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President Erdogan waves to supporters during an event in Istanbul to mark the one-year anniversary of Turkey's failed coup attempt. A news editor was detained on July 15 over a column on the government's response to the failed coup. (Presidency Press Service via AP/Pool)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of July 16, 2017

Germany says Turkey offered prisoner swap for jailed journalist German daily Bild cited an unnamed German diplomatic source as saying that Turkey offered to exchange imprisoned journalist Deniz Yücel for two former generals who sought asylum in Germany. Germany’s foreign ministry rejected the offer, the anonymous source told Bild. Turkey has not commented publicly on…

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Gate's leading to Myanmar's parliament in Naypyidaw. The Upper House is due to discuss amendments to Myanmar's restrictive Telecommunications Law this week. (AFP/Romeo Gacad)

Online defamation law amendments fall short in Myanmar

Bangkok, July 17, 2017–A ministerial proposal to amend Myanmar’s 2013 Telecommunications Law falls short of the changes needed to guarantee press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The statute has been repeatedly abused to stifle online speech and jail journalists, CPJ has found.

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A screen shot of the front page of vesti-ukr.com form July 14, 2017, features security camera footage showing masked security forces raiding the Vesti media group's office in Kiev.

Security forces raid Ukrainian media group

New York, July 14, 2017–Ukrainian authorities should cease harassing journalists and employees of the Vesti media company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. National police and military prosecutors today raided the Kiev office of Media Holding Vesti, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr.com, according to its editor…

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A screen shot of an Al-Quds TV broadcast July 14, 2017, shows the station reporting the raid of its Hebron office in the news ticker at the bottom of the screen.

Israeli army raids Palestinian TV station office in West Bank

New York, July 14, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned Israeli soldiers’ raid of the office of Al-Quds TV and that of its affiliate Ram Sat in the West Bank city of Hebron.

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Supporters pay their respects to Chinese Noble laureate Liu Xiaobo at a vigil outside the Chinese Liaison Office of Hong Kong. The jailed activist and journalist died in July. (AFP/Isaac Lawrence)

It’s too late for Liu Xiaobo but China could show a little kindness to other jailed journalists

I have no pity for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who dug himself into a deep public relations hole with the unnecessarily cruel treatment of China’s Nobel Laureate and political dissident, who died this week. Liu died of liver cancer in a Chinese hospital, after receiving medical parole in June from prison, where he was diagnosed…

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Can Dündar in Berlin, November 4, 2016 (Reuters/Axel Schmidt)

Turkish media in exile? Think again

Freedom is like air or water: something you appreciate only when it’s gone. Freedom for Turkish journalists was never as abundant as air or water–but nor was it ever as scarce as it has become in the last year.

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A November 13, 2015, file photo shows newspapers on display at a newsstand in Khartoum. (Reuters/Mohamed Noureldin Abdallah)

Sudan confiscates, censors newspapers for reporting FIFA suspension

New York, July 13, 2017–Sudanese authorities should stop confiscating newspapers and censoring their coverage, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In recent days, the country’s security service has confiscated or censored the coverage of at least five newspapers, according to press reports.

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Newspapers are sold on the street in Abuja, Nigeria, in May. Nigerian police raided the offices of one of the country's daily newspapers in June over a long-standing legal dispute. (AFP/Stefan Heunis)

Nigerian police raid offices of daily newspaper The Sun

Nigerian police working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria raided the Lagos headquarters of the daily newspaper The Sun, on the morning of June 12, 2017, according to a statement by The Sun.

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People stand atop a military tank at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, in the early hours of July 16, 2016. (Reuters/Huseyin Aldemir)

A year after attempted coup in Turkey, media landscape purged of critical voices

The history of modern Turkish politics is rife with military intervention–the army has toppled elected governments four times since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the modern Turkish state in 1923, and has strong-armed them into submission countless other times. One of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s greatest accomplishments has been returning the military to the barracks and…

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Ibrahim Abbas recovers after five men beat him in Amman on July 10, 2017. (Aso Abbas)

Armed men beat Iraqi journalist in Erbil

Beirut, July 11, 2017–Authorities in northern Iraq should conduct a thorough and credible investigation into the beating of journalist Ibrahim Abbas and should bring all those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Five armed men assaulted Abbas in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil yesterday, according to the journalist, news reports,…

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