2018

On New Year’s Eve, as the world prepared to ring in 2018, Congolese journalist Edmon Izula was being repeatedly hit with a rifle and threatened at gunpoint by a member of the state security forces. Iluza was one of at least three journalists harassed by authorities that day, in a scenario that has become common…

The media is in the worst state India has ever seen. That is how several journalists described the current climate in dozens of conversations with CPJ during a trip to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi earlier this year. While the threats they outlined–political pressure, self-censorship, defamation suits, and attacks–are not a new phenomenon in India, many…

President Ilham Aliyev claims that in Azerbaijan the internet is free and press freedom is guaranteed. But ahead of the April 11 snap elections, authorities have systematically silenced critical voices online through amending laws and blocking news websites, and hackers have attacked independent news outlets.

Beirut, April 9, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned comments by Israel’s defense minister over the weekend that appear to justify the killing of Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja in Gaza, and called on authorities to hold to account anyone who shot journalists with live ammunition. Murtaja died on April 7 of injuries sustained the…

Washington, D.C., April 6, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to immediately release three journalists who have been taken into police custody or disclose their whereabouts and accusations against them.

Taipei, April 6, 2018–Chinese authorities should immediately release from custody journalist Zou Guangxiang and stop harassing the media for doing its job, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Brussels, April 6, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Czech authorities to ensure that journalists can work without interference. Three Czech investigative journalists issued a joint statement on April 3 that said police tried to intimidate them by repeatedly bringing them in for questioning over their reporting on Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

When it comes to silencing critics, Azerbaijani authorities have been industrious and methodical. Ahead of snap presidential elections scheduled for April 11, potential opposition candidates have been either jailed or barred from running, and the political landscape has been cleansed of virtually all formal avenues of expressing dissent.

In August 2012, freelance journalist Austin Tice disappeared while reporting in Syria. A brief video made public a few weeks later showed Tice as a captive. He has not been heard from since.

Two members of the Turkish-funded militant group Ahrar al-Sham on March 31, 2018, attacked Syrian photographer and cameraperson Mohammed Hussein Obeid, also known as Abu Fahd al-Shami, while he was covering the arrival of refugee convoys from eastern Ghouta to the northwestern Hama province, according to the Syrian Journalists Association and Obeid.