Albanian authorities interrogate publisher of Lapsi.al, demand outlet turn over confidential information
Berlin, May 5, 2021 – Albanian authorities should immediately drop their investigation into Lapsi.al and ensure that all outlets can protect their confidential sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On April 16, the Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime in the capital, Tirana, ordered the independent news website Lapsi.al to hand over…
Equipped by US, Israeli firms, police in Botswana search phones for sources
Oratile Dikologang was naked when police officers pulled black plastic over his head during his detention in April 2020. It was difficult to breathe, but the interrogation continued, he told CPJ in a recent phone interview. “What are your sources, where do you get information,” he recalled them asking repeatedly. “It was the most painful…
News editor in Botswana faces jail time over Facebook posts, alleges suffocation by police
Police in Botswana detained Oratile Dikologang, co-founder and digital editor of the local, privately owned website Botswana People’s Daily News, on April 9, 2020, and charged him over Facebook posts about COVID-19 and local politics that he denies publishing, according to CPJ’s review of a copy of a charge sheet, Dikologang, and local media reports….
Myanmar military bans all satellite TV
Bangkok, May 5, 2021 – Myanmar’s military junta must revoke its ban on satellite television and repeal all orders that aim to censor independent news reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The state-run broadcaster MRTV announced the ban yesterday, saying that “satellite television is no longer legal” and alleging that foreign broadcasts encouraged…
Belarusian parliament passes raft of restrictive media regulations
New York, May 4, 2021 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a set of amendments passed by the Belarusian parliament that could severely stifle press freedom in the country. On April 21, the National Assembly, the upper house of parliament, adopted amendments to the country’s Mass Media Law and to the Law on…
Zambian Patriotic Front supporters attack 2 journalists
Lusaka, Zambia, May 4, 2021 – Zambian authorities must thoroughly investigate the recent attack on two reporters and ensure that the press can work freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 1, supporters of two factions of the ruling Patriotic Front political party violently clashed at the party’s headquarters in…
Cuban journalist Mary Karla Ares detained over protest coverage
Miami, May 3, 2021 — Cuban authorities must immediately release journalist Mary Karla Ares, drop the criminal investigation into her work, and allow the press to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On April 30, at about 2 p.m., agents with the Cuban Revolutionary Police and the Political Police arrested Ares, a…
Iraqi Kurdish authorities question Assyrian National Broadcasting manager, shutter outlet
In October 2020, a captain with the Iraqi Kurdish Asayish security forces ordered the closure of the Erbil office of Assyrian National Broadcasting (ANB), according to a statement by the Assyrian Policy Institute, a local rights group, and ANB’s Erbil office manager, William Bnyameen Adam Khlapieel, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. ANB, a…
Kyrgyz journalist Kanat Kanimetov questioned, family harassed by authorities
Stockholm, May 3, 2021 — Kyrgyz authorities should cease their harassment of journalist Kanat Kanimetov and allow him to work freely and without fear, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On March 11, officers of the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (GKNB) summoned Kanimetov, a reporter and presenter with the independent television broadcaster Aprel, to their headquarters…
‘Trauma makes its way back to you’: Four US journalists on covering mass shootings
In the photograph published in The Washington Post, a woman kneels on the ground, her hands in her lap, her body bathed in red neon light. She is mourning outside of the Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta, Georgia, one scene of a mass shooting in March 2021 that killed eight people. Behind every photograph and news report of a…