Polish investigative journalist Baca-Pogorzelska receives menacing text messages
Investigative journalist Karolina Baca-Pogorzelska of the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna received two menacing messages through an internet-based anonymous text messaging platform on January 28 and March 31, 2019, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 5, 2019
Journalist sentenced to 10 months in prison An Istanbul court on May 7 sentenced Cansu Pişkin, a reporter for the leftist daily Evrensel, to 10 months in prison for “making a target of a civil servant for terrorist organizations,” the television news website Medyascope reported. The court suspended Pişkin’s sentence barring a repeated offense in…
Libyan journalists Mohamed al-Qurj and Mohamed al-Shibani missing since May 2
New York, May 9, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the safety of Mohamed al-Qurj and Mohamed al-Shibani, Libyan journalists with Qatar-based private television broadcaster Libya Alahrar, who disappeared on May 2.
Singapore passes ‘fake news’ legislation that threatens press
Bangkok, May 9, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the Singapore parliament’s passage of legislation that could be used to stifle reporting and the dissemination of news, and called for the punitive measure’s immediate repeal.
Mexico’s press question president’s commitment to press advertising reform
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador won Mexico’s presidential elections last year with a promise to drastically cut the millions of dollars the government spends on press advertising each year, it appeared to signal the end to an opaque system that has been criticized as a way for governments to encourage favorable coverage.
Colombia sentences two ex-paramilitary fighters for 2000 attack on Jineth Bedoya
Miami, May 8, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing on May 6 of former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000.
Former Colombian President Uribe and allies file defamation suits against Daniel Coronell
New York, May 8, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by civil defamation lawsuits filed in the U.S. state of Florida against journalist Daniel Coronell by former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, now a senator, and his allies, which could have a chilling effect on reporting on the Colombian politician.
Egypt tests new censorship law with handling of al-Mashhad website block
Magdy Shandi, editor-in-chief of the Cairo-based independent newspaper al-Mashhad, planned to send 30 journalists to report from polling stations while votes were being cast in Egypt’s constitutional referendum between April 20 and April 22. He ended up ordering them to stay away, he told CPJ in a telephone interview in May. The state’s media regulator…
