Smear Campaign

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Editor Tamás Bodoky on threats to Hungary’s independent media funding

“Átlátszó” means “transparent” in Hungarian. Since launching an independent nonprofit media outlet under that name, editor-in-chief Tamás Bodoky and his colleagues have worked hard to live up to it, publishing detailed funding reports on their website, he told CPJ in a recent interview. But that hasn’t stopped pro-government institutions from accusing Átlátszó of serving foreign…

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Digital Safety: Protecting against online smear campaigns

Updated March 20, 2023 Media outlets and journalists are increasingly targeted by sophisticated smear campaigns designed to harm their credibility. Groups coordinate to spread false online content about them or their work, often targeting their social media accounts. Some such groups have undisclosed government backing. Posts often seek to undermine news reports and convince readers…

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Serbian outlet KRIK faces smear campaign after journalist questions president

Berlin, April 1, 2021 — Serbian authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the ongoing smear campaign against investigative journalism outlet KRIK and ensure the safety of the outlet’s staffers, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On March 7, during a press conference, a KRIK reporter asked Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić about…

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Investigative journalist Paola Ugaz faces criminal defamation suit in Peru

New York, September 22, 2020 — Peruvian authorities must stop the campaign of legal harassment against journalist Paola Ugaz and take steps to reform the country’s criminal defamation laws, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, the Ninth Criminal Court of Lima held the first hearing in a criminal defamation trial for Ugaz, an…

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CPJ and representatives from other free expression organizations meet with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on June 20, 2019, in Tirana. (Flutura Kusari)

Press freedom situation worsening in Albania, joint mission finds

Press freedom in Albania is deteriorating, the Committee to Protect Journalists and six other international press freedom and freedom of expression organizations said in a statement released yesterday.

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A news kiosk in downtown Sofia, in May 2017. When CPJ traveled to Bulgaria in April 2019 it found that despite being threatened for their work, Bulgaria's investigative journalists are undeterred. (AFP/Nikolay Doychinov)

Bulgaria’s press navigate harassment, threats in pursuit of stories

In October 2018, Viktoria Marinova, a host for TVN, was raped and murdered near the station’s studios. When CPJ’s Europe correspondent, Attila Mong, spoke with her colleagues and other journalists during a trip to Bulgaria last month, they said that while they don’t believe the attack is linked to Marinova’s work, it has highlighted the…

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Protesters wave Albanian flags in Tirana, Albania, on March 16, 2019. A British journalist living in Albania has recently been attacked in a smear campaign after she gave comments on the RT network. (Florion Goga/Reuters)

British journalist in Albania targeted in smear campaign

British freelance journalist and blogger Alice Taylor, who writes for various international publications and for the Albania-focused news website Exit, has been targeted in a smear campaign by pro-government news outlets in Albania and had her residency permit renewal denied, the journalist told CPJ.

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A funeral wreath, severed goat's head, and threatening notes are left at the Moscow offices of Novaya Gazeta. (Novaya Gazeta/Anna Artemyeva)

Russia’s Novaya Gazeta is sent funeral wreath and goat’s head in latest threats

Kiev, October 18, 2018–Russian authorities should thoroughly investigate threats made against Russia’s independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A funeral wreath, a severed goat’s head, and threatening notes were sent to the newspaper’s Moscow office this week in what the paper said in an…

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