2016

My native China is consistently among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. This year, it has been eclipsed by Turkey, which is holding a record number of journalists behind bars. But since CPJ began conducting an annual census in 1990, China has topped the ignoble list 18 times.

A faint smile appears on Okke Ornstein’s face as he recalls what happened last summer, when he traveled with a group of refugees through Europe to document their trip for a Dutch radio broadcaster.

Mexico City, December 12, 2016–Police in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua should conduct a full and credible investigation into the murder of Jesús Adrián Rodríguez Samaniego, a reporter for the radio stations Antena 102.5 FM and Antena 760 AM, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Rodríguez was fatally shot on December 10, his…

There was poignancy to the Paris summit of the Open Government Partnership, as leaders from government and civil society took the stage to defend a political ideology under siege: liberal democracy. French President François Hollande, who amid weak public support announced he will not seek re-election in 2017, called democracy “so fragile and so precious.”…

Columnist jailed pending ‘insult’ trial for remarks on Syria Istanbul’s Ninth Court of Penal Peace this evening ordered Hüsnü Mahalli, a columnist for the leftist newspaper Yurt, jailed pending trial on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a board of civil servants in the course of discharging their duties,” the official Anatolia Agency reported.

French-American photojournalist Kim Badawi did not go home to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. He didn’t want to risk a repeat of November last year, when he says U.S. border security detained him at Miami airport and interrogated him in minute detail about his private life, political views, and journalistic sources.

Journalists traveling to or from the United States have been stopped, questioned and faced prolonged and invasive searches that have put the confidentiality of their sources into question. Over the past year, members of the A Culture of Safety (ACOS) Alliance, a coalition of news organizations, journalists, and press freedom groups that includes the Committee…

Washington, December 8, 2016–Thailand’s military government should stop harassing and threatening the BBC with criminal prosecution under laws that bar criticism of the Thai royal family, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Nairobi, December 7, 2016–South Sudanese authorities should immediately reverse the expulsion of U.S. journalist Justin Lynch, a freelancer for The Associated Press, and should cease interfering with journalists’ ability to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security officers yesterday arrested the journalist and put him on a flight to Uganda, the AP…