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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on June 1, 2018. The Malaysian parliament on August 16, 2018, repealed a law imposing criminal penalties for

CPJ welcomes repeal of Malaysia’s “fake news” law

Washington, D.C., August 16, 2018–The Malaysian parliament today repealed a law imposing criminal penalties for “fake news” that had been enacted earlier this year by the previous government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to news reports.

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A bridge during sunset in Bogota, Colombia in May 2018. A Bogota court sentenced José Miguel Narváez to 30 years in prison for instigating the murder of Colombian journalist, comedian, and peace activist Jaime Garzón. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

Mastermind convicted in 1999 murder of Colombian journalist Jaime Garzón

Bogotá, Colombia, August 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the conviction and sentencing of the organizer of the 1999 murder of Colombian journalist, comedian, and peace activist Jaime Garzón, and expressed disappointment that the court did not consider Garzon’s work as a journalist in its decision.

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Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri, left, and Alagoa Morris, pictured in Abuja after Abiri's release from detention in 2018. A court on May 22, 2019 charged Abiri on three counts and ordered him detained. (Alagoa Morris)

CPJ welcomes release of Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri

New York, August 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today after over two years in detention of Jones Abiri, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Weekly Source newspaper. CPJ urges Nigerian authorities to drop all charges against Abiri and ensure those responsible for his over two years in detention without trial or family…

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Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, center, First Lady Maesaea Thabane, and King Letsie III are pictured during Thabane's inauguration on June 16, 2017 in Maseru. MoAfrika FM has reported critically on the prime minister and his wife. (Samson Motikoe/AFP)

Lesotho authorities accuse MoAfrika FM of incitement for critical reports

Nairobi, August 15, 2018– Authorities in Lesotho should immediately withdraw a baseless complaint of incitement against the privately owned MoAfrika FM radio station and cease trying to intimidate critical journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Mozambican people celebrate the 40th anniversary of their country's independence from Portugal on June 25, 2015, in Maputo. The Mozambican government imposed high fees on independent media on July 23, 2018. (AFP/Adrien Barbier)

Mozambican government imposes crippling fees on independent media

New York, August 15, 2018–Authorities in Mozambique should immediately reverse plans to impose prohibitively high financial charges that unduly target independent media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A July 23, 2018, government decree outlined massive hikes in registration fees to be paid to the government-run Gabinete de Informação, a bureaucratic body that facilitates…

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An audience member protests the news media during a President Donald Trump campaign rally in Washington Township, Michigan, on April 28, 2018. (AP/Paul Sancya)

CPJ’s backgrounder on US press freedom

In recent weeks CPJ has noticed an uptick in interest from editorial boards of U.S. publications on issues related to press freedom in the United States. In light of this, the following data and reporting may be helpful. CPJ systematically tracks the killing and imprisonment of journalists around the world, and reports on threats and…

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Voice of America Mandarin Service correspondent Yibing Feng. Feng and his assistant, Allen Ai, were detained for about six hours on August 13, 2018, by security personnel after they tried to conduct an interview in Jinan, Shandong Province, China. (Voice of America)

Voice of America staff briefly detained in China

Voice of America Mandarin Service correspondent Yibing Feng and his Chinese assistant, Allen Ai, were detained for about six hours on August 13, 2018, by security personnel after they tried to conduct an interview in Jinan, Shandong Province.

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Afghan security personnel patrol in Ghazni city. Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces in and around Ghazni has left at least 20 civilians dead since August 10, the AP reported. (AP/Mohammad Anwar Danishyar)

Media worker killed, telecom connections destroyed in Afghanistan

New York, August 13, 2018– Mohammad Daud Anwari, a media technician for the state-run broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan, was killed on August 10 during an attack by the Taliban on Tape-e-Television, an area of Ghazni city where many local media antennas are located, the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee (AJSC) reported.

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People internally displaced from Deraa province at a temporary camp in the Aleppo province in Syria on July 23, 2018. Civilians including at least 60 journalists fled the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra for northern Syria to escape advancing government-aligned forces. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)

Syrian journalist killed in airstrike in western Aleppo province

Beirut, August 13, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the killing of Syrian cameraperson and photojournalist Ahmed Azize and urged all parties in the ongoing Syrian conflict to guarantee the safety of civilians, including journalists.

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How Turkey silences journalists online, one removal request at a time

On June 19, Abdülhamit Bilici, the last editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Turkish paper Zaman, tweeted about the decline of press freedom in his home country. If you can see his tweet, you are probably not in Turkey because it is among the over 1.5 million tweets belonging to journalists and media outlets censored there under…

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