“There are already a dozen cases piling up against me,” she said. “I’m a journalist. One murder case is enough to frame me.”

Rupa, a former chief correspondent at privately owned broadcaster Ekattor TV, now faces nine murder cases. Her husband, Shakil Ahmed, the channel’s former head of news, is named in eight.  

A year ago, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh’s interim government after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of student-led protests, during which two journalists were killed.

Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina. But in a November 2024 interview with newspaper The Daily Star, Yunus said that murder accusations against journalists were being made hastily. He said the government had since halted such actions and that a committee had been formed to review the cases.

Still, nearly a year later, Rupa, Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta and Mozammel Haque Babu, arrested on accusations of instigating murders in separate cases, remain behind bars. The repeated use of such charges against journalists who are widely seen as sympathetic to the former regime appear to be politically motivated censorship.

In addition to such legal charges, CPJ has documented physical attacks against journalists, threats from political activists, and exile. At least 25 journalists are under investigation for genocide by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal – a charge that has been used to target figures linked to the former Hasina government. 

“Keeping four journalists behind bars without credible evidence a year on undermines the interim government’s stated commitment to protect press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Real reform means breaking from the past, not replicating its abuses. All political parties must respect journalists’ right to report as the country is set for polls in coming months.”

A CPJ review of legal documents and reports found that journalists are often added to First Information Reports (FIRs) – documents that open an investigation – long after they are filed. In May, UN experts raised concern that over 140 journalists had been charged with murder following last year’s protests.

Shyamal Dutta’s daughter, Shashi, told CPJ the family has lost track of how many cases he now faces. They are aware of at least six murder cases in which he is named, while Babu’s family is aware of 10. Rupa and Ahmed’s family told CPJ that they haven’t received FIRs for five cases in which one or the other journalist has been named, which means that neither can apply for bail.

Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’s press secretary, and police spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. 

Violence and threats

In 2025, reporters across Bangladesh have faced violence and harassment while covering political events, with CPJ documenting at least 10 such incidents, most of which were carried out by members or affiliates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal. In several instances, journalists sustained serious injuries or were prevented from reporting after footage was deleted or phones seized, including Bahar Raihan, Abdullah Al Mahmud, and Rocky Hossain.

Responding to the allegations, Mahdi Amin, adviser to Acting BNP Chair Tarique Rahman, told CPJ that while isolated misconduct may occur in a party of BNP’s size, the party does not protect wrongdoers. 

Others have faced threats from supporters of different political parties and the student groups that led the protests against Hasina. Reporters covering opposition groups like Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, have come under particular pressure. On June 9, Hasanat Kamal, editor of EyeNews.news, told CPJ he’d fled to the United Kingdom after being falsely accused by Islami Chhatra Shibir of participating in a violent student protest. Anwar Hossain, a journalist for the local daily Dabanol, told CPJ he’d been threatened by Jamaat supporters after publishing negative reports about a local party leader. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to Abdus Sattar Sumon, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami, but received no response.

Since Hasina’s ouster, student protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) have increasinglytargeted journalists they accuse of supporting the former regime, which in one case led to the firing of five journalists. Student-led mobs have also besieged outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to ADSM leader Rifat Rashid but received no response.

On July 14, exiled investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who fled Bangladesh after exposing alleged high-level corruption under Hasina and receiving threats from Awami League officials, posted on X about the repression of the media: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee has stepped up his online attacks on Al-Sharif, by falsely alleging that he is a Hamas terrorist, since the journalist cried on air while reporting on starvation in Gaza. The 28-year-old journalist has been a key source of news from Gaza for international audiences since the war began more than 650 days ago.

“We are deeply alarmed by the repeated threats made by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee against Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and call on the international community to protect him,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “This is not the first time Al-Sharif has been targeted by the Israeli military, but the danger to his life is now acute. Israel has killed at least six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza during this war. These latest unfounded accusations represent an effort to manufacture consent to kill Al-Sharif.”

