Azerbaijani authorities open criminal investigation into Meydan TV
New York, April 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to end the harassment of Meydan TV after a criminal investigation was opened into the online independent outlet and a travel ban was imposed on some of its contributors.
Russian security forces raid homes of Crimean journalists
New York, April 19, 2016 — Russian authorities should stop harassing journalists in Crimea and should allow them to do their work without fear of retribution, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers raided the apartments of at least seven people, including at least three journalists, in Crimea today, according…
CPJ joins call for World Bank to adopt human rights policy
The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined Social Justice Connection and other press freedom and human rights groups in calling on the World Bank to adopt a human rights policy at its annual spring meeting in Washington D.C. In a letter to the president of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, the groups urged the bank…
Kenyan journalist held overnight at police station
David Odongo, a journalist with the privately owned weekly Nairobian newspaper was summoned to Nairobi’s Embakasi police station for questioning the evening of April 15, 2016, according to the Kenya Union of Journalists and news reports. Not long after he arrived, the union and news reports said, police arrested him and held him overnight.
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…
‘Erdoğan is killing journalism,’ says Today’s Zaman editor forced out after takeover
Since the Turkish daily Zaman and its English-language sister publication Today’s Zaman were taken over by court-appointed trustees last month, over accusations of terrorist propaganda, the papers’ journalists have witnessed riot police fill their newsrooms, the arrests of colleagues, and the loss, through resignations and dismissals, of fellow journalists.
Journalist for Maldivian television station to stand trial
On April 12, 2016, Adam Zareer, a videographer for the pro-opposition Maldivian television station Raajje TV was served a summons to appear in court on April 24 on charges of obstructing police duties while reporting on an anti-government demonstration in March 2015, according to the Maldives Independent and a fellow Raajje TV journalist writing on…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 10
Merkel approves prosecution of German comic for insulting Erdoğan German Chancellor Angela Merkel today told reporters the German government would allow prosecutors to act on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s request that television satirist Jan Böhmermann be prosecuted for a profane poem about Erdoğan he read on the March 31 episode of his television program.
Brazilian journalist injured in shooting
São Paulo, April 8, 2016–Brazilian authorities should thoroughly investigate the shooting of journalist Ivan Pereira Costa, bring the perpetrators to justice, and ensure journalists can work without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Pereira was hospitalized after a shooting attack on Monday in the small Amazonian town of Cujubim, in the…