Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 24
Erdoğan says response to “sleaze” of EU’s press-freedom criticism beneath his dignity “Providing an answer to this worthlessness and sleaze would not be very appropriate for the president of Turkey,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters in Croatia yesterday, responding to EU Parliament President Martin Shulz’s criticisms of Turkey’s crackdown on the press, the…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 17
Trial resumes for journalists facing multiple life sentences The trial of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, editor and Ankara bureau chief, respectively, of Cumhuriyet newspaper resumed behind closed doors in Istanbul today. The court today denied prosecutors’ request to combine the case with another case targeting alleged supporters of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the…
CPJ calls on Democratic Republic of Congo to not extradite Burundian journalist
New York, December 31, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo not to extradite Egide Mwemero, an exiled Burundian radio journalist who has been in custody since October 13, according to reports. Bob Rugurika, director of independent Burundian station Radio Publique Africaine where Mwemero also worked, told CPJ…
Beyond the pardons, press freedom still under threat in Egypt
Today the Committee to Protect Journalists hosted a press conference for three Al-Jazeera journalists who have been convicted in absentia in Egypt. The journalists expressed solidarity with other members of the press who have been charged by the Egyptian government, and called on President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to intervene in their cases.
Turkey deports Dutch reporter Frederike Geerdink
New York, September 9, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores today’s decision by the Turkish authorities to deport freelance journalist Frederike Geerdink, who had been held in state custody since September 6, 2015 in Yüksekova, southeastern Turkey, according to reports. Geerdink’s lawyer, Davut Uzunköprü, told CPJ he would be appealing the decision.
CPJ joins call for Canada to help free Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy
The Committee to Protect Journalists has signed a joint letter calling on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take immediate action to have jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy deported from Egypt to Canada. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon and Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour signed the letter to Harper along with…
In Kyrgyzstan, U.S. journalist deported, his sources harassed
New York, March 30, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the deportation from Kyrgyzstan on Saturday of American freelancer Umar Farooq, who was detained and interrogated by Kyrgyz security services last week, according to news reports.
CPJ welcomes release of Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste
February 1, 2015–Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, who was serving a seven-year prison sentence in Egypt for “conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood,” was deported today, according to Egypt’s state-run news agency. Greste, who is Australian, was arrested in December 2013 with his colleagues Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed.
In South Korea, deportation and defamation cases mark slide in press freedom
South Korea has been hailed by many as a bastion for democracy and press freedom, especially in comparison to its twin to the north, which for years has been featured on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ most censored list. However the recent stifling of critical voices in South Korea, including cases of arrests, deportation, and…