The IDF have made unsubstantiated claims that many of the journalists they deliberately killed in Gaza were terrorists, including four Al Jazeera staff — Hamza Al Dahdouh, Ismail Al Ghoul, Rami Al Refee, and Hossam Shabat. CPJ classifies such cases as murder.

Shabat was one of six Al Jazeera journalists that the IDF accused in October 2024 of involvement with Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, a claim that the Qatari-based channel rejected as “baseless.” Shabat was later killed and Talal Al Arrouqi was injured.

Two other Al Jazeera staff journalists – Samer Abu Daqqa and Ahmed Al-Louh — have been killed during the Israel-Gaza war, as well as eight journalists and media workers who freelanced for the channel, according to CPJ data.

‘Real-life threat’

“Adraee’s campaign is not only a media threat or an image destruction; it is a real-life threat,” Al-Sharif told CPJ. “All of this is happening because my coverage of the crimes of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip harms them and damages their image in the world. They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.”

Israel is coming under increasing pressure to stop shooting Palestinians at aid distribution points and allow more food in, amid global alarm over reports of deaths from hunger and images of emaciated children.

In a July 24 video, Adraee accused Al-Sharif of being a member of Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam, since 2013 and moving during the war “to work for the most criminal and offensive channel.”

In a July 23 video, Adraee described Al Jazeera’s reporting on starving Palestinians as “a fabricated drama starring Anas Al-Sharif, who sheds crocodile tears,” while playing a clip of the journalist crying while reporting on July 20.

In a July 20 video, Adraee played the same footage of Al-Sharif crying and accused him of “propaganda” and being part of a “false Hamas campaign on starvation.”

On July 12, responding to Al Sharif’s post calling for a ceasefire, Adraee described the journalist as “a mouthpiece for intellectual terrorism.”

‘My family is also in danger’

“I live with the feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment. My family is also in danger, and I have already paid the price before,” Al-Sharif told CPJ.

In December 2023, Al-Sharif’s 90-year-old father was killed by an Israeli airstrike on their family home, weeks after the journalist received multiple telephone threats from Israeli army officers instructing him to cease coverage and leave northern Gaza.

In August 2024, Adraee accused Al-Sharif of “presenting a lie” in his coverage of an Israeli airstrike on a school that killed dozens of displaced Palestinians.

“This feeling is difficult and painful, but it does not push me back. Rather, it motivates me to continue fulfilling my duty and conveying the suffering of our people, even if it costs me my life,” said Al-Sharif.

Israel has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside the country and in the West Bank.

“These threats constitute clear incitement and an attempt to assassinate my voice, either through bombing or moral distortion. However, I will not stop conveying the truth,” Al-Sharif said.

In response to CPJ’s email query, the IDF’s North America Media desk referred CPJ to Adraee’s July 24 video.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The letter notes the persistence of serious issues in Greece, including surveillance, threats, harassment, physical attacks, and murders of journalists. It also cites government pressure on editorial and media independence, including Greece’s public broadcaster, as well as legal threats, such as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and criminal defamation.

The organizations asked national authorities to provide, in writing, an overview of the steps being considered to address the concerns, and to establish a national action plan.

Read the full letter here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Police raided the Istanbul offices of LeMan Monday evening and detained the staff members after the publication of what officials claimed was a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, a depiction that is forbidden in the Muslim world. At the same time, a mob laid siege to the building and the surrounding area in Beyoğlu District, chanting pro-shariah law slogans. 

Istanbul prosecutors are investigating six people from the LeMan staff for “publicly demeaning religious values.” Four of the staffers are in custody and two others are wanted but are reportedly not in the country. 

The cartoon, published in the latest edition of the weekly, depicts two men with wings on their backs meeting over the skies of a city being bombed. They greet each other by saying “Assalamu alaikum, I’m Muhammad,” and “Aleichem shalom, I’m Moses,” as they shake hands. LeMan said on X that the man in the cartoon is not the prophet but instead a Muslim man named Muhammad. 

