Ahead of elections, Brazil’s police announce plan to crackdown on ‘fake news’
In November last year, Brazilian police stopped a truck on a highway in the center of the country and, after a thorough search, discovered more than six tons of marijuana stashed in false compartments. The truck had the name Romanelli on the side, but police said it was a label designed to confuse and that…
Why release of two journalists in Ethiopia does not signal end to press crackdown
On January 10, radio journalists Darsema Sori and Khalid Mohammed were released from prison after serving lengthy sentences related to their work at the Ethiopian faith-based station Radio Bilal. Despite their release and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s promise earlier this month to free political prisoners, Ethiopia’s use of imprisonment, harassment, and surveillance means that the…
As German hate speech law sinks Titanic’s Twitter post, critics warn new powers go too far
The satirical magazine Titanic appears to have been an unlikely victim of Germany’s recently adopted online anti-hate speech law, NetzDG. “We were truly surprised,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief Tim Wolff told CPJ, as he explained how Twitter blocked the Titanic account for 48 hours after the magazine republished a post Twitter had deleted, in which Titanic…
Russia votes on bill to require journalists to register as foreign agents
Kiev, January 16, 2018–Russia’s State Duma should drop a bill that would require some bloggers and journalists to register as foreign agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Duma on January 12 voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Russia’s RT network says it complied with US order to register as foreign agent
New York, November 13, 2017–The Russian government-funded international news network RT, formerly Russia Today, said that it complied today with a U.S. Department of Justice order for it to register as a foreign agent. Ordering foreign outlets to register could set a troubling precedent, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
CPJ calls on Paraguay to reject social media regulations
The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with more than 20 international and local rights organizations sent a letter to Paraguayan lawmakers on October 25, calling on them to reject a proposed law regulating anonymous online posts during elections.
Two-fold risk for Serbia’s women journalists as attackers target their work and gender
“In the past five years I was publically called many things. I was an old hag, a sterile, cheap Soros’ prostitute, a hooker, not f***ed enough, in need of a good prick, and destroyer of the Serbian Orthodox Church,” said Tatjana Vojtehovski, a Serbian television journalist with a large presence on social media. “My response…
Separatists in east Ukraine ‘sentence’ blogger to 14 years in captivity
Pro-Russia separatists in the rebel stronghold of Luhansk, east Ukraine, took Eduard Nedelyayev, a Ukrainian blogger, captive in November last year, according to local media reports. The group claims authority over a region it has named the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR).
Two Salvadoran news websites threatened for their reporting
New York, August 28, 2017–Salvadoran authorities must conduct a swift and credible investigation of escalating online and physical threats against journalists at two digital news outlets and enact sufficient measures to ensure the journalists’ safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.