CPJ Insider: March edition
Q&A on jailed publisher José Rubén Zamora with CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna It has been over a year and a half since publisher and journalist José Rubén Zamora was imprisoned in Guatemala. In this time, eight journalists have come under investigation for their reporting on Zamora’s case and nearly two dozen…
Dutch journalist Sjoerd den Daas and camera operator detained by Chinese police while covering protest
Taipei, March 5, 2024—Chinese authorities must respect foreign journalists’ right to report in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday after police detained Sjoerd den Daas, a Dutch correspondent with the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, and his camera operator while they covered a protest last week. Den Daas and a camera operator were…
CPJ, 21 other groups, call on social media firms to resist censorship ahead of Turkey elections
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 21 rights groups and journalists’ organizations on Monday in a joint statement calling on social media platforms to prioritize the free flow of information and ideas, and to resist government censorship ahead of the March 31 municipal elections in Turkey. “As important country-wide local elections loom, the Turkish authorities…
Morocco prison confiscates journalist’s letter to wife, prompting hunger strike
New York, March 4, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Moroccan prison authorities’ decision to prevent imprisoned journalist Soulaiman Raissouni from sending a letter to his wife and urgently calls for his immediate release. After authorities in the Ain Borja prison confiscated and withheld a letter meant for his wife, Raissouni, editor-in-chief of independent newspaper Akhbar…
Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan re-arrested hours after arriving home from jail
New York, March 4, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday expressed alarm over the re-arrest of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan two days after he was freed from more than five years of arbitrary detention and called on Indian authorities to immediately cease harassing him in retaliation for his work. On February 27, Sultan was…
Safety resources for covering 2024 protests in Senegal
You can download these safety cards as images or PDFs in English and français. As Senegalese security forces sought to quell protests in February after the postponement of the presidential election, CPJ documented how at least 25 journalists reporting in the capital, Dakar, were physically attacked, briefly detained, targeted with tear gas, or harassed by police. In response, CPJ has…
Turkish police hold 3 journalists for 3 days on suspicion of ‘financing terrorism’
Istanbul, March 1, 2024—Police raided the homes of three Kurdish journalists and detained them for three days in a February incident that appears to be part of an ongoing trend of systemic harassment by Turkish authorities. Several journalists working for pro-Kurdish outlets have been arrested over the past 12 months including journalists Dicle Müftüoğlu and…
Record number of journalists in Senegal’s jails amid political turmoil
Senegalese reporter Ndèye Maty Niang, also known as Maty Sarr Niang, would have likely jumped at the chance to report on the political crisis gripping her country since the president postponed elections in early February. But Niang can’t cover the news – she’s in a women’s prison awaiting trial. She’s not alone: Niang is one…
CPJ welcomes acquittal of Nigerian journalists Gidado Yushau and Alfred Olufemi and calls for legal reform
Abuja, March 1, 2024–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the February 14 decision by an appeal court in Nigeria’s western Kwara State acquitting journalists Gidado Yushau and Alfred Olufemi of criminal conspiracy and defamation, charges for which they were convicted last year, and reiterates the call for Nigerian authorities to reform their country’s laws to…
CPJ calls on Hong Kong to scrap proposed law that could further criminalize critical reporting
Taipei, March 1, 2024—The Hong Kong government must immediately halt plans to introduce new national security legislation that could strangle the city’s news industry by introducing new offenses including “acts of seditious intention” and “theft of state secrets,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On January 30, Hong Kong’s security bureau published a “public…