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A police vehicle (left) guards the March 3, 2024, funeral of journalist Kristian Zavala (right), who was shot dead a day earlier in the central Mexico state of Guanjuato. (Photo, left: AFP/Mario Armas; screenshot, right: ElUniversalMex/YouTube)

Mexican journalist Kristian Zavala killed after seeking state protection

Mexico City, March 5, 2025—Authorities must credibly investigate the March 2 shooting of journalist Kristian Zavala, who is the third press member to be killed in Mexico this year, despite his 2021 request for federal protection, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Zavala, founder and editor of the Facebook-based news outlet El Silaoense MX,…

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Mzia Amaglobeli, director of two news outlets that regularly report on corruption and abuse of power, is seen in Georgia’s Batumi City Court, holding up journalist Maria Ressa's memoir “How to Stand Up to a Dictator," on January 14, 2025.

CPJ: Georgia must free Mzia Amaglobeli after 53 days in jail for a slap

New York, March 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Georgian court decision to proceed with the trial of media manager Mzia Amaglobeli and keep her in detention, following an altercation with a local police chief.  In a March 4 pretrial hearing, Georgia’s western Batumi City Court rejected motions to release Amaglobeli, director of…

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Alaa Abdelfattah

CPJ leads joint letter to Egyptian president urging release of writer Alaa Abdelfattah

In a joint letter led by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 50 prominent human rights leaders, Nobel Prize laureates, writers, and public figures have called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to grant a presidential pardon to Egyptian-British writer Alaa Abdelfattah. The letter, sent Tuesday, highlights that Abdelfattah has spent nearly a decade behind bars…

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Police gather outside the home of Peru’s interior minister on March 3, the same day President Dina Boluarte accused a local TV program of ‘false news.’ (Screenshot: RPP Noticias)

Peru’s president accuses ‘bad press’ of coup plotting

Bogotá, March 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Peruvian President Dina Boluarte to retract her accusations that news outlets are trying to destabilize her government, and to show greater tolerance of criticism in the media. After the Peruvian Attorney General’s office ordered the search of the home of Interior Minister Juan José Santiváñez,…

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President of Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) Milorad Dodik addresses his supporters reacting to a court decision on charges that he defied rulings by an international peace envoy, in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 26, 2025.

Bosnian Serbs adopt ‘foreign agent’ law targeting independent media

Berlin, March 4, 2025–-The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-majority territory Republika Srpska to revoke a “foreign agent” law that poses a significant threat to media freedom and civil society. “Republika Srpska authorities should immediately suspend any plans to enforce this ‘foreign agent’ legislation, which mirrors restrictive measures used…

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Ugandan journalist Ibrahim Miracle is treated at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya in the capital, Kampala, on February 26 after two security officers assaulted him while he was reporting. (Photo: Courtesy of Livingstone Matovu)

Ugandan anti-terrorism officers brutally assault journalist

Kampala, Uganda, March 4, 2025—Two masked officers with Uganda’s security agency Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force (JAT) assaulted Ibrahim Miracle, a reporter for Christian broadcaster Top TV, while he was reporting in the capital, Kampala, on February 26. The journalist told CPJ that the attack left him hospitalized with severe injuries. “Security officers brutally attacked journalist…

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Fatima Mövlamli and Nurlan Gahramanli

Azerbaijan arrests 2 more journalists in Meydan TV case

New York, March 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijan’s February 20 arrest of Nurlan Gahramanli and February 28 arrest of Fatima Mövlamli — both freelance reporters for Germany-based outlet Meydan TV — on currency smuggling charges. “The latest arrests in Azerbaijan’s unprecedented media crackdown show more clearly than ever that authorities’ real goal…

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This overview shows the sun setting before Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaymaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on October 18, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

Media21 outlet shuttered, 4 journalists arrested in Iraq

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, March 3, 2025—Kurdistan security forces arrested four journalists from the new digital outlet Media21 on February 28 in the eastern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, confiscating their phones and taking them from their homes. The journalists were identified as Bashdar Bazyani, Dana Salih, Sardasht HamaSalih, and Nabaz Shekhani. Security forces closed the outlet’s office…

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Halk TV’s editor-in-chief Suat Toktaş

In Turkey, 5 Halk TV journalists face trial for influencing judiciary with broadcast

Istanbul, March 3, 2025— Turkish authorities should free Halk TV editor-in-chief Suat Toktaş and drop the charges against him and four colleagues, whose trial is due to open on March 4, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. An Istanbul court arrested Toktas on January 26 after pro-opposition Halk TV broadcast a conversation between its…

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Malaysiakini's newsroom is seen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 24, 2018.

Malaysia arrests journalist who exposed migrant trafficking, corruption

Editor’s note: On March 14, the journalist B. Nantha Kumar was charged in a local court for allegedly receiving a bribe of 20,000 ringgit (US$4,500) in return for removing and not uploading articles about a migrant trafficking syndicate. Nantha pleaded not guilty and is out on bail pending trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison…

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