“Turkish authorities shouldn’t fan the flames of religious backlash over a cartoon that LeMan magazine said was not portraying the Islamic prophet,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should release the four LeMan staff in custody, cancel the warrants for those abroad, and focus on ensuring their safety.”

Prior depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons have led to lethal violence and death threats against journalists.

The detained include Doğan Pehlivan, the cartoonist; Cebrail Okçu, graphic designer; Zafer Aknar, news editor; and Ali Yavuz, institutional manager. Tuncay Akgün, the chief editor and publisher, and news editor Aslan Özdemir were also wanted by the authorities. 

Turkish authorities banned the distribution of the latest edition of LeMan and ordered copies to be pulled from newsstands. A court ordered that LeMan’s website and X account be blocked within Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey’s cabinet members welcomed the operation in public comments. Some opposition leaders also criticized the cartoon. 

CPJ’s emailed request for comment from the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Figueredo refused to comply with a June 23 police summons, reviewed by CPJ. On that same day she received three private number phone calls warning her that a police investigation had been opened against her and Correa for “dangerousness,” the journalists told CPJ. On June 16, a local police officer parked outside the journalists’ home told them that they weren’t allowed to leave in an incident witnessed by others in the neighborhood.

“The Cuban government must halt its harassment of journalists Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa, and allow them to continue their work with the community media outlet, Amanecer Habanero,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Reporters should not be threatened into silence with legal orders.” 

Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased scrutiny from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

Amanecer Habanero is a member of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP), a network of six community media outlets, which has strongly condemned the actions of Cuban authorities against Figueredo, who became director of the outlet earlier this year.

In a statement, ICLEP said Figueredo has been the victim of an escalating campaign of intimidation by Cuban law enforcement, including verbal threats by state security agents; permanent police surveillance without a court order; restriction of her freedom of movement; psychological intimidation against her family; and police summonses without legal basis in connection with her work denouncing government.

Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased threat from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

Cuban authorities did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Friday that broadcasting from those locations without advance, written permission, would be a criminal offense, as Israel seeks to control reporting about its week-old conflict with Iran.

“We are deeply concerned by the Israeli authorities’ escalating efforts to suppress press freedom through censorship and intimidation,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Journalists must be allowed to report on the Iran-Israel conflict without obstruction or fear of retaliation. Silencing the press deprives the world of a clear, unfiltered view of the reality unfolding in the region.”

On Thursday, Israeli police said they stopped international media transmitting live broadcasts from missile landing sites, which revealed their exact locations, including “news agencies through which Al Jazeera was illegally broadcasting.” That same day, the Government Press Office banned live broadcasts from crash sites.

The Union of Journalists in Israel denounced the move and said there were no teams filming in Israel for Al Jazeera, which purchases live broadcasts from other international networks operating legally in Israel. Israel banned Al Jazeera’s operations in the country in May, citing security concerns.

On June 18, IDF military censors issued an order, which CPJ reviewed, requiring anyone seeking to broadcast, including via social media, the aftermath of Iranian rocket and drone attacks on Israel’s military sites to obtain prior approval from the army.

On June 16, Israeli police raided a hotel in the northern port city of Haifa where Palestinian journalists were covering the attacks, confiscated their equipment, and launched an investigation.

CPJ emailed the police, the IDF’s North America Media Desk, and the government spokesperson requesting comment but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The Salvadoran Journalists Association (APES) has raised concerns of alleged watchlists and threats of arrest targeting journalists and human rights defenders.

The document calls on the Salvadoran government to “guarantee the physical integrity and freedom of all journalists and immediately cease any form of persecution, surveillance, or intimidation.”

Read the full statement in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Two Iranian journalists, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, said they were issued warnings hours after Israel’s first strike on Iran on Friday.

“We were summoned to an emergency meeting by the founder and director of our newspaper,” a journalist at a private Tehran-based newspaper told CPJ. “We were told that any personal commentary or reporting on our social media accounts would result in immediate dismissal.”

