In Zimbabwe, authorities arrested New York Times freelancer Jeffrey Moyo and charged him over allegedly misrepresenting the accreditation status of two of his Times colleagues. Authorities denied Moyo’s bail request, and ordered him to remain in custody until June 10. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in jail.
In Myanmar, authorities’ crackdown on the press continues unabated. A military court sentenced two journalists to prison on charges of incitement, and the government is holding dozens of members of the press behind bars, according to preliminary data compiled by CPJ.
Global press freedom updates
- In Belarus, authorities target journalists covering the pro-democracy movement, and a court sentenced reporter Hlafira Zhuk to jail
- Israeli right-wing groups attack local journalists
- Nicaraguan prosecutors question at least 16 journalists, threaten criminal investigation into Univision correspondent
- Nigerian BBC host Peter Nkanga receives death threats
- Retired Egyptian journalist Tawfik Ghanem detained on terrorism charges
- Hungarian court convicts reporter Júlia Halász on criminal defamation charge
- Pakistani talk show host Hamid Mir suspended after critical comments on the military, and journalist Asad Ali Toor summoned for alleged defamation of Pakistan government
- Uzbek foreign ministry refuses to renew Polish journalist Agnieszka Pikulicka’s accreditation
- Bulgarian journalist Nickolay Stoyanov faces criminal defamation suits over reporting
- Hong Kong cites encrypted communications with journalists to deny bail to former lawmaker
- EU must seek justice for Kyrgyz journalist Azimjon Askarov
- CPJ’s latest safety kit includes specialized physical and digital safety information for covering Ethiopia’s upcoming elections amid ongoing conflict in the region
Spotlight
Ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, the One Free Press Coalition, of which CPJ is a leading partner, is spotlighting journalists forced to flee their homes or go into exile, as well as threats faced by journalists reporting on national borders.
The list this month includes Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich, who was arrested after authorities forced his commercial flight to land in Minsk, as well as the group of Syrian journalists behind Madrid’s first refugee-led, Spanish-Arabic news website, Baynana.
Read more about the journalists on the list here, and stay tuned for an upcoming feature from CPJ on exiled journalists globally.
What we are reading
- Every Belarusian Journalist I Know Is in Jail or Exile — Alexey Kovalev, The New York Times
- “Photographers are the ones who see everything” — Amanda Darrach, Columbia Journalism Review
- Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan kept in jail for more than 1,000 days — Bilay Kuchay, Al-Jazeera