism on social media By Alexandra Ellerbeck On July 10, 2016, Ecuadoran journalist Bernardo Abad tweeted that the former vice-president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, had not paid income taxes for the year before. A week later, Abad received a message from Twitter saying his account had…

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A Reuters photojournalist runs as Venezuelan National Guard soldiers charge during a protest outside the Supreme Court in Caracas on March 31. Several journalists have been injured covering the unrest. (AP/Ariana Cubillos)

Journalists covering Venezuela protests harassed, attacked, and news websites blocked

New York, April 12, 2017–Venezuelan authorities should ensure that journalists can cover protests safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Several reporters have been detained, injured, or had equipment seized while covering ongoing protests over a Supreme Court ruling to strip the opposition-led National Assembly of its lawmaking powers, according to news reports and…

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Gambia orders three radio stations to cease broadcasting

Lagos, Nigeria, January 5, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Gambian authorities to allow three independent radio stations to resume full broadcasting. Taranga FM, Hilltop Radio, and Afri Radio stopped broadcasting on January 1 on the orders of national security agents, who did not give any explanation for the measure, according to news…

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Sri Lankan government blocks Tamil website

Sri Lankan regulators blocked access to a Tamil-language news website on October 26, 2016, over allegations that the website carried false information and incited ethnic hatred, according to news reports and the website’s editor, who is based overseas and who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. The order to block the site…

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Posters calling for the release of photojournalists Mohammad al-Batawi, right, and Shawkan, are held up in Cairo. A U.N. working group says that Shawkan's detention is arbitrary. (AP/Amr Nabil)

In Egypt, censorship, an arrest, and court hearings for journalists

Restrictions against the press continue in Egypt, with ongoing trials of journalists, some of whom have been in detention for more than three years, allegations that a TV station was ordered to drop a planned broadcast of an interview with a former official, and a reporter detained while trying to cover a sensitive story. Egypt…

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Police fire tear gas during a festival in Ethiopia's Oromia region. After months of protests, authorities have imposed a state of emergency that includes blocking access to social media. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

Ethiopia’s state of emergency cuts lines of communication and puts bloggers at risk of arrest

On October 4, I heard that my friend Natnael Feleke had not returned home even though it was approaching midnight in Ethiopia. Family and friends were discussing where to search for the blogger, who had only been released 11 months earlier from the notorious Kilinto prison, where he was held for 16 months over his…

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A woman takes a selfie with a picture of King Bhumibol Adulyadej after the hearse carrying his body goes by. News broadcasts have been replaced with royal footage after the king's death. (AFP/Lillian Suwanrumpha)

CPJ calls on Thailand to not censor news during royal transition

New York, October 14, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Thailand’s military government to lift a blanket censorship order on television news broadcasters imposed in the wake of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death yesterday.

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Election posters on a street in Amman. CPJ visited Jordan to review the press freedom situation ahead of the September 20 vote. (CPJ/Sherif Mansour)

Mission Journal: Gag orders make Jordan’s journalists skeptical of reform

Sitting uncomfortably in her chair because of a soccer injury, the Jordanian radio host Diala Dabbas said, “I know we are banned from talking about the king, his family, and the divine, but now I am also afraid to talk about anyone else who could be considered a ‘religious symbol’.”

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