legal action

Stockholm, December 1, 2023 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an Azerbaijani court decision on Friday to detain journalist Nargiz Absalamova for three months and calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release her and her jailed Abzas Media colleagues. “The continued arrests of Abzas Media journalists are unacceptable and only show how Azerbaijani authorities are…

New York, December 1, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Russian court’s decision in a closed-door hearing on Friday to extend the pretrial detention of U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until February 5, 2024. “Each day Alsu Kurmasheva spends in Russian detention on absurd criminal charges is another blow to press freedom and journalists’ rights…

New York, November 29, 2023—Indian authorities must drop all investigations into freelance journalist Rejaz M Sheeba Sydeek over his reporting on allegations of anti-Muslim bias in the police force, return his mobile phone, and cease the harassment of his colleagues at Maktoob Media news website, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On October 31,…

São Paulo, November 22, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Brazil’s courts to overturn a one-year jail sentence given to journalist Schirlei Alves for her reporting on the mistreatment of a woman during a high-profile rape trial. On November 15, Alves, a freelance journalist, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to…

Istanbul, November 17, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Turkish authorities to heed the calls by the family of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink for full justice, following the release of his killer from prison. In 2007, 17-year-old Ogün Samast assassinated Dink, the prominent managing editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, outside his newspaper’s…

Dakar, August 08, 2023 – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday welcomed the release of journalist Pape Alé Niang, but called for charges against him to be dropped and for Senegalese authorities to unconditionally release journalist Ndèye Maty Niang, also known as Maty Sarr Niang. “The release of journalist Pape Alé Niang is a…

Turkey’s powerful Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are facing one of the toughest challenges of their two decades in office. Polls ahead of the country’s May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections suggest that the president and his long-ruling party could lose to the opposition coalition of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of…

New York, March 31, 2023—More than 30 global media organizations and press freedom groups recently sent a letter to Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, calling for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The signatories, including the Associated Press, BBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, said…

Last week, Taisia Bekbulatova, chief editor of Russian independent news site Holod, began frantically looking for plane tickets. Bekbulatova, who is based in Georgia, wanted to evacuate her Russia-based staff after the country passed legislation threatening up to 15 years in prison for the publication of “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine.  “It was apparent that the law was…

New York, December 13, 2021 — Togolese authorities should immediately release journalists Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah and halt legal harassment of Isidore Kouwonou, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On December 9, national police officers arrested Ayité, the publication director of the privately owned L’Alternative newspaper, after he responded to a summons to…