Arrests, bans, shutdowns: No end in sight to Taliban media crackdown 3 years on
New York, August 14, 2024—As the Taliban mark the third anniversary of their return to power, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the group to halt their unprecedented destruction of Afghanistan’s media and brutal repression of journalists. “Grave injustices are the hallmark of the Taliban’s rule,” CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi said…
CPJ concerned about safety of Al Jazeera Gaza reporter Anas Al Sharif after IDF comments
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of Al Jazeera Arabic northern Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after an Israel Defense Forces’ spokesperson accused him of “presenting a lie” in his coverage of Israel’s August 10 airstrike that killed dozens of Gazans in a school building housing Palestinians displaced by the…
How Russia silences critical coverage of its war in Ukraine
Russia’s months-long jailing of journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva —released on August 1 as part of a prisoner exchange — was one of the most blatant illustrations of Russia’s muzzling of the press in the wake of its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has precipitated what a representative of the now-shuttered Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’…
Pakistani journalist in hiding after police raid his home over protest reports
New York, August 7, 2024—Pakistani police have raided the home of digital journalist Usman Khan three times, forcing him into hiding to avoid detention for his coverage of protests over alleged human rights abuses in southwestern Baluchistan province. “Pakistani police must immediately cease their attempts to detain independent journalist Usman Khan and allow the media…
Nigerian security forces attack, arrest journalists covering protests
Abuja, August 6, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Nigerian authorities to investigate reports that dozens of journalists were assaulted, harassed, and detained while covering cost-of-living protests, which began on August 1. CPJ is investigating multiple incidents including one in the capital Abuja on August 3, where masked security forces fired bullets and teargas…
Bangladeshi journalists killed in quota protests as reporters attacked, internet blocked
Update: Since publication of this report, CPJ has learned that Md. Shakil Hossen was killed while attending a Dhaka student rally in his personal capacity, not reporting on a Gazipur protest as initial reports indicated. New York, July 26, 2024– The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Bangladesh authorities to investigate the killings of…
Haitian press face ‘existential crisis’ with no end to gang violence
Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s oldest independent daily newspaper, has been around for 126 years, and the outlet’s owners are proud to have maintained its operations through the country’s intensifying challenges — from foreign occupation and devastating earthquakes to coups. But now Le Nouvelliste’s survival — and that of more independent media outlets in the country —…
Photos: Israel-Gaza war takes unprecedented toll on journalists
The Israel-Gaza war has been devastating for civilians, including journalists covering the conflict. While a few conflicts have taken the lives of hundreds of journalists over a period of years, no other war has taken so many journalists’ lives in such a short time span, according to CPJ data that has been gathered since 1992. Here…
CPJ, others express solidarity with journalists, NGOs targeted by Hungary’s Russian-style Sovereignty Protection Office
Berlin, June 28, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists joined nine international press freedom and human rights organizations in expressing solidarity with NGOs Transparency International Hungary and Átlátszó, which Hungary authorities have targeted with investigations. The joint statement urged the European Commission and EU Member States to take immediate and decisive action to protect NGOs and…
U.K.-based journalist Shafiur Rahman decries Bangladesh authorities’ ‘harassment by proxy’
Police and National Security Intelligence officers detained 32 Rohingyas, a stateless ethnic minority, for around 16 hours in Bangladesh’s southeast Cox’s Bazar region on May 17, 2024, on allegations of holding an unauthorized meeting of the Asia-Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR), a region-wide network of civil society organizations and advocates. Officers questioned nearly all of…