Letters

CPJ seeks a meeting with Gambian President Adama Barrow to discuss ways in which he can improve the climate for media freedom in Gambia after 22 years of Yahya Jammeh’s policies.

CPJ urges Cameroonian President Paul Biya to instruct military prosecutors to drop charges against Ahmed Abba–a correspondent for Radio France Internationale’s Hausa-language service who has been jailed for 18 months–so that he can be released without further delay. The journalist’s trial before a military tribunal is scheduled to resume on February 2.

Ahead of her visit to Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists requests German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ask Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to free the dozens of journalists imprisoned in the country and to urge him to allow the more than 100 media outlets closed since failed July 2016 military coup to reopen and to operate without harassment.

January 23, 2017 Shavkat Mirziyoyev President of Uzbekistan Via email: Presidents_office@press-service.uz Dear President Mirziyoyev, A month after your inauguration as Uzbekistan’s second president, we at the Committee to Protect Journalists are writing to urge you to reverse the repressive media policies of your predecessor, the late President Islam Karimov, and to dismantle damaging restrictions on…

CPJ calls on Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, to engage with Kyrgyz authorities and call for the release of Azimjon Askarov, an independent journalist jailed for life on retaliatory charges in 2010.

CPJ writes to Vice-President-elect Mike Pence to seek a meeting to discuss our concerns and recommendations for guaranteeing First Amendment values under the Trump Administration.

In a joint letter, CPJ calls on Mauritania’s President to help secure the release of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, also known as Mohamed Ould M’Kaitir. Mauritania’s Supreme Court is due to review Mohamed’s case on November 15. The blogger faces the death penalty.

CPJ calls on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to use her upcoming visit to Kyrgyzstan to call on officials there to release the imprisoned journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov. The U.N. Human Rights Committee found in April 2016 that Kyrgyzstan is obligated to free Askarov, quash his conviction, and pay him compensation for unjust imprisonment. Chancellor Merkel is scheduled to visit Kyrgyzstan on July 13 and 14.

CPJ writes to Myanmar’s President Htin Kyaw to urge him to prioritize reforming laws that restrict press freedom.

CPJ urges the Ukrainian president to condemn and investigate threats to journalists who have worked in eastern Ukraine.