Journalist Ahmed Awga has been in prison for over three weeks for interviewing a man who said his 16-year-old son Shafi’i Abdikarim Ali died following a police beating — one of at least seven journalists arrested in Ethiopia in the last month as the government tightens the screws on the media. After his April 23…
Beirut, May 16, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Jordanian authorities to lift Wednesday’s ban on a dozen online news outlets for “spreading media poison and attacking Jordan,” following the publication of allegations that the government unfairly profited from aid to Gaza. “The Jordanian Media Commission’s decision to block 12 media websites is deeply alarming,”…
Dakar, May 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Nigerien authorities to swiftly and unconditionally release journalists Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou, and Mahaman Sani, with the privately owned Sahara FM radio station, after they were arrested for the second time in four days on May 10 for broadcasting information about the country’s military cooperation…
Brussels, May 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on European Union leaders to unequivocally and immediately condemn Hungary’s proposed “foreign agent” law, which would grant its government sweeping powers to impose restrictions on NGOs, independent media outlets and other organizations receiving foreign funding. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party introduced the bill on Tuesday in Parliament…
Somali security personnel have arrested, assaulted, or harassed at least 41 private-media journalists since mid-March, in what local press rights groups have called a “painful experience” and an “alarming escalation” in attacks on the media. Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues, including theprotracted conflict between the government…
When Gazan journalist Tawfiq Abu Jarad received a phone call from a Hamas security agent warning him not to cover a protest, he readily complied, having been assaulted by Hamas-affiliated forces once before. The April 27 women’s anti-war demonstration in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia was small but significant — one of several recent protests criticizing…
New York, May 14, 2025—CPJ and 58 other press freedom and human rights groups condemned the Chinese government’s ongoing arbitrary detention of independent journalist Zhang Zhan and called for her immediate release on the fifth anniversary of her arrest. Zhang was first detained on May 14, 2020, while reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Zhang completed a four-year prison sentence for…
Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s visit to Saudi Arabia on May 13, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 16 other human rights organizations condemned the kingdom‘s deteriorating press freedom, including journalists‘ arrests, travel bans, surveillance, and disinformation aimed at silencing the media. The groups called on Saudi authorities to release all detained journalists, lift…
Documentary filmmaker Maryia Bulavinskaya’s love of history led her to buy a traditional wood home in the Belarusian village of Rogi-Iletsky in 2019. Her plans to renovate and eventually live in the house were put on hold in 2020 when she fled the country out of fear of being detained for her coverage of anti-government…
New York, May 12, 2025—Taliban authorities in southeastern Ghazni Province must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Sulaiman Rahil, who was detained on May 5 by intelligence agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “Sulaiman Rahil is the latest of many Afghan journalists to be swept up by the notorious General Directorate of Intelligence without…