2015

Myanmar’s parliament yesterday voted against several constitutional amendments that keep the military’s veto power intact, dealing a blow to hopes for fuller democracy, according to the BBC. And outside the legislature authorities are accelerating the pace at which they undoing democratic reforms.

Istanbul, June 26, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the insult charges filed against a Turkish reporter and calls on Turkish authorities to drop them immediately. The charges against Canan Coşkun, a reporter for the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, were first reported by the Turkish media on Wednesday.

Beirut, June 26, 2015–An Al-Jazeera cameraman was killed today while covering clashes between regime forces and rebels in the southern Syrian province of Daraa, the pan-Arab broadcaster reported. Mohammed al-Asfar is the second Al-Jazeera journalist to be killed in the province since December.

Abuja, Nigeria, June 26, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Chadian authorities’ ejection this week of a French journalist. Laurent Correau, reporter for Radio France Internationale, was assaulted by police alongside an international human rights defender before being expelled, according to news reports.

New York, June 25, 2015 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about growing violence against journalists in Burundi and calls on the authorities to investigate all attacks and protect media workers.  

Bogotá, June 25, 2015 – A Colombian court sentenced the mastermind of a journalist’s murder to 36 years in prison on Wednesday in a landmark conviction that followed years of lobbying for justice by local journalists.

New York, June 25, 2015–The editor of a Chinese human rights news website was formally arrested June 19 on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” according to news reports. Over a month ago, 60-year-old Liu Xinglian, an editor of Rose China and the secretary-general of Rose Group, a Hubei province-based human rights organization that…

New York, June 25, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the excessive damages imposed on Monday by a Moroccan court on a news website convicted of defamation and call on authorities to reverse the conviction on appeal.

At least 14 journalists were injured and had their equipment damaged while they were covering a protest in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on June 23, 2015, according to local and international news reports. Several of the journalists were also briefly detained at a local police station, the independent news website Armenia Now reported.

Most accused of belonging to Muslim Brotherhood; more than half worked online New York, June 25, 2015–The number of journalists in Egyptian jails is the highest since the Committee to Protect Journalists began recording data on imprisoned journalists in 1990, according to a new census of imprisoned journalists in Egypt released today. Of the 18…