Detained

New York, May 10, 2017–The arrest of a journalist in the U.S. state of West Virginia while asking a question of Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price yesterday is an affront to press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Editor detained at courthouse Police in Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse today detained Çağlar Özbilgin, an editor for the leftist news website sendika.org, his employer reported. Özbilgin was there to attend a hearing of his trial on charges of “insulting the president,” but police detained him for a separate criminal investigation into him on suspicion of “provoking…

Bogotá, Colombia, May 2, 2017–Venezuelan authorities should immediately release Marcos Vergara and Deivis Valera, production assistants for the online media platform VivoPlay, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The two were taken into the custody of the Venezuelan National Guard while covering a protest last night, according to their lawyer.

Police on April 17, 2017, arrested two Brazilian photographers who were taking photographs of a barricade of burning tires in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo and accused them of starting the fire, according to one of the photographers and the police report, which CPJ has reviewed.

New York, April 21, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Turkish authorities to stop jailing journalists and suppressing dissent in the wake of a referendum to change Turkey’s system of governance from parliamentary to presidential. In the past week, police arrested at least three journalists and raided the newsroom of leftist website Sendika…

Wire reporter jailed The Supreme Court of Appeals on April 14 upheld the Second Mardin Court for Serious Crimes’ November 2016 sentence of two years and four months in prison against Meltem Oktay on charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” the news website Dihaber reported yesterday.

Unknown assailants on April 8, 2017, abducted and assaulted Gertrude Uwitware, a health reporter for the private Ugandan broadcaster NTV, from the streets of Kampala, according to the journalist and her employer.

New York, April 12, 2017–Belarusian authorities should immediately drop all charges against journalists for covering protests and should allow the news media to work unobstructed, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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…