On Tuesday, the journalist told CPJ that she was leaving Tehran following U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to vacate the capital, but would continue to work, although her reports largely involved rewriting government statements. 

“We cannot report anything at all,” she told CPJ. “We are journalists who, in this situation, are unable to practice journalism.” 

An exiled freelance journalist who had been commenting on the war on social media told CPJ that they were threatened by an intelligence agent on Friday.

“My interrogator contacted me on WhatsApp and warned that if I report anything or give voice to the people, my family in Iran will be arrested,” said the journalist, who fled Iran three weeks ago after repeated arrests for their journalism. The journalist stopped posting under their real name on social media after this. 

Internet access restricted

All broadcasting in Iran is controlled by the state and many people use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access independent news via social media — although these are also being disrupted. 

It has become difficult for Iranians to access the internet since the communications ministry restricted access on Friday, citing “special conditions.” WhatsApp has also been blocked. 

“CPJ is deeply concerned by the ongoing intimidation of Iranian journalists, particularly during such a sensitive time,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “By targeting the press and restricting access to independent reporting, Iranian authorities are not only suppressing critical information at home but also isolating its citizens from the global flow of news. This reflects a longstanding pattern of media repression in the country.”

Iran was tied for seventh place as one of the world’s worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s most recent annual prison census, with 16 behind bars on December 1, 2024.

Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, which ousted the U.S.-backed Shah, the Islamic Republic has called for the destructionof Israel, which it calls the Zionist regime, and backed anti-Israeli militant groups across the region. Meanwhile, Western countries have sought to block Iran’s nuclear program.

Specialized prosecutions

Iran’s Attorney General’s Office said on Friday that people who “misuse cyberspace to undermine the psychological security of society … by publishing untrue content” would be dealt with “in accordance with the regulations.”

On Tuesday, the judiciary announced that a “special task force has been established within the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office to monitor cyberspace, social media users, official news agencies, and media outlets” to identify those who violated the attorney general’s order and refer them to “specialized prosecution branches.”

Local media reported multiple arrests for the crime of supporting Israel online. 

On Saturday, 16 people in the central city of Isfahan were arrested, privately owned Etemad newspaper reported. On Sunday, one person was arrested in the central city of Rafsanjan and had their phone confiscated, and social media accounts and communication apps suspended, according to the privately owned Shargh Daily newspaper.

Iranians have previously been executed on charges of spying for Israel.

In May, six media directors and founders were convicted on charges that included publishing falsehoods. In June, Britain’s BBC said that its Iranian journalists’ families had been harassed in the Islamic Republic because of their news reports.  

CPJ’s email to Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York to request comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Asal Abasian.

Two Iranian journalists, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, said they were issued warnings hours after Israel’s first strike on Iran on Friday.

“We were summoned to an emergency meeting by the founder and director of our newspaper,” a journalist at a private Tehran-based newspaper told CPJ. “We were told that any personal commentary or reporting on our social media accounts would result in immediate dismissal.”

On Tuesday, the journalist told CPJ that she was leaving Tehran following U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to vacate the capital, but would continue to work, although her reports largely involved rewriting government statements. 

“We cannot report anything at all,” she told CPJ. “We are journalists who, in this situation, are unable to practice journalism.” 

An exiled freelance journalist who had been commenting on the war on social media told CPJ that they were threatened by an intelligence agent on Friday.

“My interrogator contacted me on WhatsApp and warned that if I report anything or give voice to the people, my family in Iran will be arrested,” said the journalist, who fled Iran three weeks ago after repeated arrests for their journalism. The journalist stopped posting under their real name on social media after this. 

Internet access restricted

All broadcasting in Iran is controlled by the state and many people use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access independent news via social media — although these are also being disrupted. 

It has become difficult for Iranians to access the internet since the communications ministry restricted access on Friday, citing “special conditions.” WhatsApp has also been blocked. 

