Meet Mediazona, the punk rock-founded Russian news outlet whose editor was jailed for a tweet
Of the more than 100 Russian journalists who have been arrested or fined covering rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Mediazona chief editor Sergey Smirnov has become a symbol of the absurd lengths to which Russian authorities are willing to go to quash coverage of the events. On January 20, Smirnov retweeted another person’s tweet saying…
Ten years after the Arab Spring, the region’s media faces grave threats. Here are the top press freedom trends
In early February 2011, Alaa Abdelfattah was in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, documenting and participating in the nascent pro-democracy uprising that would topple the government and transform the country and the region. Today, he is in prison on anti-state and false news charges, which his family believes are partly retaliatory for his work. Abdelfattah is one of…
China’s COVID-19 countermeasures include restricting press freedom
In the nearly 71 years of Communist Party rule in China, the country’s citizens have enjoyed brief periods of relatively free speech, as during the abortive Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1956-57, or the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when investigative journalists covered local corruption and pollution. When the coronavirus outbreak first began spreading in…
Press Behind Bars event highlights journalists imprisoned around the world
New York, September 28, 2018–At a panel discussion held today during the U.N. General Assembly, the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced several countries for imprisoning journalists, and others for failing to admonish those that do. The event highlighted global press freedom challenges, with specific emphasis on Myanmar, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Kyrgyzstan.
Singapore court sentences online editor for sedition
Bangkok, March 24, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Singaporean court’s sentencing Wednesday of an Australian editor of a now-defunct independent Singaporean news website, and calls on authorities to stop jailing journalists and censoring websites.
Press freedom crisis in India’s Chhattisgarh state deepens as two journalists flee Bastar
New York, February 29, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the deteriorating climate for the press in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and calls on authorities to ensure that journalists can work there without fear of intimidation. In recent weeks, two journalists have fled the district of Bastar out of concern…
Journalists in Hong Kong and Taiwan Battle Beijing’s Influence
Media owners’ reluctance to draw China’s disfavor imperils the ability of the Hong Kong and Taiwanese press to play a watchdog role. By a CPJ Contributor Popular protests like this one in Taipei on January 1, 2013, helped derail a plan for a wealthy business tycoon with interests in China to buy Taiwan’s largest newspaper.…