Uttar Pradesh starts criminal probe into The Wire editor for alleged ‘discord’ during COVID-19 lockdown
New Delhi, April 2, 2020—Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh should immediately withdraw criminal complaints against Siddharth Vardarajan, editor of news website The Wire, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The police opened a criminal investigation into Vardarajan on accusations of spreading discord, enmity, and rumors during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to…
U.S. video journalist shares tips for covering COVID-19: ‘We have to get creative’
In early March, Jon Gerberg was in Detroit, Michigan, covering the Democratic primaries as a video journalist with The Washington Post. But as the COVID-19 virus has spread in the United States and around the world, Gerberg’s coverage has changed to focus on the pandemic.
Digital Safety: Working from home
The current global health situation has seen changes to the way journalists do their job, with an increasing number working from home instead of an office. This is creating digital security issues for journalists and media outlets who still need to work during the coronavirus outbreak.
Pakistan court overturns murder convictions in Daniel Pearl case
Washington, D.C., April 2, 2020–In response to the decision of the Sindh High Court in Pakistan to overturn the murder convictions of four men accused in the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
Unidentified attackers shoot at office of Lebanese journalist Shuaib Zakaria
In the evening of March 29, 2020, unidentified assailants fired dozens of bullets at the house and office of Shuaib Zakaria, a reporter for local broadcaster Radio Delta North and the news website Madinati, in the village of Fnaidek, in the northern Lebanese governorate of Akkar, according Zakaria, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app,…
For Turkish journalists, fear of contracting COVID-19 competes with fear of arrest
Journalist Evrim Kepenek works in Istanbul as the women and LGBTI+ news editor for the independent news website Bianet. Like most people, she works from home these days, but she is also a street reporter who recently observed twin fears among the Turkish public: getting infected with COVID-19 and getting arrested for talking about it.
‘An attempt to gag the media’: Journalists on Nigeria’s proposed social media bill
At a public hearing on Nigeria’s social media bill held in Abuja last month, the voice of Chris Isiguzo, president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), rang clearly across the room: “This bill…seeks to pigeonhole Nigerians from freely expressing themselves.” The NUJ is “totally opposed” to it, he said.
