Threatened

Nairobi, February 10, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ban on independent newspaper Nation Mirror, which was ordered to stop publishing by National Security Service agents in South Sudan's capital Juba, and calls on authorities to immediately reverse the order.

By Pedro Vaca/CPJ Guest Blogger

To coincide with Colombia's national day for journalists the Colombian organization Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) has published its annual report on press freedom conditions. The review of challenges faced by the media in 2014 comes as we remember the loss last year of one of the great defenders and promoters of Colombian journalism: author and journalist Gabriel García Márquez. Two moments from the Nobel laureate's life are still significant when looking at the state of press freedom in Colombia today.

Dear Prime Minister Davutoğlu: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express alarm at a fresh wave of anti-press actions in Turkey and to ask that you use the power of your office to reverse the measures.

A group of about 30 men with clubs attacked journalists Gerald Kankya and Simon Amanyire in the town of Fort Portal in western Uganda on January 23, 2015, Kankya told CPJ. The assailants beat the journalists, breaking one of Kankya's teeth and bruising his legs and arms, the journalist said. Amanyire escaped without serious injury.

Mexico City, February 6, 2015--The editor of a Mexican daily in Matamoros has fled the city after gunmen abducted him from his office on Wednesday and beat him, prompting the paper to say it will stop covering violence. The abduction came after the newspaper published stories and photos on drug cartel violence near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to news reports.

By Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator

Pakistan's media, long under siege, face new challenges. "We had managed to get the genie out of the lamp," was the way one Pakistani journalist explained it to me during a trip there last month. "But now, the military has pushed it back in and I'm not sure when we'll be able to get it out again."

Bangkok, February 2, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Malaysian authorities to halt the legal harassment of a Malaysian cartoonist. Zulkiflee Awar Ulhaque, also known as Zunar, is a frequent contributor to the news website Malaysiakini and the author of several volumes of political cartoons.

New York, January 31, 2015--The Islamic State militant group released a video Saturday purporting to show the murder of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, according to news reports. Japanese authorities have not yet verified the footage is authentic, according to news reports. Goto, a well-respected journalist who reported primarily on humanitarian issues, was kidnapped in Syria in October 2014, according to news reports.

New York, January 29, 2015--Jordanian authorities arrested the owner of a local news website and the site's editor-in-chief on Wednesday, accusing the two of aiding terrorism and spreading false news in a report stating that an imprisoned Iraqi militant would be freed in a hostage negotiation deal, according to news reports.

By Henry Tricks/CPJ Guest Blogger

Kenji Goto, the 47-year-old television journalist held captive by the Islamic State (IS), is not a typical reporter, nor is he typically Japanese. But his courage and commitment to broadcasting humane stories from some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones would put him at the pinnacle of his profession anywhere in the world. It was such courage that took him to Syria last year, where he was taken hostage.