Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of January 22
Diaspora news website censored before publishing The bilingual German-Turkish news website Özgürüz (“We Are Free”), which is edited by exiled Cumhuriyet editor Can Dündar, reported that Turkish authorities had blocked access to the website 12 hours before it published its first story today. The website said it believed ozguruz.org made censorship history as the first…
Radio journalist arrested, beaten in Turkmenistan
New York, December 6, 2016–Turkmen authorities should release radio journalist Khudayberdy Allashov and cease retaliating against journalists with trumped-up charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police in the Dashoguz region of northern Turkmenistan on December 3 arrested Allashov, a contributor to the U.S.-government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Turkmen service, and charged him…
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…
Mozambican journalist detained for 34 days
Police arrested Arcénio Sebastião Macuene, a Mozambican freelance journalist, on October 8, 2016, and held him on charges of defaming a police official until press freedom advocates paid his bail on November 11, Mozambican journalists and press freedom advocates told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Gambian journalist, broadcast executive held without charge
Abuja, Nigeria, November 18, 2016–Gambian authorities should immediately release a journalist and the head of the state-owned broadcaster who have been held without charge or access to their families or lawyers for a week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The arrests came in the run-up to presidential elections scheduled to take place on…
Ethiopian newspaper editor, bloggers caught in worsening crackdown
Nairobi, November 17, 2016–Ethiopia should immediately release all journalists detained amid an intensifying crackdown on the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In recent weeks, Ethiopian authorities have jailed a newspaper editor and detained two members of the award-winning Zone 9 bloggers’ collective, which has faced continuous legal harassment on terrorism and incitement…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 13
Two years in prison for newspaper editor Diyarbakır’s Fourth Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced İsmail Çoban, responsible news editor of the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat to two years and four months in prison for “propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classifies as a terrorist group.
Two journalists arrested in Iran
New York, September 22, 2016 – Iranian authorities should immediately release two reformist journalists arrested in recent days and stop jailing the media for doing their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At the time of his arrest, pro-government media described Sadra Mohaqeq, the editor of the reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, as an…