Iran’s journalists in dire straits one year after protest crackdown
When Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died in custody last September after morality police detained her for alleged “improper” wearing of her headscarf, Iran’s already embattled press corps paid a heavy price for reporting on her death and the nationwide protests that followed. Scores of journalists were among those arrested as Iranian authorities cracked…
Cyberattackers used US company RayoByte in efforts to crash media sites
The cyberattack against the Somali Journalists Syndicate could not have come at a worse time. A distributed denial-of-service attack, known by its acronym DDoS, flooded the local press freedom group’s website with traffic in early August and knocked it offline. Days later, authorities arrested SJS staff member and Kaab TV editor Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul…
Peru’s Manuel Calloquispe faces threats and assaults to expose environmental damage from illegal Amazon mining
Manuel Calloquispe has had to face an angry mob laying siege to his house. He’s been called a traitor. He’s been punched and kicked by miners and had his equipment stolen. He once had to duck for cover when someone threw a machete at him. The reason: His decade reporting on the environmental havoc caused…
CPJ calls for protection of journalists in Bangladesh ahead of UN human rights review
Bangladesh authorities are increasingly attempting to silence the media through arbitrary detention, legal harassment, and censorship, according to a joint submission to the United Nations by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Asian Legal Resource Centre. The submission, sent for the 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group…
Defiant Marion County Record hits newsstands following police raid
MARION, Kansas, August 17, 2023—At midday Wednesday, television crews were setting up for live broadcasts outside the Marion County Record; phones were ringing off the hook; and the paper’s owner, Eric Meyer was on a carousel of interviews about the police raid on their offices five days earlier. In the back room, surrounded by old…
‘This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated’: Police raid on Kansas newspaper alarms media, press freedom groups
A police raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper, the Marion County Record, has sent shockwaves through the local community and raised national alarm among press freedom and civil rights groups about its potential to undermine press freedom in the United States. The search warrant, which was signed on Friday and alleges identity theft and unlawful…
Two years into Taliban rule, media repression worsens in Afghanistan
When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, they promised to protect press freedom and women’s rights – a key facet of their efforts to paint a picture of moderation compared to their oppressive rule in the late 1990s. “We are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks. Private media can continue to…
Violence against Netherlands’ journalists dims a beacon of press freedom
On a small street off Amsterdam’s bustling museum district, there is no indication of the 2021 event seared into the memories of the Dutch press corps – at least not yet. Authorities have plans to build a memorial near the site where crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was shot on July 6 after leaving…
CPJ joins letter of concern about Kosovo’s banning of Serbian reporter Svetlana Vukmirovic
The Committee to Protect Journalists and 10 civil society organizations wrote to Kosovo authorities on Tuesday, August 1, to request an explanation as to why reporter Svetlana Vukmirovic working for public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia is not allowed to enter Kosovo to do her work. Vukmirovic has been prevented from entering Kosovo on multiple…
Covering Ukraine: When a Russian missile brought death to a popular pizza restaurant
It is around 7:30 p.m. on June 27 in the Ria Lounge, one of the few restaurants still open in Kramatorsk, a frontline city in eastern Ukraine. Known by regulars as “Ria Pizza” for its signature dish, the restaurant is packed on this summer Tuesday. Locals, aid workers, off-duty soldiers, and journalists have flocked here…