Pakistani broadcaster Geo News blocked amid prime minister’s visit to Washington
New York, July 21, 2019 — Pakistan’s most popular news channel, the privately owned Geo News broadcaster, has been forced off the air or had its channel number abruptly changed in many parts of the country, according to reports on social media and the broadcaster’s managing director, Azhar Abbas, who spoke to CPJ via messaging…
Turkish court sentences documentary filmmakers to 4 and a half years
Istanbul, July 19, 2019–Documentary filmmakers Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and Çayan Demirel, directors of the 2015 documentary movie “Bakur” (“North”), about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were sentenced to four years and six months in prison yesterday for “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization” by a court in the southeastern city of Batman, according to news…
For Turkish journalists in Berlin exile, threats remain, but in different forms
For Can Dündar, sitting in the audience of a theater performance near Dortmund in Germany in May was an emotional moment. In an interview with CPJ, he recalled how during the premiere night, he watched the main actor on stage playing a journalist as he was imprisoned in Turkey, had his house searched, his books…
Tajik authorities harass journalist Humayra Bakhtiyar and family
In July 2019, Humayra Bakhtiyar, a Tajik journalist living in exile who was recently granted asylum in a European Union country, told CPJ in a phone call that Tajik authorities have harassed and intimidated her family over the past several years as retribution for her critical reporting.
Kurdish forces assault Al-Jazeera reporter Ahmed al-Zawiti in Iraqi Kurdistan
On July 17, 2019, in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, officers from the Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Forces assaulted Al-Jazeera reporter Ahmed al-Zawiti, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.
Ugandan commentator arrested over Facebook post critical of president
On July 12, 2019, plainclothes police in Kireka, a suburb of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, arrested Joseph Kabuleta, a local minister and former reporter who regularly posts political commentary on social media, for allegedly posting “offensive communication against the person of the President” online, according to a July 12 police statement reviewed by CPJ and Fred…
Argentine journalist Daniel Santoro summoned, phone records seized in extortion investigation
Miami, July 16, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over an Argentine court’s summons of journalist Daniel Santoro and urged authorities to respect the confidentiality of journalistic sources.
Locked in ‘small graves’: Nicaraguan journalists Mora and Pineda describe their ordeal
Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda were arrested on December 21, 2018, in the Managua newsroom of 100% Noticias and spent 172 days in prison facing charges of “inciting violence and hate” and “promoting terrorism.” The two journalists spoke to CPJ after their June 11 release. They will receive CPJ’s 2019 International Press Freedom Award in…
CPJ announces 2019 International Press Freedom Award winners
New York, July 16, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor journalists from Brazil, India, Nicaragua, and Tanzania with the 2019 International Press Freedom Awards amid the erosion of press freedom in democracies around the globe. The journalists have faced online harassment, legal and physical threats, and imprisonment in their pursuit of the news. CPJ…