“CPJ is deeply concerned by the ongoing intimidation of Iranian journalists, particularly during such a sensitive time,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “By targeting the press and restricting access to independent reporting, Iranian authorities are not only suppressing critical information at home but also isolating its citizens from the global flow of news. This reflects a longstanding pattern of media repression in the country.”

Iran was tied for seventh place as one of the world’s worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s most recent annual prison census, with 16 behind bars on December 1, 2024.

Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, which ousted the U.S.-backed Shah, the Islamic Republic has called for the destructionof Israel, which it calls the Zionist regime, and backed anti-Israeli militant groups across the region. Meanwhile, Western countries have sought to block Iran’s nuclear program.

Specialized prosecutions

Iran’s Attorney General’s Office said on Friday that people who “misuse cyberspace to undermine the psychological security of society … by publishing untrue content” would be dealt with “in accordance with the regulations.”

On Tuesday, the judiciary announced that a “special task force has been established within the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office to monitor cyberspace, social media users, official news agencies, and media outlets” to identify those who violated the attorney general’s order and refer them to “specialized prosecution branches.”

Local media reported multiple arrests for the crime of supporting Israel online. 

On Saturday, 16 people in the central city of Isfahan were arrested, privately owned Etemad newspaper reported. On Sunday, one person was arrested in the central city of Rafsanjan and had their phone confiscated, and social media accounts and communication apps suspended, according to the privately owned Shargh Daily newspaper.

Iranians have previously been executed on charges of spying for Israel.

In May, six media directors and founders were convicted on charges that included publishing falsehoods. In June, Britain’s BBC said that its Iranian journalists’ families had been harassed in the Islamic Republic because of their news reports.  

CPJ’s email to Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York to request comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Asal Abasian.

The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

“Following Kloop’s forced shutdown last year, the arrest of eight current and former Kloop staffers and incitement charges against journalists Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Joomart Duulatov is a grave escalation of Kyrgyz authorities’ vendetta against Kloop for its critical coverage of government corruption,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “All press members swept up in these targeted raids must be released without delay.”

Between Wednesday and Friday, officers with Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS) raided Kloop’s offices and the homes of journalists and staffers in the capital of Bishkek and the southern city of Osh, seizing electronic devices, before taking them to SCNS offices for questioning, according to multiple reports.

Kloop founder Rinat Tuhvatshin called the arrests “abductions,” stating that the SCNS conducted searches and questioned the journalists without lawyers present and did not allow them to make any phone calls. 

In a May 30 statement, the SCNS accused Kloop of continuing to work despite the liquidation of its legal entity and said its “illegal work” was “aimed at provoking public discontent … for the subsequent organization of mass unrest.”

With Aleksandrov and Duulatov, an unnamed Kloop accountant detained Friday also remained in SCNS custody. If found guilty on the incitement charges, Aleksandrov and Duulatov could face up to eight years in prison.

A local partner in the global investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Kloop regularly reports on alleged corruption and abuses by government officials. The outlet’s website has been blocked in Kyrgyzstan since 2023.

The charges against Aleksandrov and Duulatov echo those brought last year against 11 current and former staffers of investigative outlet Temirov Live. 

CPJ’s email to SCNS for comment did not immediately receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“DRC authorities must swiftly, thoroughly, and transparently investigate journalist Samy Kambere Malikidogo’s shooting and hold the officer responsible to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Durban. “Journalists covering events of public interest, such as public demonstrations, must be protected by law enforcement, not targeted.”

Kambere, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kibali FM, was shot in his right arm on May 23 by an officer with the Congolese National Police (PNC), according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ, and a press release from the local press freedom organization L’Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse en Afrique (OLPA).

Kambere told CPJ that he was wearing a clearly distinguishable press badge around his neck when police shot him as he reported on the protests against increased insecurity, including the May 22 killing of a store owner by unidentified armed men. Kambere received medical treatment at a local health clinic following the attack and was released. 

