false news

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Singapore's Parliament House is seen on March 20, 2019. The country is currently considering a law that poses a threat to freedom of speech online. (Roslan Rahman/AFP)

Singapore ‘fake news’ legislation endangers press freedom

Bangkok, April 2, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on the Singapore parliament to reject legislation that would force online platforms to take down or amend news or information authorities deem as false.

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Tanzanians sit next to a tree in Dar es Salaam in 2015. Tanzanian authorities this week imposed a temporary ban on The Citizen over its reporting. (AP/Khalfan Said)

Tanzania imposes 7-day publication ban on The Citizen

Nairobi, March 1, 2019–Authorities in Tanzania should lift a seven-day publication ban on the privately owned newspaper The Citizen and allow journalists to report on matters of public interest freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Information Services Department, which oversees newspaper licenses, temporarily suspended the publication license of The Citizen on February…

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People read a newspaper carrying headlines of the general election results in Dhaka on December 31, 2018. Several journalists were attacked and one was detained while covering the vote. (AFP/Indranil Mukherjee)

Journalist arrested, others beaten during Bangladesh elections

New York, January 2, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Bangladeshi authorities to immediately release Hedait Hossain Molla, a reporter who was arrested in Khulna yesterday in relation to his election coverage, according to news reports.

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Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, right, talks to the press in Brasília on November 27. Journalists in Brazil say they expect the hostile climate experienced during the election to continue as Bolsonaro takes office. (AFP/Evaristo Sa)

Ahead of inauguration day, Brazilian media braces for Bolsonaro

Long before one of their photographers was harassed on election night in Brazil, the editors at Fortaleza newspaper O Povo were meeting with their readers and staff to discuss the increasingly polarized environment and how to deal with it.

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen attends celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the country's independence from France, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 9, 2018. A Cambodian news fixer was deported from Thailand to Cambodia on a 'false news' accusation on December 12. (Reuters/Samrang Pring)

News fixer deported from Thailand to Cambodia on ‘false news’ accusation

Bangkok, December 13, 2018–A Cambodian news fixer who helped to produce a documentary on sex trafficking for Russian government-funded international news network Russia Today, or RT, was deported yesterday from Thailand to Cambodia on accusations of abetting the production of false news, according to news reports.

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CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon talks about global press freedom violations during a Press Behind Bars panel at the U.N. (Reuters)

CPJ’s Joel Simon speaks at Press Behind Bars panel

Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon addressed a panel event at the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 28, 2018. The event highlighted global press freedom violations and the jailing of journalists in countries around the world, with a specific focus on cases in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh,…

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A fisherman carries his catch near a fishing port in Mogadishu on September 14. Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug have detained a journalist on false news allegations. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Somali authorities detain journalist accused of spreading ‘false news’

Nairobi, September 26, 2018–Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug should immediately release broadcast journalist Mohamed Abdiwali Tohow without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today. Intelligence personnel detained the journalist on September 22 over a report broadcast the previous day for the Mogadishu-based Radio Kulmiye, according to the station’s director, Burhan Dini Farah,…

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Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a Cairo court during a high-profile trial in January 2018. Prosecutors in August ordered four journalists to be detained on charges of false news and belonging to a banned group. (Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)

Egypt extends detention period for four journalists held as part of mass trial

New York, August 21, 2018– Egyptian national security prosecutors ordered four more journalists to be detained as part of a case in which more than a dozen journalists, along with academics and activists, are charged with belonging to a banned group and with spreading false news. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities…

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on June 1, 2018. The Malaysian parliament on August 16, 2018, repealed a law imposing criminal penalties for

CPJ welcomes repeal of Malaysia’s “fake news” law

Washington, D.C., August 16, 2018–The Malaysian parliament today repealed a law imposing criminal penalties for “fake news” that had been enacted earlier this year by the previous government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to news reports.

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi gives a speech in capital Cairo on July 24, 2018. Egypt ordered five more journalists detained in the last two weeks of July 2018. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

Egypt extends detention of five journalists

Washington, D.C., July 26, 2018– Egyptian national security prosecutors in the past two weeks prolonged the detention of at least five journalists, according to Egypt’s Journalists’ Syndicate, the local press freedom group Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), and news reports. Authorities accuse the journalists, who had been arrested separately beginning in March, of…

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