Legal Action

Since 2017, U.S. legislators and the Department of Justice have required multiple foreign-funded news organizations to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), a law designed to compel transparency from agents of foreign entities operating inside the United States, according to news reports, public records, and letters from the Department of Justice.

In the lead up to South Africa’s elections in May, the Electoral Commission of South Africa accredited CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal as an international observer, monitoring press freedom. Quintal found that unlike 1994–when she covered the violence of the country’s first democratic elections–journalists in 2019 cited online harassment and threats as the biggest…

On June 24, 2019, police in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir arrested Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, the editor of privately owned Urdu-language daily Aafaq, as part of a 27-year-old criminal complaint against him, according to news reports.

New York, June 27, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Nigerian authorities to release journalist Jones Abiri and drop cybercrime, anti-sabotage, and terrorism charges against him.

CPJ joined other press freedom and freedom of expression organizations today in welcoming a resolution condemning the lack of progress in determining responsibility for the October 16, 2017, car bomb killing of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

‘Insult’ trial for Free Journalists Initiative spokesperson Hakkı Boltan, a spokesperson for the Free Journalists Initiative (ÖGİ), is due to stand trial in Diyarbakır on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a public servant because of their duty,” the news website Gazete Karınca reported. The charges are related to Boltan’s public statements about President…

New York, June 25, 2019 — Egyptian authorities should immediately unblock the website of al-Tahrir newspaper and ensure that media outlets can publish online freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, June 24, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over a U.S. Supreme Court decision that restricts journalists’ access to government records.

Nairobi, June 21, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Tanzanian lawmakers to revise a set of proposed legislative amendments, some of which would pose undue restrictions on freedom of expression.

The Trump administration’s decision to charge Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act has generated significant controversy. One legal expert described it as “crossing a “constitutional Rubicon.” CPJ warned that the indictment could be the opening salvo in a broader attack on First Amendment journalistic protections. The 18th charge against Assange–of violating…