Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 11
Columnist jailed pending ‘insult’ trial for remarks on Syria Istanbul’s Ninth Court of Penal Peace this evening ordered Hüsnü Mahalli, a columnist for the leftist newspaper Yurt, jailed pending trial on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a board of civil servants in the course of discharging their duties,” the official Anatolia Agency reported.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 4
Wire reporter released pending conclusion of trial Mardin’s Second Court for Serious Crimes today released Zehra Doğan, a reporter for the shuttered news agency JİNHA, pending the conclusion of her trial, which began today, the pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency reported. Police detained Doğan on July 22, and a court arraigned her on terrorism charges on…
Editor of human rights news website detained in China
New York, November 28, 2016 – Chinese authorities should immediately release Liu Feiyue, the editor and founder of the human rights news website Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch, known in China as Minsheng Guancha, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Liu’s arrest occurred amid increasing efforts by China to silence journalists and bloggers who…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 27
Wire reporter releasedPolice in southeastern Mardin province today released Fethi Balaman, the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel reported. Police on November 29 detained the former reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency, which the government on October 31 ordered closed by emergency decree. [December 1, 2016]
Sri Lankan government blocks Tamil website
Sri Lankan regulators blocked access to a Tamil-language news website on October 26, 2016, over allegations that the website carried false information and incited ethnic hatred, according to news reports and the website’s editor, who is based overseas and who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. The order to block the site…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 6
Opposition newspaper CEO detained Police at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport detained Akın Atalay, CEO of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, as he disembarked from his flight from Berlin today, Turkey’s official Anadolu News Agency reported. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office for Press Crimes had issued a warrant for his arrest in the scope of authorities’ investigation…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 23
EU Parliament urges Turkey to release journalists The European Parliament urged Turkey to release all journalists jailed without proof of their alleged involvement in the failed July 15 military coup, Hürriyet Daily News reported, based on the text of the resolution.
CPJ chairman says Trump is threat to press freedom
New York, October 13, 2016–The chairman of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sandra Mims Rowe, issued the following statement on behalf of the organization: Guaranteeing the free flow of information to citizens through a robust, independent press is essential to American democracy. For more than 200 years this founding principle has protected…
Ghana police threaten social media blackout during polls
Ghanaian Police Inspector General John Kudalor on May 26, 2016, told reporters in the capital Accra that police were considering blocking Facebook, Twitter and all other social media during general elections scheduled to be held in December 7, according to media reports.