Journalists covering unrest in the DRC face arrests, assault, and internet shutdowns
On New Year’s Eve, as the world prepared to ring in 2018, Congolese journalist Edmon Izula was being repeatedly hit with a rifle and threatened at gunpoint by a member of the state security forces. Iluza was one of at least three journalists harassed by authorities that day, in a scenario that has become common…
Freedom of speech is guaranteed Aliyev says as Azerbaijan blocks news websites
President Ilham Aliyev claims that in Azerbaijan the internet is free and press freedom is guaranteed. But ahead of the April 11 snap elections, authorities have systematically silenced critical voices online through amending laws and blocking news websites, and hackers have attacked independent news outlets.
Egyptian authorities lash out against media over election coverage
New York, March 30, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the actions taken by Egyptian authorities against media outlets and journalists reporting on the country’s presidential election, which took place March 26-28.
DRC authorities cut access to internet and SMS ahead of protests
On December 30, 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Telecommunications Minister, Emery Okundji, ordered the country’s telecommunications providers to shut internet and SMS services across the country, according to a media report and the local press freedom group L’Observatoire de la liberté de la Presse en Afrique, (the Observatory of Press Freedom in Africa or…
Censorship, surveillance, and harassment: China cracks down on critics
Hours after the Chinese Communist Party proposed a constitutional change last month to lift presidential term limits, any words or phrases that remotely suggested President Xi Jingping was seeking a life term were blocked from social media. Censors targeted everything from “Emperor Xi,” “The Emperor’s Dream,” and “Dream of Returning to the Great Qing,” to…
YouTube labels on public broadcasters draw ire in US, Russia
With claims to more than one billion users consuming content in 76 languages, Google’s YouTube has become a core part of most media outlets’ dissemination strategy. And although there are 88 localized versions of the service, YouTube.com remains the largest and most influential platform for reaching a global audience. Which is why, when the site…
Journalists covering US white supremacists must weigh risks to selves and families
Michael Edison Hayden was one of the first foreign journalists on the ground after the Nepalese earthquake in 2015– the “ground was still shaking” when he arrived, he said. He’s reported from the disputed territory between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, and gone door-to-door in Phoenix, searching for a mass killer. But, Hayden said, reporting…
In Turkey, draft bill would give new censorship powers to state regulator
Istanbul, February 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to scrap the article of a draft bill that would expand internet censorship in Turkey. The Parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission yesterday passed article 73 of the bill, which would require online broadcasters, including YouTube and Netflix Turkey, to be licensed and regulated…
Tweaking a global source of news
The only way Abdalaziz Alhamza and his fellow citizen journalists could get out news from the Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Syria to a global audience was by posting materials on Facebook and YouTube. “They were the only way to spread news since many militias and governments prevented most, if not all, the independent media…