A local police commander known as Major Dakota told CPJ by phone that he was on medical leave but had been informed that the shooting was under investigation.

CPJ has previously documented attacks on journalists covering insecurity protests in the DRC.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

In the early hours of Sunday, May 18, police officers raided Mejía’s home in the Peña por Bajo neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, beat him, stole personal belongings, and subjected him to “cruel and inhuman treatment,” according to multiple news reports and local press group C-Libre.

Mejía told the Facebook news page Perspectiva Informativa that he was held for about three hours and threatened with death. Mejía said officers also seized his phone and stole $80 in cash.

“Authorities must treat these serious allegations with the urgency and transparency they demand, and hold the officers responsible to account,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “There can be no tolerance for abuses committed under the guise of security operations, especially when they target members of the press.”

Mejía, who self-publishes Comando Maya newspaper, filed a formal complaint on May 20, with the Honduran Public Prosecutor’s Office in Tegucigalpa. He was accompanied by his legal representative and son, Stuart Mejía. 

According to Perspectiva Informativa, Stuart said his father, who has no criminal record, was tortured and humiliated in a “gross violation of human rights,” and their family fears for their safety. The journalist underwent a forensic medical examination, and its findings were submitted to prosecutors along with the formal complaint.

Honduran Security Minister Gustavo Sánchez said on X that he directed the Inspector General’s Office to begin inquiries.

The national police director, Juan Manuel Aguilar, told the newspaper El Heraldo that the police denied any misconduct. The agency said the operation was based on a 911 emergency alert reporting a possible kidnapping at Mejía’s residence.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), InMedia, The Witness, ReNews, and Boomhead are among the outlets that have received backdated tax demands from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) since November 2023, according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), the city’s main press union. The HKJA said it is also under audit.

“Hong Kong is taking a page out of the playbook of authoritarian regimes elsewhere that are using similar intimidation tactics,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Targeting journalists with tax audits without sufficient evidence not only rings alarm bells for press freedom but also raises concerns more broadly about Hong Kong as a safe and reliable location to do business.”

Tax authorities claimed that the news outlets, journalists and some of their family members had not reported their full income from 2017 to 2019, according to HKJA chairperson Selina Cheng, who said the audits contained errors and were “unreasonable.” Cheng and her parents are among those under tax probes.

The HKJA said the IRD sent separate back tax demands to each media outlet and to the association itself, with a combined total of around HK$700,000 (US$89,450), based on the union’s calculations. It added that more than 20 individuals — including journalists, former board members, and some of their family members — also received tax demands, with the total amount requested reaching up to HK$1 million (US$127,900).

In a statement, the HKFP said that it is undergoing a seven-year audit after being “randomly selected” by the IRD.

Hong Kong has seen a dramatic decline in press freedom since the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020. Several independent media outlets, including Apple Daily and Stand News, have been forced to shut down, while journalists have been assaulted, arrested and imprisoned. 

In response to CPJ’s request for comment on the audits, an IRD spokesperson said the department follows “established procedures” and the industry or background of a taxpayer “has no bearing” on such audits.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Blocking journalist Ahmad Noorani’s YouTube channel and filing a criminal case against him is indicative of Pakistan’s relentless campaign against exiled journalists,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “It also appears that the journalist’s family is being targeted back home in Pakistan. The brutal intimidation of journalists and their families must stop, and the Pakistan government must allow the media to report freely.”

On May 12, YouTube told Noorani that it had blocked his channel, with 173,000 followers, in Pakistan based on a legal complaint from the government, according to the journalist and a copy of YouTube’s email, reviewed by CPJ.

On May 13, Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency opened an investigation into Noorani, accusing him of running hate campaigns against the armed forces, under the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, for which he could face up to three years imprisonment.

The investigators cited two of Noorani’s posts on the social media platform X that criticized Pakistan’s army during last week’s conflict with India, according to a copy of the First Information Report (FIR), reviewed by CPJ.

