The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here.
Since May 22, at least three journalists have been injured in attacks by suspected pro-government forces in two separate incidents in northwestern Syria. Following one of those incidents, Alex Crawford, a reporter for U.K. broadcaster Sky News who was reporting in Idlib, wrote that the news crew was “clearly identified as journalists” and was “deliberately targeted and attacked by Syrian regime forces.”
Pakistani reporter Gohar Wazir was detained on Tuesday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after covering the previous day’s demonstrations by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a mass movement promoting the rights of the Pashtun people. Wazir was released from detention on Thursday.
Global press freedom updates
- U.S. charges Julian Assange with 17 counts under Espionage Act; indictment marks alarming new stage in U.S. war on leaks
- Azerbaijani journalist to appeal 5.5 year suspended prison sentence
- Read the latest Turkey Crackdown Chronicle, CPJ’s weekly round-up of press freedom violations in the country
- Adana shooting is fourth attack on Turkish press in two weeks
- Italian riot police beat La Repubblica reporter Stefano Origone
- Results of India’s election climate for journalist safety are in
- Nepal government proposes bills that endanger press freedom
- Security guard damages journalist’s camera in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Spotlight
From June 11 to 14, CPJ will be part of RightsCon 2019 in Tunis, Tunisia. The summit, hosted by Access Now, brings together journalists, policy makers, and activists from around the world to discuss human rights in the digital age.
CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch will moderate two panels: Combating fake news: Exploring approaches for protecting the messenger and the message and Combating harassment of women journalists in extremism-ridden online spaces.
CPJ Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad will lead a talk entitled Synergizing responses to old and new censorship: How silencing traditional media platforms informs anti-surveillance and counter censorship efforts, and CPJ North America Researcher Avi Asher-Schapiro will moderate the panel Pegasus spyware threatens press freedom, from Mexico to Saudi Arabia. Follow the conversation online with #RightsCon.
What we are reading
- “Betrayed by an app she had never heard of” – How TrueCaller is endangering journalists — Roger H. Goun, Privacy International
- The world’s worst country for journalists — Amy MacKinnon, Foreign Policy
- The Assange prosecution is a threat to journalists around the world — Joel Simon, CPJ executive director, The Washington Post
- Reporting in Mexico isn’t easy. Under AMLO, it may get harder. — Whitney Eulich, Christian Science Monitor
- Facial recognition technology is facing a huge backlash in the US. But some of the world’s biggest tech companies are trying to sell it in the Gulf. — Megha Rajagpolan, Buzzfeed News
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