The Torch

2019

  
Tens of Australian newspapers blacked out their front pages on Monday, October 21, 2019, to protest against secrecy laws. (Andy Park/Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian newspapers stand together for press freedom

In Australia, around two dozen newspapers blacked out their front pages on Monday to fight back against secrecy laws. The campaign, led by Australia’s Right to Know Coalition, follows the June raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and the home of Annika Smethurst, a politics editor for the Sunday Telegraph, the legality of which is…

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CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler was denied entry to Pakistan on October 16. (CPJ)

CPJ’s Butler denied entry to Pakistan to attend a human rights conference

On Wednesday, Pakistani immigration authorities denied entry to CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler, citing a blacklist managed by the Ministry of Interior. On Sunday, a Turkish air strike hit a civilian convoy in northern Syria, killing two Syrian Kurdish journalists. Saad Ahmed, a reporter for the local news agency Hawar News, died shortly after…

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A photographer takes pictures of a protest against the murder and disappearances of journalists in Mexico, in Mexico City on August 21, 2019. (AP/Rebecca Blackwell)

National Geographic reporter shot in Chihuahua while conducting an interview

A National Geographic reporter was wounded in a shootout in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez last Friday. The attack occurred while a camera crew was conducting an interview with an alleged member of a criminal gang. Mexico is the deadliest country for journalists in 2019, with at least five killed in relation to their work so far;…

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A police officer is seen in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 30, 2019. Police that day shot journalist Edmond Agenor Joseph in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters/Andres Martinez Casares)

One week, two journalists shot in Haiti; Egypt press clampdown continues unabated

In less than eight days in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, two journalists, Edmond Agenor Joseph and Chery Dieu-Nalio of the Associated Press, were shot in separate incidents. Both were clearly identified as members of the press at the time of the shootings. Dieu-Nalio was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries.…

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An Indian paramilitary soldier patrols during a security lockdown in Srinagar, on August 14. (AP/Dar Yasin/File)

Kashmiri media on the brink of extinction

On August 5, the Indian government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a strict communication blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after stripping the state of its limited autonomous status under the Indian constitution. As restrictions continue, CPJ’s India correspondent, Kunal Majumder, traveled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, to speak to local journalists and find…

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A newspaper vendor is seen in Karachi, Pakistan, on October 7, 2018. The country is currently considering establishing courts specifically for media-related issues. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)

A concerning plan to establish media courts in Pakistan

Pakistan’s federal cabinet has approved an initiative to establish specialized courts aimed at resolving media-related issues, the government announced on Tuesday. CPJ expressed serious concerns about this plan. On Monday, CPJ voiced apprehension over the appeal of Aleksei Pukach, who was convicted of murdering Ukrainian investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000. The appeal hearings began…

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Censorship 2.0: #MostCensored countries use digital and traditional tactics to silence media

CPJ released its report on the world’s 10 most censored countries on Tuesday. We found that repressive governments are using sophisticated digital censorship and surveillance alongside more traditional methods to silence independent media. Read more here. On July 4, the Cuban government issued Decree 370 that establishes the “informatization of society.” Article 68 bans “hosting…

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Family members of Maldivian journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla are seen in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on August 28, 2018. A presidential commission in the Maldives recently announced that the journalist was killed in 2014. (Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte)

CPJ survey finds 70% of female journalists in U.S., Canada have experienced safety issues or threats

This week in the Maldives, there were new developments in the fight for justice in the case of Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, who has been missing since August 7, 2014. The head of the presidential commission on enforced disappearances and murders told reporters that Rilwan, a reporter for the independent news website Minivan News, was killed…

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A banner featuring a cartoon of an injured journalist and a headline in Spanish reading, 'We want journalists alive. Not one more,' hangs outside the Secretary of the Interior building in Mexico City on August 21. A reporter was stabbed to death in the state of Estado de México on August 24. (AP/Rebecca Blackwell)

Over ten years behind bars and 148 lashes for her journalism

In what has become another deadly year for journalists in Mexico, reporter Nevith Condés Jaramillo was found stabbed to death in the central Mexican state of Estado de México. The state attorney general’s office said the motive for the attack and identities of the attackers are unknown and that authorities have opened an investigation. Four…

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Freelance journalist Erick Kabendera, who is detained in Tanzania. (Jamii Forums)

At least 7 journalists arrested throughout Turkey within 2 days

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! In the span of just two days, at least seven journalists were arrested in Turkey in the cities of Diyarbakır, Mardin, and Istanbul. Turkey has been the world’s worst jailer of journalists for three successive years, with at…

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2019