On March 18, about two dozen individuals identifying themselves as police forcibly entered and searched Noorani’s family home in the capital Islamabad and took his two brothers to an undisclosed location for 30 days.

U.S.-based Noorani told CPJ that he believed his brothers’ forced disappearance was because of his March 17 investigative report, which said the military was misusing its influence over civilian institutions.

CPJ’s text message to information minister Attaullah Tarar requesting comment received no response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues, including the protracted conflict between the government and the militant group Al-Shabaab.

Since Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared a “total war” on the Al-Shabaab following his 2022 election, the government has attempted to censor media coverage of the militant group’s “extremism ideology.” Amid a deteriorating security situation, with Al-Shabaab’s recent bombing near a presidential convoy and attacks  on strategic government positions, authorities have stepped up efforts to control public discourse.

On March 6, Information Minister Daud Aweis Jama said there was a ban on publishing “statements or news” that could threaten national security or “misuse or fabricate information, whether directly or indirectly.” Press freedom and human rights groups interpreted these broad directives, which echoed an October 2022 statement by the administration, as censorship.  

“The government is really trying to control the narrative, to shape discussions around how it is handling the security situation in the country,” said Abdullahi Hassan, a conflict researcher covering Sudan and Somalia at rights group Amnesty International. “The repression against the media and the attacks on journalists that you are seeing are aimed at silencing government critics and are directly related to those efforts to shape the narrative”

Since March 15, CPJ has documented the following violations in the Somali capital Mogadishu, based on media reports, research by local rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), and interviews with affected journalists:

● On March 15, National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers raided the home of RTN Somali TV reporter Bahjo Abdullahi Salad and arrested her. Authorities held her for about four hours in connection to a now-deleted TikTok video, in which she commented on the failure to clear rubbish in a Mogadishu district.

●  On March 18, police raided the offices of the Risaala Media Corporation after the station aired footage of the site of the bomb attack on the presidential convoy and briefly detained five journalists. Officers briefly held at least 17 other journalists covering the attack as well.

●  On March 26, police raided the family home of online journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul, after he published a series of interviews critical of NISA and covered Al-Shabaab actions. Mohamed Ibrahim, who also works as the information and human rights secretary at SJS, was not home at the time but went into hiding for about three weeks. He told CPJ he was continuing to keep a low profile due to safety concerns.

● On March 28, police officers briefly detained three Himilo TV journalists — Abdirazak Haji Sidow, Anisa Abdiaziz Hussein, and Abdullahi Abdulqadir Ahmed — as well as two journalists from the privately owned news outlet Mustaqbal Media — Abdirizak Abdullahi Adan and Abdirahman Barre Hussein —  while they were covering a protest against sexual violence.

● On April 1, police raided the offices of Five Somali TV and arrested journalists Mohamed Roraye, Ahmed Mohamud, Mohamed Abdi Afgooye, Dahir Dayah, following a report alleging the disappearance of police officers. The journalists were released later that day.

● On April 28, police arrested Risaala TV journalists Abuukar Mohamed Keynaan and Abdirashid Adow Ibrahim while they were covering a mortar attack, accusing them of exaggerating the Al-Shabaab’s actions. They were released unconditionally the same day.

● On April 29, security agents shot at and briefly detained Shabelle Media Network journalists Shukri Aabi Abdi and Najib Farah Mohamed as well as Hiiraanweyn TV correspondent Hussein Osman Makaraan and Saab TV’s Deeq Moalim Jiinow while they were interviewing displaced people. The journalists were not injured.

● On May 5, at around 1 a.m., NISA agents raided the home and media studio of journalist Mohamed Omar Baakaay, who runs a news channel on YouTube,while he was away, the journalist told CPJ. The officers beat and arrested Baakaay’s 17-year-old brother and MM Somali TV’s Bashir Ali Shire, who was also staying there.Authorities released them later that day, without providing reason for the arrest, said Baakaay.

