Chinese court sentences journalist Huang Qi to 12 years in prison

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On Monday, a Chinese court in Sichuan province sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of “deliberately leaking state secrets,” and “illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries.”

Tanzanian police arrested investigative reporter Erick Kabendera on Monday. One day later, the city police chief said at a press conference that Kabendera was being questioned about his citizenship. In 2013, the journalist linked a similar investigation to attempts to muzzle him. Press freedom has deteriorated drastically in Tanzania under the presidency of John Magufuli, CPJ has found. In 2017, freelancer Azory Gwanda disappeared in the country’s eastern Rufiji region and has not been heard from since.

Global press freedom updates

• In a rare piece of good news, Mauritania finally freed blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed two days before the inauguration of the country’s new president. CPJ has advocated for Mohamed’s release since his arrest in 2014, including featuring him in the #FreeThePress campaign.
• A Kyrgyz court Tuesday upheld the life sentence of Azimjon Askarov. The journalist was convicted in 2010 on charges of incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer, after he documented human rights violations.
• Brazilian President Bolsonaro says Glenn Greenwald may ‘do jail time’
• From conflict zones to courtrooms, Myanmar’s journalists are under fire, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin reports
• Kurdish military forces detain journalist in Iraqi Kurdistan
• CPJ calls for President Lopez Obrador to strengthen press freedom in Mexico
• Explosive detonated outside office of Costa Rican TV station Teletica

Spotlight

This week we published a new, updated Digital Safety Kit for journalists looking to better protect themselves, their sources, and their information. The kit, produced by CPJ’s Emergencies Department, combines six bite-sized safety notes on different topics in an accessible format that is easy to digest.

CPJ Emergencies also provides safety advice on psychosocial and physical safety, as well as ongoing safety advisories in response to emerging threats. This information is all free and available on our website.

What we are reading

• No one is safe: How Saudi Arabia makes dissidents disappear — Ayman M. Mohyeldin, Vanity Fair
• The Incredible Life and Tragic Death of Lyra McKee — Susan McKay, The New Yorker
• An explainer for when the internet goes down: What, who and why? — Isabel Linzer, African Arguments
• Diane Foley: Trump Has Freed American Hostages. But He’s Made It ‘Less Safe’ to Be a Journalist — Diane Foley, The Daily Beast
• Report on the Facebook Third Party Fact Checking programme — Full Fact
• Jamal Khashoggi and Azory Gwanda Remain Atop Latest “10 Most Urgent” List Of Press Freedom Cases From One Free Press Coalition — Forbes