LISTEN: A year after unprecedented assaults on US media covering protests, what comes next?
Last May, VICE video journalist Dave Mayers went to Minneapolis to cover protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in police custody. A day later, he was arrested with his entire crew for violating a curfew order that specifically exempted reporters. All over the United States, journalists like Mayers were impeded from doing their…
Thwarting Freedom of Information
Agencies exploit every loophole to evade disclosure requirements By Jason Leopold On December 13, 2016, I filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI seeking a wide range of documents about a series of highly controversial decisions the bureau made in the weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election that Democratic lawmakers…
Surveillance of journalists and court orders puts Canada’s press freedom at risk
On February 6, VICE News reporter Ben Makuch is due to appear in court to appeal an order requesting that he hand over details of his communication with a source. The hearing comes ahead of a day of action being planned in Canada for February 25, when press freedom and privacy activists are due to…
Turkey releases VICE News journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool on bail
New York, January 5, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on bail today of VICE News journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool, and calls on authorities in Turkey to drop the terrorism charges he faces. Rasool, who was arrested in August, is banned from leaving Turkey and must report to a local police station twice…
Report highlights Turkey’s troubled press freedom record
Turkish authorities should end impunity for attacks against journalists, decriminalize insult and defamation, stop harassing critical news outlets, and release imprisoned journalists, according to “Press Freedom in Turkey’s Inter-Election Period,” a report published Saturday by the Vienna-based International Press Institute. Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program researcher, contributed to the report.
CPJ and VICE News call on Turkey to #FreeRasool
It has been more than seven weeks since Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool was arrested in Turkey alongside Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, two British journalists from VICE News. But whereas Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released a week later, Rasool is still behind bars.
Turkey frees 2 VICE News reporters but third remains in custody
New York, September 3, 2015–A Turkish court early today ordered the release of VICE News’ British journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, according to their outlet. A third journalist, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, an Iraqi who is based in Turkey, is still in custody and is being questioned by Turkish authorities, according to news reports. The…
Turkish authorities raid independent media company
New York, September 2, 2015–Turkish police on Tuesday raided the offices of a media group, in what one editor called an attempt to silence opposition media ahead of November parliamentary elections, according to news reports. The move follows terrorism charges leveled against VICE News journalists who have been detained while reporting from the predominantly Kurdish…
Turkey should drop terrorism charges against detained VICE crew
Dear Prime Minister Davutoğlu: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent international press freedom organization, is writing to express its concern about recent charges leveled against two British journalists and a local fixer who were detained while reporting from the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir.