Protests in Catatumbo add to risk in Colombia
Reporting from Catatumbo, a region in northern Colombia dominated by guerrillas and drug traffickers, has always been challenging. But working conditions for journalists have seriously deteriorated amid nearly two months of anti-government protests pitting thousands of angry peasant farmers against soldiers and riot police.
Decree targets online freedoms in Vietnam
Bangkok, July 22, 2013–A new decree aimed at regulating Internet-related information and services in Vietnam represents a significant new danger to online journalists and bloggers, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The decree was signed into law on July 15 and will be implemented on September 1, according to news reports.
Mexican crime reporter shot to death in Oaxaca
Mexico City, July 18, 2013–Mexican authorities should conduct an open and thorough investigation into the murder of a crime reporter whose body was found on Wednesday in Oaxaca City, the capital of Oaxaca state, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Alberto López Bello had been badly beaten and shot, government officials told CPJ.
CPJ calls for Aleksei Navalny’s release in Russia
New York, July 18, 2013–Russian authorities must free on appeal the anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Aleksei Navalny, who was convicted on politicized charges of embezzlement today and sentenced to five years in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Navalny was jailed immediately after the verdict was announced, according to news reports.
In Zambia, harassment of Watchdog site continues
Cape Town, South Africa, July 17, 2013–Zambian authorities should stop their ongoing harassment of the Zambian Watchdog, a site that reports on alleged government corruption, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested another journalist they accused of contributing to the site, and blocked domestic access to the site for the second time, according…
Iran jails at least 10 journalists in two-week span
New York, July 16, 2013–Iranian authorities have sentenced seven members of a religious minority news website to lengthy prison terms, and arrested at least three other journalists in an alarming trend that reflects a renewed crackdown on the local press.
French website Mediapart faces crippling judgment
Three years ago, revelations by the independent news website Mediapart on the “Bettencourt affair”– allegations of illegal funding of former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party by the heiress of the L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt–put the fledgling site on the map, helped it build a reputation as a dogged and fearless muckraker, and boosted its…
A bid to rid Africa of criminal defamation, sedition laws
The African Union’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information, Commissioner Pansy Tlakula, has launched an auspicious initiative in East Africa to counter criminal defamation and sedition laws. Since independence, authorities and business interests in the East and Horn region have used criminal laws on sedition, libel, and insult–often relics of former,…
Four convicted in shooting, stabbing of Kazakh journalist
New York, July 11, 2013–A court in western Kazakhstan has sentenced four men to terms ranging from 11 to 15 years for carrying out the brutal attack on Kazakh journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov in April 2012, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes this conviction, but calls on Kazakh authorities to identify the…
