CPJ turns 35, jailed journalists walk free, reporters on trial in Turkey, and more
CPJ Newsletter: April edition Four imprisoned journalists freed in Azerbaijan The president of Azerbaijan in March issued a decree pardoning 148 people, including three imprisoned journalists–Hilal Mamedov, Tofiq Yaqublu, and Parviz Hashimli.
Family of Chinese blogger taken away after being questioned over critical letter
New York, March 25, 2016–U.S.-based blogger Wen Yunchao told CPJ today he believes that government officials have detained his parents and brother after two weeks of police questioning the family about his alleged connection to an open letter calling on President Xi Jinping to resign.
Cuban blogger jailed for five days after trying to cover protest
An independent Cuban blogger and activist was held in police custody for five days after attempting to cover a protest by the prominent dissident group, Ladies in White, according to press reports. Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca told CPJ he was apprehended by a group of men in the Miramar neighborhood of Havana, on March 20,…
Gado blames government pressure as cartoonist’s contract at Kenya’s Nation ends
For 23 years Godfrey Mwampembwa has been a prominent and quick-witted observer of the political scene in East Africa. But all that changed last month when the cartoonist, known as Gado, was told his contract at Kenya’s biggest newspapers, the Nation, would not be renewed.
As US-Cuba relations thaw, what’s next for the island’s independent press?
“Our hope is that President Obama will meet journalists working for the alternative media, not just to cover his visit, but to start a dialogue,” said Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, director of Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) a website focusing on climate change and the impact of natural disasters on local communities. Díaz, who last year…
Slideshow: Remembering Avijit Roy, one year after blogger’s murder in Dhaka
On the day Avijit Roy was murdered in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, I had only just left the country. When I arrived in India later that day a Bangladeshi journalist broke the news to me that Roy had been hacked to death and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya, also a blogger, had been critically injured.
South Korean court finds blogger guilty of blogging positively about North Korea
New York, January 22–The Seoul Western District Court on January 21 found a 73-year-old, South Korean journalist guilty of blogging positively about North Korea and handed him a one-year suspended prison sentence, according to news reports. The court acquitted the journalist, identified only by his surname Lee in the South Korean media to protect his…
From Charlie Hebdo in Paris to bloggers in Bangladesh, extremists target press
Thursday marks one year since two gunmen burst into the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. Over the following year, CPJ documented the deaths of 28 journalists who were killed for their work by Islamic militant groups such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. This StoryMap charts the deadly attacks that took…
CPJ welcomes convictions in 2013 murder of Bangladeshi blogger
New York, December 31, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s convictions in the case of Ahmed Rajib Haider, a blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh in February 2013. A Dhaka court sentenced two students to death for murder, including Rezwanul Azad Rana, a fugitive who was charged in absentia and who was described by…