Criminal Defamation Archives - Page 11 of 15 - Committee to Protect Journalists

Copies of Indian newspapers are spread across a desk during a CPJ visit to the country in early 2018. (CPJ/Aliya Iftikhar)

Weight of legal cases and threats leave India’s journalists feeling exposed and alone

April 10, 2018 10:00 AM EDT

The media is in the worst state India has ever seen. That is how several journalists described the current climate in dozens of conversations with CPJ during a trip to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi earlier this year. While the threats they outlined–political pressure, self-censorship, defamation suits, and attacks–are not a new phenomenon in India, many…

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev arrives in Brussels in November 2017. Azerbaijan has continued to harass and censor its press ahead of snap elections scheduled for April 11. (AP/Olivier Matthys/File)

Azerbaijan goes to the polls amid muzzled media and blocked websites

April 6, 2018 12:02 PM EDT

When it comes to silencing critics, Azerbaijani authorities have been industrious and methodical. Ahead of snap presidential elections scheduled for April 11, potential opposition candidates have been either jailed or barred from running, and the political landscape has been cleansed of virtually all formal avenues of expressing dissent.

A man reads a newspaper outside a Dhaka flower stall in 2015. Bangladesh's press say a climate of fear amid legal action, attacks, and threats makes covering sensitive issues difficult. (AP)

Bangladesh’s press say they are losing the courage to report amid threats from all sides

February 13, 2018 11:35 AM EST

Nazmul Huda pointed his TV camera at garment workers demonstrating for higher wages in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, and at the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them. It took a while for police to notice the ETV reporter, and they were furious. After all, they had ordered him to leave…

Bangladeshi journalists cover proceedings outside a Dhaka court in May 2016. The country's vaguely worded defamation law is creating a climate of self censorship, local reporters say. (AP/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladesh’s defamation law is ‘avenue to misuse power,’ local journalists say

December 8, 2017 1:07 PM EST

It started with a Facebook post about a goat and ended in a day in jail for Bangladeshi journalist Abdul Latif Morol, when a fellow journalist filed a defamation complaint against him.

An Indian flag is painted on a woman's face during rehearsals for India's Independence Day celebrations in Ahmedabad. A court in the city issued an injunction against the news website The Wire. (Reuters/Amit Dave)

Indian court bars The Wire from publishing stories on businessman Jay Shah

October 24, 2017 4:30 PM EDT

New Delhi, October 24, 2017– The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a decision by India’s judiciary to proceed with a criminal defamation complaint against The Wire and issue an injunction preventing the news website from reporting about Jay Shah, the son of the ruling BJP party’s president Amit Shah, while the defamation case is…

Supporters donate money to Maldives broadcaster Raajje TV, which has been subject to large fines for alleged defamation in relation to its critical reporting. (Raajje TV/Mohamed Sharuhaan)

Maldives repeatedly slaps Raajje TV with huge fines under defamation law

October 24, 2017 4:00 PM EDT

One of the largest TV stations in the Maldives, Raajje TV, says authorities are using newly recriminalized defamation law to try to shut it down by levying exorbitant fines.

A general view of Hargeisa in May 2016. A court in the city sentenced a Somaliland journalist to 18 months in prison. (AFP/Mohamed Abdiwahab)

Somaliland court jails journalist for 18 months

October 10, 2017 4:20 PM EDT

Nairobi, October 10, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the conviction and sentencing of Somaliland journalist Mohamed Adan Dirir during a one-day trial held without the journalist’s lawyer.

Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe addresses party supporters in Gweru, Zimbabwe, on September 1. Police detained a journalist, Kenneth Nyangani, for reporting that Mugabe allegedly donated used underwear and women's nightgowns to ruling party supporters. (AP/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Zimbabwe arrests NewsDay journalist over story on first lady’s underwear donation

October 3, 2017 12:59 PM EDT

New York, October 3, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Zimbabwean authorities to immediately release NewsDay journalist Kenneth Nyangani and drop all charges against him. Nyangani was arrested yesterday and charged with criminal nuisance for reporting that First Lady Grace Mugabe had donated used underwear to supporters of the country’s ruling ZANU-PF party,…

CPJ urges President Macron to champion the protection of journalists in France and around the world

September 20, 2017 11:52 AM EDT

CPJ calls on President Macron of France to continue to champion the protection of journalists and press freedom at home and around the world.

French journalists Elise Lucet, right, and Laurent Richard answer reporters' questions outside a courtroom in a Paris suburb on September 5. Azerbaijan's government brought criminal defamation charges against the two journalists for calling the country a "dictatorship." (AP/Francois Mori)

Journalists on trial in France after calling Azerbaijan a dictatorship

September 7, 2017 3:58 PM EDT

New York, September 7, 2017–The French justice ministry should dismiss criminal defamation charges the government of Azerbaijan brought against journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard, and allow the pair to continue their work without obstruction, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.