2018
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 26, 2018
Journalist freed pending trial An Istanbul court on October 31, ordered Ali Sönmez Kayar, a reporter for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), to be freed pending trial, the independent news website Bianet reported. Kayar, who is charged with “being a member of a [terrorist] organization,” was released under judicial control and is under a…
Digital safety: Protecting against online harassment
Journalists are frequently at risk of being targeted online for their work. Media workers who cover issues such as the alt-right, politics and contentious elections, as well as movements linked to race or gender are at higher risk of being attacked online.
Radio journalist gunned down in Somalia
Nairobi, Kenya, October 31, 2018–Authorities in Somalia should urgently investigate the killing of radio journalist Abdullahi Mire Hashi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At least two unidentified gunmen shot Abdullahi in the town of Elasha Biyaha, about 17 km from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on October 27, according to media reports and two…
How the Saudis may have spied on Jamal Khashoggi
Omar Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi Arabian dissident, can still remember the time Jamal Khashoggi, the storied Saudi journalist, unfollowed him on Twitter. It was in 2015, and Khashoggi had been tapped to head a new TV network called Al-Arab, a partnership between a member of the royal family and Bloomberg. Abdulaziz started haranguing Khashoggi online,…
Video journalist killed in Maoist rebel attack in Chhattisgarh
New Delhi, October 30, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities in Chhattisgarh to ensure the safety of media covering elections after a journalist embedded with police was killed in an ambush. Video journalist Achyutananda Sahu, who worked for the government-run broadcaster Doordarshan, was killed in Chhattisgarh today during a firefight between police and…
Cameroon detains journalist for a week, fails to disclose charge
Abidjan, Ivory Coast, October 30, 2018–Authorities in Cameroon should immediately release or disclose charges against Michel Biem Tong, editor of the privately owned Hurinews website, who was detained on October 23 after being summoned to the State Secretariat for Defense in the capital, Yaoundé, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Saudi control of Arab media, lamented by Khashoggi, shapes coverage of his death
It is a cruel irony that Jamal Khashoggi’s last unpublished column for The Washington Post was a call for press freedom in the Arab world. His homeland, Saudi Arabia, has spent the last three decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that never happens.
Russia uses ‘foreign agents’ law to hit independent outlet with massive fine
New York, October 29, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an exorbitant fine imposed on the independent news outlet The New Times. A Moscow court on October 26 ordered the outlet to pay 22.3 million rubles (US$338,000) for failing to provide financial information under Russia’s “foreign agents” law and ordered the outlet’s editor-in-chief Yevgenia…
Impunity in the murders of journalists emboldens censorship
New York, October 29, 2018–A lack of justice in the murders of journalists creates an entrenched climate of censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its Global Impunity Index released today. The eleventh annual report highlights countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free.
CPJ calls on Trump to dial back rhetoric against media and critics
New York, October 26, 2018–Federal authorities today arrested a Florida man, identified as Cesar Sayoc, suspected of mailing 13 bombs addressed to prominent figures and critics of President Donald Trump, two of which were addressed care of CNN at their New York studio.