Azerbaijani blogger sentenced to prison for alleging abuse
New York, March 3, 2017–Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release blogger and press freedom advocate Mehman Huseynov, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A court in Baku today sentenced Huseynov to two years in prison on defamation charges for alleging that police beat him, according to his lawyer and media reports. CPJ called on prosecutors…
Die Welt Turkey correspondent jailed pending trial
New York, February 28, 2017–Turkish prosecutors should immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Deniz Yücel, Turkey correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Istanbul’s Ninth Court of Penal Peace last night ordered the journalist, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany detained since February 14, jailed pending…
Algerian journalist faces treason charges
Washington, D.C., February 27, 2017–Algerian authorities should immediately drop all criminal charges against Marzoug Touati, an editor of the news website Al-Hogra, and release him without condition or delay, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Algerian security forces arrested Touati from his home in the coastal city of Béjaïa on January 18 and have…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 26
Shots fired at newspaper office, no one injured An unknown assailant in a moving taxi fired two shots from a handgun at the building housing the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet in Istanbul this morning, Cumhuriyet reported. A police investigation is in progress, the report said.
In China, sources face harassment, jail for speaking to foreign media
Zhang Lifan is a Beijing-based historian specializing in modern Chinese history. He is also an outspoken critic of the Chinese government who is interviewed regularly by the foreign press–even when it leads to harassment from officials. Last month alone, he was quoted in a New York Times article about the government revising the length of…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of February 19
Detention of Die Welt Turkey correspondent complicates relations with Germany The detention of Deniz Yücel, Turkey correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, has complicated relations with German officials, the socialist daily Evrensel, the German news website Handelsbatt Global, and the pro-Turkish-government Daily Sabah reported. According to a February 21 Handelsbatt Global report, German Chancellor…
‘I wanted to stay and fight for my beliefs’ says jailed Vietnamese blogger forced into exile
Vietnamese journalist and religious activist Dang Xuan Dieu was granted early release January 12 from a 13-year prison sentence on anti-state charges filed over his critical reporting. As with recent early releases of other jailed Vietnamese journalists, Dieu was forced to immediately board a plane and go into exile as a condition for his freedom.
Editor arrested in Kazakhstan
New York, February 13, 2017–Kazakh authorities should immediately release Zhanbolat Mamay, editor of the independent newspaper Sayasi kalam/Tribuna, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested Mamay, an outspoken government critic, in the capital Almaty on February 10, on suspicion of money laundering, Kazakh and regional media reported.
CPJ urges Cameroonian President Paul Biya to free radio journalist Ahmed Abba
CPJ urges Cameroonian President Paul Biya to instruct military prosecutors to drop charges against Ahmed Abba–a correspondent for Radio France Internationale’s Hausa-language service who has been jailed for 18 months–so that he can be released without further delay. The journalist’s trial before a military tribunal is scheduled to resume on February 2.
Court upholds life sentence for Kyrgyz journalist and activist Azimjon Askarov
New York, January 24, 2017–Kyrgyz authorities should immediately release journalist and human rights activist Azimjon Askarov and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Kyrgyzstan’s Chui Regional Court today upheld a September 2010 life sentence against Askarov on charges of complicity in murder and inciting hatred for reporting on fatal…