Legal Action

January 16, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to stop targeting exiled journalists after a court sentenced U.S.-based journalist Sevinj Osmanqizi on January 14 to eight years in prison in absentia on charges of calling for mass unrest and the overthrow of the state. The ruling follows a seven-year sentence handed down on December 23 to…

Bangkok, January 16, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges authorities in Vietnam to roll back a crackdown on independent media and release imprisoned journalists ahead of next week’s Communist Party congress. On December 31, Hanoi’s People’s Court convicted Le Trung Khoa, editor and founder of the Germany-based news site Toibao.de, in absentia and sentenced him…

The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a 10-page report to the United Nations Human Rights Council detailing the alarming decline of press freedom in Lebanon, ahead of the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session this month. The UPR, a UN mechanism that reviews each member state’s human rights record every 4 ½ years, assesses…

Update: After publication, the Washington Post reported in an update that its newsroom has also been subpoenaed.  Washington, D.C., January 14, 2026– Federal agents with the FBI have made a highly unusual move of searching the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, and seizing her electronic devices, in a move that the Committee…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and a coalition of press freedom organizations are urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, a week before a Philippine court is set to rule in the first of two cases that could see her jailed for up to 40 years. Cumpio, who…

Washington, D.C., January 13, 2026– The Committee to Protect Journalist calls on the U.S. House Oversight Committee to drop its subpoena of investigative journalist Seth Harp and calls on the Justice Department to refrain from pursuing criminal charges against Harp in relation to his work.  Harp published to X a photograph and biography of an officer he reported was…

An estimated 268 Nicaraguan journalists have fled the Central American country for exile, many settling in the neighboring Costa Rica, to escape what CPJ’s research has documented to be a government-backed system of political repression and judicial harassment against media outlets that often prevents journalists, fearing for their families, from reporting the truth. Yet for…

New York, January 7, 2026—The Philippines’ presidential office has told the Committee to Protect Journalists that it will uphold due process and protect the rights of journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, weeks before key judgments in a long-running case that could see her jailed for up to 40 years. On December 8, ahead of International Human…

Editor’s note: The case against Matthew Ojoduma was dropped, and he was released on November 25, 2025, after evidence did not support the allegations against him, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ. The headline of this alert has been updated to reflect his release. Abuja, November 12, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on…

New York City, December 19, 2025 – Since President Kais Saied’s consolidation of power in 2021, Tunisia’s press freedom landscape has narrowed sharply. A single piece of legislation—Decree-Law No. 2022-54 on combating “crimes related to information and communication systems”—has become the legal hammer used to silence critics, criminalize routine reporting, and imprison at least five…