Kyrgyzstan holds three trials in one day against independent outlet
New York, June 29, 2017–Kyrgyzstan should drop all charges against the independent media organization ProMedia and its co-founder, Naryn Idinov, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A Bishkek district court held three separate hearings today into charges of insult made against ProMedia, which runs the independent online news agency Zanoza, and Idinov who edits…
Amid Gulf tensions, press is used as a political pawn
Today Bahrain became the latest Gulf nation to put pressure on news outlets amid political tension, when its Interior Ministry announced that anyone publishing support or sympathy for Qatar faces up to five years in prison. The announcement came the day after the United Arab Emirates used the threat of prison to demarcate how journalists…
Released recording highlights polarized atmosphere for Brazil’s political reporters
The release of a private conversation between a well-known journalist and his source has shaken the journalistic community in Brazil and highlighted the increasingly polarized and uneasy terrain in which political reporters work.
Myanmar: One year under Suu Kyi, press freedom lags behind democratic progress
When Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her long-persecuted National League for Democracy party won elected office in November 2015, bringing an end to nearly five decades of authoritarian military rule, many local journalists saw the democratic result as a de facto win for press freedom.
Journalist arrested in West Virginia while questioning cabinet official
New York, May 10, 2017–The arrest of a journalist in the U.S. state of West Virginia while asking a question of Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price yesterday is an affront to press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
In Egypt retrial, 2 journalists acquitted, 3 others’ sentences reduced
New York, May 8, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the verdict by the Giza Criminal Court acquitting Egyptian journalists Hany Salah-el-Deen and Mosad Al-Barbary, and called on authorities to immediately free Abdullah al-Fakharany, Samhi Mustafa, and Mohamed al-Adly, whose sentences were reduced to five years from 25 years. The rulings came in a…
Right Is Might
We have the laws and institutions to fight attempts at information control By David Kaye Yevgeny Zamyatin’s strikingly original 1920s Russian novel We gets read far less than its canonical English-language descendants, Brave New World and 1984. Yet George Orwell knew of and clearly drew from Zamyatin’s book in creating 1984. The homage-paying is obvious:…
Connecting Cuba
Outdated laws and limited, expensive internet access slow the island nation’s progress By Carlos Lauría Cuba’s media landscape has begun opening up in recent years, transformed by a lively blogosphere, an increasing number of news websites carrying investigative reporting and news commentary, and an innovative breed of independent reporters who are critical of, yet still…