Egyptian authorities lash out against media over election coverage
New York, March 30, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the actions taken by Egyptian authorities against media outlets and journalists reporting on the country’s presidential election, which took place March 26-28.
Journalists covering US white supremacists must weigh risks to selves and families
Michael Edison Hayden was one of the first foreign journalists on the ground after the Nepalese earthquake in 2015– the “ground was still shaking” when he arrived, he said. He’s reported from the disputed territory between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, and gone door-to-door in Phoenix, searching for a mass killer. But, Hayden said, reporting…
CPJ joins call for Kyrgyzstan to end restrictive media practices
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined a coalition of 28 other international press freedom organizations to call on Kyrgyz authorities to drop defamation lawsuits and to end the practice of using disproportionate fines, travel bans and other harsh penalties to punish critical media outlets and journalists.
Journalist faces extradition from Ukraine to Azerbaijan, fears for his safety
New York, March 8, 2018–Ukrainian authorities should allow Fikret Huseynli (Huseinli), a journalist of Azerbaijani origin and a Dutch national, to leave the country safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown assailants on March 5 attacked Huseynli, a correspondent for the independent online television channel Turan, at an apartment building he was renting…
Syrian journalist assaulted by gunmen in northwestern Syria
Eight unidentified gunmen on March 1, 2018, assaulted Mohamed Abdulqader Sbeh, a reporter for the independent news website Madar Today, in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, according to the Syrian Journalist Association and the journalist’s employer.
Changes to Jordan’s hate speech law could further stifle press freedom
Recently proposed amendments to Jordan’s 2015 cybercrime law, including a vague and broad definition of hate speech, will further stifle press freedom on the pretext of protecting the country’s citizens, and could result in further self-censorship, several Jordanian journalists told CPJ.
Bangladesh’s press say they are losing the courage to report amid threats from all sides
Nazmul Huda pointed his TV camera at garment workers demonstrating for higher wages in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, and at the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them. It took a while for police to notice the ETV reporter, and they were furious. After all, they had ordered him to leave…
Threats, arrests, and access denied as Myanmar backtracks on press freedom
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Esther Htusan is no longer safe to report from her home country, Myanmar. The Associated Press reporter fled the country late last year after being threatened for her critical reporting on various topics that authorities deem sensitive, from the ethnic Rohingya refugee exodus, the military’s controversial counterinsurgency operations in Rakhine State, to…
Weinstein-BlackCube surveillance claim exposes aggressive tactics to kill a story
Those with deep pockets can go to great lengths to push back against journalism they find objectionable. Billionaire Peter Thiel deployed a team of lawyers in a move that bankrupted the news site Gawker in 2016–and last month President Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to block the publication of an unflattering book. But there’s another, much…