Closure of news site underscores Malaysia’s press freedom crisis amid 1MDB scandal
On March 14, The Malaysian Insider abruptly closed its editorial operations less than a month after the state media regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, blocked local access to its news site.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of March 20
Istanbul court rules trial for journalists facing life sentences to be closed to public The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an Istanbul court’s decision today to bar the public from the trial of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, journalists for the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet. Representatives from CPJ and other free-speech groups attended the first…
As US-Cuba relations thaw, what’s next for the island’s independent press?
“Our hope is that President Obama will meet journalists working for the alternative media, not just to cover his visit, but to start a dialogue,” said Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, director of Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) a website focusing on climate change and the impact of natural disasters on local communities. Díaz, who last year…
CPJ raises concerns over UN agenda on preventing violent extremism
Preventing and countering violent extremism has been a major issue on the international agenda in the past year, prompting the United Nations Secretary-General to launch a Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism in December and the UN Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution last fall.
We’re live from Taipei! Please don’t tell China’s censors
Typically, news organizations like to promote original reporting. When an outlet covers a breaking news event at the time and from the place where the event is happening, they want their audience to know. However, for Chinese commercial media that covered this weekend’s presidential election in Taiwan, this was apparently not the case.
One year after Charlie Hebdo, will press freedom become victim of war on terror?
Who would have thought that France would top the list of most deadly countries for the press in 2015, second only to Syria? The massacre of eight cartoonists and journalists by Islamic militants at the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last January was one of the deadliest attacks against the press since…
CPJ urges South Africa to revise cybercrime bill that limits press freedom
New York, December 10, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the South African government to revise provisions in the proposed Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill that would limit journalists’ ability to work. Under the bill, journalists and members of the public could be prosecuted for possessing or disclosing state information, reports said.
Two editors at critical magazine Nokta arrested in Turkey for election coverage
Istanbul, November 4, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of two editors in Istanbul Monday and calls on authorities to immediately release them. Cevheri Güven and Murat Çapan, of the privately owned weekly magazine Nokta, were arrested in their newsroom over a front-page cover on the results of Turkey’s election, according to reports.