Legal Action

Hopes for greater press freedom when Myanmar moved to quasi-democratic rule were quickly quashed with the jailing in 2017 of two Reuters reporters. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have their freedom again, but journalists and press freedom activists who met with CPJ’s Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin in Yangon in June said that…

Washington, D.C., July 30, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep disappointment and concern over today’s court decision in Kyrgyzstan to uphold the life sentence of journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov.

Taipei, July 29, 2019 — The Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court today sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of “deliberately leaking state secrets,” and “illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries,” according to a statement published on the court’s website.

Bangkok, July 26, 2019 — Cambodia should drop incitement charges against two local journalists and stop using legal threats to intimidate and harass reporters, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On July 16, 2019, the British Broadcasting Corporation said it had closed its bureau in Burundi, more than one year after its transmissions had been banned in the country, according to a report by the broadcaster and a BBC statement sent to CPJ.

Bangkok, July 25, 2019 — Philippine authorities should drop pending cyber libel charges against Rappler editor Maria Ressa and cease their legal harassment campaign against her, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Bangkok, July 24, 2019 — Cambodia should drop espionage charges against two former Radio Free Asia reporters and stop using anti-state charges to harass journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Miami, July 16, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over an Argentine court’s summons of journalist Daniel Santoro and urged authorities to respect the confidentiality of journalistic sources.

On July 13, 2019, at approximately 3:40 a.m., an unknown attacker fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Kiev office of TV news broadcaster 112 Ukraine, damaging the building but causing no injuries, according to media reports.

On July 4, 2019, Vice Media exhausted its legal options to resist a demand from Canadian authorities to turn over chat logs between one of its reporters, Ben Makuch, and his source, Farah Shirdon, a Somali-Canadian man who allegedly joined the Islamic State militant group, and gave the logs to police, according to Makuch, who…