CPJ highlights risks for journalists who flee; calls on nations to create special emergency visas
Searching for safety, journalists in exile are often trapped in a vicious circle New York, June 17, 2021– The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on governments to provide safe refuge to journalists at risk through special emergency visas, in a feature and recommendations released ahead of World Refugee Day. Drawing on CPJ’s work over…
CPJ joins call for new emergency visa regulations to protect journalists fleeing threats
Yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined a panel marking the launch of a report, “Providing Safe Refuge to Journalists at Risk,” published by the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, and CPJ endorsed the report’s findings and recommendations. The report recommends that countries prioritize the issuance of emergency visas to allow…
Exiled Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt attacked in Stockholm
Berlin, September 30, 2020 — Swedish authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the attack on Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 24, at about 2:40 p.m., three unidentified men attacked Bozkurt, a Turkish journalist living in exile, in the…
Tajikistan authorities question family members of exiled journalist
On July 3, 2020, the Tajikistan prosecutor general’s office in Dushanbe, the capital, summoned two relatives of exiled journalist Mirzo Salimpur and questioned them about their relationship with him, according to news reports and Salimpur, who spoke with CPJ in a phone interview. Salimpur said he believes his relatives were interrogated in an attempt to…
Chhattisgarh’s plan for journalist safety law could be template for all India
Every day for two years, freelance journalist Santosh Yadav must walk the 50 or so yards from his home to the Darbha village police station in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, to sign a register. Just one missed day could immediately land him back in prison as he awaits trial on anti-terror charges. A police commander said that…
Prominent journalist Chamorro flees Nicaragua after threats, newsroom raid
Miami, January 22, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern about news that Carlos Fernando Chamorro, one of Nicaragua’s most prominent independent journalists, has fled the country. Chamorro announced on Twitter on January 20 that he fled to Costa Rica due to threats against him from the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Lawsuits and economic crisis drive Venezuela’s journalists into exile
When Ewald Scharfenberg, the founding editor of the Venezuelan investigative news website Armando.Info, holds editorial meetings, he pulls out his mobile phone. That’s because most of his reporters are in Venezuela while Scharfenberg lives and works in neighboring Colombia.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 1, 2017
Turkish court banned coverage of alleged police beating incident A local Turkish court yesterday moved to ban news coverage of a story about two policemen allegedly beating a woman on the street in the southern coastal city of Alanya, the online newspaper Diken reported.
Award-winning editor’s wife banned from leaving Turkey, passport confiscated
New York, September 3, 2016–Turkish authorities should cease preventing Dilek Dündar, wife of exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar, from leaving the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Can Dündar told CPJ that security officers at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport this morning confiscated his wife’s passport and prevented her from boarding a plane to Europe,…
Conflating terrorism and journalism in Ethiopia
At the Lideta courthouse in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa, stands a statue of a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales in her outstretched hand–a universal symbol of justice, here cast in metal of pinkish gold and wearing thick braids in her hair.