The Torch

2019

  
Illustration: Gianluca Costantini

Journalists arrested in Venezuela, Ethiopia, Senegal, Somaliland, Cameroon, Iran

In the last month, at least 11 journalists and media workers were arrested in Venezuela, Ethiopia, Senegal, Somaliland, Cameroon, and Iran. This week marks seven years since the disappearance of U.S. freelance photojournalist Austin Tice while reporting in Syria. Read more about his case here. Meanwhile in southern Haiti, journalist Luckson Saint-Vil survived a shooting…

Read More ›

A bullet hole is seen at a grocery store belonging to Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez, who was shot dead in Veracruz state on August 2. Ruiz, a reporter for El Gráfico, is the third journalist killed in one week in Mexico. (AFP/Victoria Razo)

Deadly week in Mexico: Three journalists killed

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! Three journalists were killed in Mexico in less than a week. CPJ is investigating to determine if they were killed in retaliation for their work. Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez, a reporter for the newspaper El Gráfico, was shot…

Read More ›

An illustration of Chinese journalist Huang Qi by Gianluca Costantini

Chinese court sentences journalist Huang Qi to 12 years in prison

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! On Monday, a Chinese court in Sichuan province sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of “deliberately leaking state secrets,” and “illegally providing state secrets to…

Read More ›

The offices of Geo News are seen in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 11, 2018. The network was recently blocked in many parts of the country. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)

News outlets in Pakistan restricted, threatened, censored

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! Popular broadcaster Geo News was forced off the air in Pakistan hours before Prime Minister Imran Khan began his official visit to the United States. Earlier this month, Pakistan’s media regulator blocked broadcasts from at least three news…

Read More ›

Journalist Revathi Pogadadanda at the Mojo TV office in Hyderabad in April 2019. Pogadadanda was detained by police on July 12, 2019. (Kunal Majumder/CPJ)

Honoring brave journalists

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! On July 12 in Hyderabad, India, police detained Mojo TV’s Revathi Pogadadanda. In a series of tweets, Pogadadanda said police arrived without a warrant to arrest her and tried to seize her phone. The case stemmed from a…

Read More ›

An illustration of Tanzanian journalist Azory Gwanda. (Credit withheld)

Azory Gwanda “disappeared and died,” says Tanzanian foreign minister

Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! In a BBC interview Wednesday, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Palamagamba Kabudi said that journalist Azory Gwanda had “disappeared and died” in the country’s eastern Rufiji region. Gwanda, the subject of CPJ’s ongoing #WhereIsAzory campaign, went missing on November 21,…

Read More ›

A UN Human Rights Council side event on slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 27, 2019. Panelists from left to right: Yahya Assiri, director of the U.K.-based Saudi human rights organization Al-Qst; CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney; David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Barbora Bukovská, Article 19's senior director for law and policy; Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; and Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt who is also the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's special rapporteur tasked with looking into the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. (Right Livelihood Award)

A blow to transparency of the US government: SCOTUS imposes new limits on government records requests

Earlier this month, journalists, digital rights activists, and tech companies gathered in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, for RightsCon and the International Federation of Journalists congress. A CPJ mission in the country found that while Tunisia has greater press freedom compared with other countries in the region, challenges including funding, transparency, and government pressure remain. A U.S….

Read More ›

Demonstrators protest in front of the Justice Ministry in Brasilia calling for the release of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the arrest of Brazil's justice minister on June 10, 2019. The staff of 'The Intercept Brasil' received threats after publishing a report June 9 about the "Operation Car Wash" corruption investigation of Lula and other politicians. (AFP/Evaristo Sa)

‘Credible evidence’ to probe Saudi crown prince for Khashoggi’s murder, UN report finds

In Brazil, Glenn Greenwald, founder of The Intercept Brasil, and other staff received threats on email and social media following their publication of a series of stories based on anonymously leaked material about “Operation Car Wash,” the investigation into political corruption that has been ongoing since 2014. CPJ’s North America Researcher Avi Asher-Schapiro spoke with…

Read More ›

Nicaraguan journalists Miguel Mora, left, and Lucía Pineda in Managua, Nicaragua, after their release from prison on June 11, 2019. (CPJ)

Journalists released in Nicaragua and Russia; Mexican journalist killed, another kidnapped

Nicaraguan journalists Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda Ubau were released Tuesday after nearly six months in jail. The charges were dropped under a controversial amnesty law passed last week. In Russia, prominent investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was released Tuesday following an international outcry and support from the Russian public and the journalistic community, including three…

Read More ›

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Editorial Director Craig McMurtrie speaks to the media as Australian police raid the headquarters of public broadcaster in Sydney on June 5, 2019. (AFP/Peter Parks)

Troubling police raids on Australian journalists

In the past week, the Australian Federal Police twice targeted the media in the country in connection with leak investigations. On Tuesday, Annika Smethurst, a politics editor for the Sunday Telegraph, had her home raided and her property, computer, and cellphone searched. One day later, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Sydney was raided in…

Read More ›

2019