CPJ joins call for California attorney general to investigate technology used in Belarus censorship
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined free expression and digital rights groups on September 23 in calling on Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, to investigate technology sales by Sandvine Inc. after the company acknowledged that its products were being used to block news and other websites amid anti-government protests in Belarus. The call, co-signed by…
Crimean Tatar civic journalists risk persecution to cover their community in Russian-annexed Crimea
After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, some Crimean Tatars–the indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula–had to flee for the Kyiv-controlled part of Ukraine. But most have chosen to remain. As the Russian-appointed new authorities established blanket censorship, squeezing out independent media outlets, a new phenomenon emerged–civic journalism. Members of the Crimean Tatar community–who had not…
Authorities block local news websites amid Belarus protests
Vilnius, Lithuania, September 14, 2020 – Authorities threatened last week to censor another major domestic news website in Belarus, where dozens remain blocked amid nationwide protests, local journalists told CPJ. On September 9, the Ministry of Information warned Tut.by, one of the most popular independent news websites in the country, that its reporting on a…
Turkish courts play whack-a-mole with independent news outlets
In March, 2020, Turkey’s Constitutional Court issued an unexpected decision, overruling a local court that blocked a news website in 2015, according to news reports. But the editor who filed the appeal with the court remains unhappy, he told CPJ via WhatsApp, because the original website remains inaccessible in Turkey — along with the 62 replacements…
Iran shuts down economic newspaper over COVID-19 reporting
Washington, D.C., August 10, 2020 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iranian authorities’ to reverse their decision to shut down the Tehran-based economic daily Jahane Sanat. The Press Supervisory Board of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance revoked the operating license of Jahane Sanat for publishing an interview with a member of Iran’s National Coronavirus…
Freelancer Vladimir Sevrinovsky on covering COVID-19 in the North Caucasus: ‘The main misinformation I fight is from the state’
Vladimir Sevrinovsky is a Moscow-based freelance journalist and documentary photographer who has covered social and cultural issues in Russia for independent news site Meduza, independent weekly Russkii Reporter, and Kavkaz.Realii, a regional service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others. Sevrinovsky’s most recent assignment was to report from Russia’s North Caucasus…
Kashmiri journalists describe new government tactics to control the narrative
In April, after Srinagar-based senior journalist Peerzada Ashiq published an article about the families of two militants who wanted to exhume their bodies to perform funeral rites, police in Kashmir launched an investigation and accused him of publishing “fake news.” Ashiq told CPJ that he had sought official comment on multiple channels, but never received…
Benin regulator orders online media ‘without authorization’ to halt publication
New York, August 4, 2020 — Benin’s media regulator should lift its ban on unauthorized online media and refrain from censoring news websites, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 7, Rémi Prosper Moretti, the president of Benin’s High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC), the country’s media regulator, issued an order demanding…
Guinea Bissau broadcaster Radio Capital FM vandalized
New York, August 3, 2020 — Authorities in Guinea Bissau should investigate the vandalism of broadcaster Radio Capital FM and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In the early morning of July 26, unidentified armed men in uniforms of Guinea Bissau’s national guard smashed equipment and other property at…
Turkey proposes social media law, threatening press freedom
Istanbul, July 23, 2020—A draft bill to strengthen state control of social media platforms, as well as data about those who use them in Turkey, is a troubling sign in a country where journalists are routinely jailed for posting online, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) proposed…