Legal Action

Brussels, May 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on European Union leaders to unequivocally and immediately condemn Hungary’s proposed “foreign agent” law, which would grant its government sweeping powers to impose restrictions on NGOs, independent media outlets and other organizations receiving foreign funding. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party introduced the bill on Tuesday in Parliament…

New York, May 14, 2025—CPJ and 58 other press freedom and human rights groups condemned the Chinese government’s ongoing arbitrary detention of independent journalist Zhang Zhan and called for her immediate release on the fifth anniversary of her arrest. Zhang was first detained on May 14, 2020, while reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Zhang completed a four-year prison sentence for…

Documentary filmmaker Maryia Bulavinskaya’s love of history led her to buy a traditional wood home in the Belarusian village of Rogi-Iletsky in 2019. Her plans to renovate and eventually live in the house were put on hold in 2020 when she fled the country out of fear of being detained for her coverage of anti-government…

New York, May 9, 2025— After 18 months, Azerbaijan’s vast media crackdown shows no signs of abating, as police arrested two independent journalists, Ulviyya Ali and Ahmad Mammadli, on the night of May 6-7. The arrests bring the total number of journalists and media workers jailed in Azerbaijan since late 2023 to at least 25,…

Mexico City, May 7, 2025—Salvadoran authorities should drop all criminal proceedings against journalists with El Faro, after the independent news site published video interviews with two gang leaders about their alleged years-long relationship with President Nayib Bukele, said the Committee to Protect Journalists Wednesday. “Treating journalism as a criminal act deprives Salvadorans of essential information,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America…

Dakar, May 7, 2025— Senegalese authorities should end the persecution of journalist René Capain Bassène, whose lifetime prison sentence was upheld by the Senegal Supreme Court in a May 2 decision, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday. “It is deeply worrying that René Capain Bassène’s life sentence has been upheld despite all the flaws in the investigation that led to his imprisonment and the documented…

New Delhi, May 6, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by a series of incidents in India involving the silencing, assault, and legal harassment of journalists and political commentators following the April 22 deadly attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 tourists dead. “CPJ urges Indian authorities to ensure that responses…

Paris, May 6, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the intensifying crackdown on press freedom in Iran, including the recent conviction of six media directors and founders, and urges the Iranian authorities to immediately cease their systematic persecution of journalists and media organizations. “These systematic attacks are clear examples of censorship, media repression, and obstruction…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined Peru’s independent media in a joint statement condemning a law enacted by President Dina Boluarte on April 14 that could negatively impact nonprofit media organizations and journalism operations funded by international cooperation. The law requires such outlets to register their journalistic plans, projects and programs in a state-run registry,…

New York, April 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists decries the 11-hour detention and potential prosecution of two journalists for disruption after they were barred from a parliamentary session in China’s special administrative region of Macao. “There has been a systematic erosion of press freedom in Macao, with the denial of entry to journalists and…