Niger suspends BBC, announces a complaint against RFI
Dakar, December 13, 2024 – Nigerien authorities have suspended the U.K. government-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for three months and announced the Nigerien government would bring a complaint of “incitement to genocide and inter-community massacre” against the French government-owned Radio France Internationale (RFI). “The Nigerien authorities should reverse their suspension of the BBC and their intentions to take legal…
11th Pakistani journalist killed in 2024 amid growing wave of violence
New York, December 13, 2024—Two unidentified persons shot and killed Malik Zafar Iqbal Naich, a reporter for Daily Khabrain newspaper, on Thursday, December 12, while he distributed newspapers in Rahim Yar Khan district in central-eastern Punjab province. “Pakistani authorities must bring the perpetrators of journalist Malik Zafar Iqbal Naich’s killing to justice and implement urgent…
Belarusian journalist Ihar Karnei sentenced to additional 8 months in prison
New York, December 13, 2024—A Belarusian court on Friday convicted freelance reporter Ihar Karnei of “malicious disobedience to the requirements of the prison administration” and sentenced him to an additional eight months in prison. Karnei is already serving a three-year prison sentence after being convicted in March 2024 on charges of participating in an extremist…
CPJ, partners report uptick in targeted attacks on minority journalists during 2024 Brazilian election campaign
Gender bias attacks escalate online for female journalists São Paulo, December 12, 2024—Female journalists experienced the majority of online and offline attacks against the press during the 2024 Brazilian municipal elections, found a report published today by the Coalition in Defense of Journalism (CDJor), a coalition of civil society organizations working to protect press freedom…
Rapid Support Forces kill Sudanese journalist Hanan Adam and brother
New York, December 12, 2024—On Monday, December 8, soldiers with the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed journalist Hanan Adam, a correspondent for local Sudan Communist Party-affiliated newspaper al-Midan, and her brother, Youssef Adam, at their home in the village of Wad Al-Asha in the east-central al-Gezira state, according to statements by the Sudanese…
Bypassing the ‘Taliban firewall’: How an exile newsroom reports on Afghan women
Faisal Karimi and Wahab Siddiqi, respectively founder and editor-in-chief of the Afghanistan Women’s News Agency, were among the first journalists to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021. After escaping the country undetected with nearly two dozen newsroom colleagues and family members a week after the fall of Kabul,…
Belarusian court sentences journalist Volha Radzivonava to 4 years in jail
New York, December 12, 2024—A Belarusian court in Minsk, the capital, convicted freelance reporter Volha Radzivonava of discrediting Belarus, “incitement to racial, national, religious, or other social hostility or discord,” and defaming and insulting the president of Belarus, sentencing her to four years in jail on Tuesday. “Journalist Volha Radzivonava’s four-year prison sentence is yet another example of…
Guatemala issues arrest warrant for exiled journalist Juan Luis Font
Mexico City, December 11, 2024—Guatemalan authorities issued an arrest warrant on December 6 for journalist Juan Luis Font on charges of collusion and passive bribery. Font, co-director of the news radio show Con Criterio, has been living in exile since 2022 and told CPJ the charges stem from an old case that authorities have repeatedly…
CPJ calls on new Syrian leaders to protect journalist safety, hold Assad’s media persecutors to account
As Syria transitions to a new government following the December 8 toppling of Bashar al-Assad, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to take decisive action to ensure the safety of all journalists and hold accountable those responsible for the killing, imprisonment, and silencing of members of the media during the country’s 13-year civil…
CPJ, partners call on European Commission to act on Turkey’s foreign influence agent bill
The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday joined 55 partner organizations in a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, to ask her to act on Turkey’s temporarily shelved foreign “influence agent bill,” which introduces a vaguely defined new offense called “committing a crime against the security or political interests…