Legal Action

New York, August 23, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about a new law, to be enforced by the Taliban’s morality police, which bans journalists from publishing or broadcasting content that they believe violates Sharia law or insults Muslims. “The Law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice grants…

Lusaka, August 21, 2024—Zambian journalist Thomas Allan Zgambo is facing up to seven years in prison for his reporting on corruption and poor governance in the southern African nation. It is at least the third time that Zgambo has risked imprisonment for his online journalism, a growing threat for journalists in many African countries. On August 6, Zgambo…

Dakar, August 20, 2024—Cameroonian journalist Samuel Bondjock has had to appear in court more than 30 times in almost 30 months to face criminal defamation charges that could put him in jail — even though the country’s media regulator dismissed the complaint against him in 2022. His next appearance in the capital Yaounde is scheduled…

Berlin, August 19, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by Russian authorities to open a criminal case against Italian journalists Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini for alleged illegal border crossing from Ukraine into Russia. “Trying to put Italian journalists Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini on trial seems to be a desperate…

New Delhi, August 15, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Indian government to ensure proper consultation with media publishers before enacting a broadcast regulation bill that journalists fear will give authorities sweeping powers to control online content.  “India’s planned broadcast bill could have a chilling effect on press freedom,” CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator…

Bangkok, August 15, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentencing of Nguyen Chi Tuyen, one of Vietnam’s best-known civil society activists and YouTubers, to five years in prison for his news reporting and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. A court in the capital Hanoi ruled that Nguyen, who has been in detention…

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the decision by Hong Kong’s top court to uphold the conviction of publisher Jimmy Lai and six pro-democracy campaigners on charges of participating in an unauthorized assembly in 2019. CPJ is also dismayed by the participation of David Neuberger, a former head of Britain’s Supreme Court who also…

Taipei, August 13, 2024—Mongolian authorities should not contest the appeal filed by Zarig news site founder and editor-in-chief Unurtsetseg Naran challenging her conviction on multiple charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday. “The Mongolian government must halt its escalating use of lawfare against journalists and protect their rights to report,” said CPJ’s Asia…

Chiang Mai, August 9, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a Philippine court decision reversing a 2018 regulator’s order to shut down the independent news site Rappler, which was co-founded in 2012 by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and reported critically on former President Rodrigo Duterte. “The Court of Appeal’s decision to void a 2018 government agency shutdown…

Russia’s months-long jailing of journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva —released on August 1 as part of a prisoner exchange — was one of the most blatant illustrations of Russia’s muzzling of the press in the wake of its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has precipitated what a representative of the now-shuttered Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’…