Legal Action

May 27, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the European Commission to call on member states to provide both financing and political will to defend media freedom as it moves forward with its European Democracy Shield initiative. Public consultations for the proposed Shield, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in 2024, closed…

New York, May 22, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by multiple reports of “unreasonable” tax audits targeting at least six Hong Kong independent media outlets and around 20 journalists and their families, and calls on the Hong Kong government to end its weaponization of financial and tax measures against the press. The Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP),…

In a joint letter, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 31 other press freedom and human rights organizations urged UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intensify his diplomatic efforts to secure Egyptian-British writer Alaa Abdelfattah’s release. The letter follows a February call between Starmer and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which has yet to yield…

Dakar, May 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the Central African Republic to drop their prosecution of journalist Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé, editor of the privately owned newspaper Le Quotidien de Bangui, who was arrested and jailed on May 8 over his newspaper’s report on the alleged return of former President…

Editor’s note: On May 22, Öznur Değer was released under a travel ban and judicial control until her next hearing on October 21. Istanbul, May 21, 2025—Turkish authorities should release Öznur Değer ahead of her trial on Thursday and stop conflating reporting on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with publishing propaganda for the outlawed group, the Committee to…

Istanbul, May 16, 2025—Turkish authorities should immediately release freelance court reporter Furkan Karabay, who was detained during a police raid early Thursday in Istanbul, and stop detaining journalists who are trying to report the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. The detention marks at least Karabay’s third in recent years. Later Thursday, an Istanbul…

New York, May 16, 2025—Pakistani authorities must immediately restore access to exiled investigative journalist Ahmad Noorani’s YouTube channel in Pakistan and stop law enforcement agencies harassing him and his family, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. “Blocking journalist Ahmad Noorani’s YouTube channel and filing a criminal case against him is indicative of Pakistan’s relentless…

Journalist Ahmed Awga has been in prison for over three weeks for interviewing a man who said his 16-year-old son Shafi’i Abdikarim Ali died following a police beating — one of at least seven journalists arrested in Ethiopia in the last month as the government tightens the screws on the media. After his April 23…

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…