Bangladesh’s press say they are losing the courage to report amid threats from all sides
Nazmul Huda pointed his TV camera at garment workers demonstrating for higher wages in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, and at the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them. It took a while for police to notice the ETV reporter, and they were furious. After all, they had ordered him to leave…
Threats, arrests, and access denied as Myanmar backtracks on press freedom
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Esther Htusan is no longer safe to report from her home country, Myanmar. The Associated Press reporter fled the country late last year after being threatened for her critical reporting on various topics that authorities deem sensitive, from the ethnic Rohingya refugee exodus, the military’s controversial counterinsurgency operations in Rakhine State, to…
Weinstein-BlackCube surveillance claim exposes aggressive tactics to kill a story
Those with deep pockets can go to great lengths to push back against journalism they find objectionable. Billionaire Peter Thiel deployed a team of lawyers in a move that bankrupted the news site Gawker in 2016–and last month President Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to block the publication of an unflattering book. But there’s another, much…
Amid political turmoil in Maldives, press comes under attack
New York, February 5, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Maldivian authorities to stop threatening and harassing news outlets and allow them to operate freely. An opposition-aligned TV station and independent news website have come under threat of closure and cyberattack, respectively, amid an escalating political crisis.
As peace talks resume South Sudan continues its assault on press freedom
A ceasefire agreement signed on December 21 between the South Sudanese government and opposition forces has revived a 2015 peace process and brought hope that the conflict will not persist into its fifth year. The agreement includes obligations to “ensure protection of media” and “[c]ease all forms of harassment of the media.” Yet, ahead of…
Editor flees Ukraine after receiving death threats
Kiev, February 1, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Ukrainian authorities to investigate death threats made against Igor Guzhva, editor-in-chief of the Kiev-based news website Strana. Guzhva fled to Austria after receiving death threats, and amid “unprecedented pressure from the [Ukrainian] authorities,” according to a statement from the editor that was published yesterday…
Reporters harassed, verbally assaulted covering Czech presidential election
Journalists covering election night at the Czech presidential campaign headquarters in a Prague hotel on January 27, 2018, were verbally assaulted, shoved, and prevented from filming, according to reports and videos posted to social media.
As German hate speech law sinks Titanic’s Twitter post, critics warn new powers go too far
The satirical magazine Titanic appears to have been an unlikely victim of Germany’s recently adopted online anti-hate speech law, NetzDG. “We were truly surprised,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief Tim Wolff told CPJ, as he explained how Twitter blocked the Titanic account for 48 hours after the magazine republished a post Twitter had deleted, in which Titanic…
Local journalist killed in rural Brazil after receiving threats
Sao Paulo, January 19, 2018–Authorities in the Brazilian state of Goiás must undertake a thorough investigation into the murder of local radio show host Jefferson Pureza Lopes, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
CPJ joins call for an effective investigation into murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a group of partner organizations to express concern over the lack of progress into the murder investigation of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Along with the journalist’s family, the group of organizations calls on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to appoint a special rapporteur to…