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.
May 11, 2016 Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China Zhongnanhai, Xichengqu Beijing The People’s Republic of China Dear President Xi: We at the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, international press-freedom advocacy organization, write to express our concern for Tibetan blogger Lobsang Jamyang, also known as Lomig, and to ask your government…
CPJ writes to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu regarding the barring of four international journalists in a week, asking him to clarify Turkey’s policy on the foreign press, and asking him to affirm that the international press is welcome in Turkey.
CPJ writes to Nigerian Police Inspector General Solomon Arase to urge him to arrest those responsible for beating publisher Yomi Olomofe into a coma in June 2015, rather than investigating the publisher on charges of assaulting his assailants.