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On March 31, CPJ and nine partner organizations wrote to the Secretary General and the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe to express concern about government restrictions on the media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 19, 2020, government authorities at the Digital Economy Complex in Abuja, Nigeria, expelled journalists from the privately owned broadcaster Africa Independent Television who were preparing to cover an event attended by President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a statement by Daar Communications PLC, the broadcaster’s parent company.

New Delhi, March 31, 2020 – The Indian government should stop trying to censor news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Washington, D.C., March 31, 2020 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over Iranian authorities’ decision to suspend all newspaper printing and distribution in the country, where newsgathering and distribution is already tightly restricted.

CPJ today joined eight other human rights and press freedom organizations to call for the immediate release of journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov, who has been serving a life sentence in retaliation for his reporting since June 2010.

Abuja, March 31, 2020 — Authorities in Nigeria must ensure that measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic do not prevent journalists from covering the news freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

In the three years since Hurricane Maria hit the island, Puerto Rico has experienced a financial, political, and public health crisis, but reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa told CPJ that these events “have no comparison” to the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on the U.S. territory.

Vilnius, Lithuania, March 31, 2020 – Belarusian authorities should immediately release journalist Siarhei Satsuk and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Igor Rudnikov is the editor-in-chief of the independent Novye Kolyosa newspaper, based in the western Russian city of Kaliningrad. In 2017, agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested Rudnikov over his paper’s reporting, as CPJ documented at the time.

Bangkok, March 31, 2020 — Myanmar authorities should immediately release journalist Ko Nay Lin and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.