Legal Action

New York, January 31, 2025—A Taliban court in Kabul sentenced Sayed Rahim Saeedi, the editor and producer of the ANAR Media YouTube channel, to three years in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda. He was sentenced on October 27, 2024, but those with knowledge of the case initially refrained from publicizing it out of…

Bangkok, January 30, 2025—Philippine authorities must drop the terrorism financing charges pending against journalist Deo Montesclaros and stop using legal threats to intimidate the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On January 10, the northern Cagayan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office sent Montesclaros a legal notice alleging that he provided supplies to the banned New…

Istanbul, January 23, 2025–The 25th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes came to a guilty verdict on Thursday in the retrial of five journalists arrested on terrorism charges in 2016, found guilty in 2018, and released on appeal in 2020. The court acquitted one other journalist. The defendants were charged for alleged ties to the recently…

New York, January 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by Azerbaijani authorities to bring six new charges against four Toplum TV journalists and the Friday arrest of the independent news outlet’s reporter Farid Ismayilov, who was remanded into pretrial custody.  “The new charges against Toplum TV underscores an unprecedented media crackdown waged by Azerbaijani authorities,” said…

New York, January 17, 2025—A Taliban court in the capital Kabul on January 1 sentenced Afghan News Agency reporter Mahdi Ansary to 18 months in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda. “Mahdi Ansary’s unjust sentence is indicative of the Taliban’s continued brutality and suppression of press freedom in Afghanistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s…

Berlin, January 14, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to stop persecuting the regional news site Komi Daily and the independent media outlet Asians of Russia, which the Federal Security Service (FSB) added to its list of “terrorist organizations.” This marks the first time media publications have been labeled as such in Russia, according…

São Paulo, January 10, 2025—Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora could go back to jail this Monday if the country’s Supreme Court doesn’t agree to hear an appeal made by his defense, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday. Zamora, 67, spent 813 days in prison, accused of money laundering, until he was granted house…

Haitian journalist Jean Marc Jean was covering an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince in February 2024 when he was struck in the face by a gas canister fired by police into the crowd. One of at least five journalists injured while covering civil unrest in the country that month, Jean arrived at the hospital with a…

New York, December 18, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Kyrgyzstan court’s decision upholding convictions against four journalists from anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live, two of whom were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. On Wednesday, the Bishkek City Court upheld an October 10 first instance court decision sentencing Makhabat Tajibek kyzy to six years in prison, Azamat Ishenbekov to five years…

New York, December 17, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to drop charges against six members of the anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media and freelance journalist Farid Mehralizada, with U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Azerbaijani service, as a trial began Tuesday in the Serious Crimes Court of the capital, Baku. “The…