Blogger

On June 19, Abdülhamit Bilici, the last editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Turkish paper Zaman, tweeted about the decline of press freedom in his home country. If you can see his tweet, you are probably not in Turkey because it is among the over 1.5 million tweets belonging to journalists and media outlets censored there under…

New York, July 31, 2018–Belarusian authorities should end their harassment of independent blogger Sergey Petrukhin and allow him to work without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A court today charged Petrukhin with disobedience of an official order, according to the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Kenyan blogger Cyprian Nyakundi was arrested on May 14, 2018, on allegations of publishing “alarming” content about senior civil servants, according to court documents seen by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was released on May 17 following the intervention of the director of public prosecutions, the blogger and one of his lawyers, Smith Otieno,…

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…

Nairobi, March 26, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ethiopian authorities to release five journalists. Security forces yesterday arrested Eskinder Nega, Temesghen Desalegn, Zone 9 bloggers Befekadu Hailu and Mahlet Fantahun, and Zelalem Workagegnehu, who were gathered at Temesghen’s house in Addis Ababa, according to reports and a statement by the Swiss-based Association…

Nairobi, March 9, 2018–Ethiopian authorities should immediately release Seyoum Teshome, who publishes the Ethiothinktank blog, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security forces yesterday arrested Seyoum at his home near the Woliso campus of Ambo University, where he lectures, according to witnesses who spoke with Voice of America and Deutsche Welle. The reason for…

New York, March 7, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed news that Equatoguinean cartoonist and blogger Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé is free from prison after serving more than five months in a Malabo jail on false charges of money laundering and counterfeiting.

New York, March 2, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today confirmed that Yusuf Ruzimuradov, the longest-imprisoned journalist worldwide, was freed in Uzbekistan in late February. CPJ called on authorities to take further steps to improve the climate for the media by dropping charges against two independent journalists who are due in court in a separate…

Nairobi, February 16, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ethiopian authorities to drop an incitement charge against Zone 9 blogger Atnafu Berhane. Prosecutors told a court on February 14 they planned to drop the charge today, but the process was delayed by a paperwork error, Atnafu told CPJ. He added that a judge…

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of 11 other international press freedom and human rights advocacy groups, in calling on Uzbek authorities to conduct an investigation into allegations of torture and ill-treatment of jailed journalists Bobomurod Abdullaev and Hayot Nasriddinov. The coalition, led by Human Rights Watch, called for the journalists to…