Freelance journalist Lyra McKee was fatally injured on April 18 during rioting and a police operation in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She was hit with a bullet when a gunman opened fire on police, and died in the hospital. CPJ joins family and friends of Lyra, as well as the global community, in standing with Lyra.
In Myanmar, the Supreme Court upheld Reuters’ journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s convictions. CPJ’s Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin said from Bangkok that the journalists “should both be free and able to continue their reporting, not sitting in jail cells. Their conviction and sentence will be an enduring stain on Myanmar’s reputation.”
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in December 2017 and convicted in 2018 of allegedly possessing and disseminating secret information sensitive to national security under Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. They were each sentenced to seven years in prison. They were recognized on April 16 as co-winners of a Pulitzer Prize for their investigations on the mass expulsion of the Rohingya from Myanmar.
Global press freedom updates
- Myanmar military sues The Irrawaddy for criminal defamation over conflict coverage
- Cuban police detain and beat journalist Roberto Jesús Quiñones in Guantánamo
- Cumhuriyet staff hand themselves in after failed appeal in Turkey; and read the latest Crackdown Chronicle, CPJ’s weekly round-up of press freedom violations in the country
- Philippine news and human rights organizations accused of ‘plot’ against Duterte
- In Peru, journalist Gustavo Gorriti and other media blamed for ex-president’s suicide
- On Earth Day on Monday, CPJ highlighted on Twitter journalists attacked worldwide for covering environmental issues
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