Information minister Daud Aweis and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also emailed NISA, the Somali presidency, and the information ministry for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The April 27 women’s anti-war demonstration in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia was small but significant — one of several recent protests criticizing Hamas, which has controlled Gaza with an iron fist since ousting its political rival Fatah in 2007. Designated a terrorist organization by many Western governments, Hamas is known for violently targeting and killing its critics.

“They even told me that I would be responsible if my wife participated in the demonstration,” said Abu Jarad, a 44-year-old correspondent for Ramallah-based privately owned Sawt al-Hurriya radio station. “I have not covered any recent demonstrations,” he concluded, recalling how he was beaten and interrogated for hours by Hamas-affiliated masked assailants in the southern city of Rafah in November 2023, accusing him of “covering events in the Gaza Strip calling for a coup.”

He only secured his freedom with a promise to stop reporting.

Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Their fears of reporting on opposition to Hamas seem well-founded. A statement by Palestinian Resistance Factions and Tribes in Gaza, which includes Hamas, condemned the protesters as “collaborators with Israel,” a charge historically used to justify executions. Israeli outlets said that Hamas had killed Palestinians who participated in the March anti-war protests.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, a Palestinian official from a Hamas-allied militant group condemned “suspicious figures” who tried “to exploit legitimate protests to demand an end to the resistance” against Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Armed, masked Hamas militants forcibly dispersed some protesters and assaulted them, according to the BBC.

Spies and journalists are ‘one and the same’

Abu Jarad reported Hamas’ threat against himself and his wife to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the official union for Palestinian journalists, and PJS publicly condemned Hamas for violating press freedom.

Prior to this, PJS had only published one other incident involving Hamas during the war — the brutal assault of Ibrahim Muhareb, who was beaten unconscious by armed men in plainclothes who said they were from the police investigations department. He sustained deep head wounds.

“Without giving any reason, they tried to assault me,” said Muhareb, a freelance photographer for the local Quds Feed media network and the Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT, who was working from a tent next to southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

“When I tried to contact a police officer in charge of journalists’ affairs, they tried to dismantle my tent. When I resisted, they began assaulting me, by kicking me,” the 28-year-old said.

“I tried to speak to them calmly, but they began to beat me even more severely. They suddenly struck me with an instrument, causing me to lose consciousness, and blood flowed from my head,” he told CPJ.

“Some colleagues tried to intervene, but they prevented them, literally telling them that ‘the spy and the journalist are one and the same,'” Muhareb said.

Muharab said he tried to lift a cover put over his head and face but the officers threatened him with a gun. Eventually, some journalists pulled him free and sought medical treatment for wounds all over his body.

Muharab’s experience is not unusual — it’s his decision to go public that marks him out.

“There are major violations committed by the Hamas government and group against journalists,” PJS’ head Nasser Abu Bakr told CPJ. “The violations range from summonses, interrogations, phone calls, threats, sometimes beatings and arrests, to harassment, publication bans, interference with content, and surveillance.”

Violations by Hamas are underreported

For almost two decades, CPJ has documented multiple press freedom violations by Hamas — as well as all the other warring parties in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories — including detentions, assaults, obstruction, and raids.

The war in Gaza has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ started keeping records in 1992, with at least 178 journalists among some 52,000 Palestinians killed since Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. An overwhelming majority of these killings, arrests, and threats were carried out by Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, press freedom violations by Hamas during the war have been vastly underreported.

PJS often documents Hamas attacks on the media internally, without publicizing them, for fear of reprisals, the group told CPJ. In other cases, PJS staff hear about events secondhand as journalists are too scared to report them.

CPJ’s experience echoes that of PJS.

In separate incidents this year, two Gaza-based journalists told CPJ that they were intimidated by Hamas security agents who blocked them from reporting in certain areas. The journalists did not consent to CPJ going public about their experiences for fear of retaliation. To them, the priority was to be able to continue reporting from the field.

More recently, a TV crew told CPJ they were assaulted by Hamas security forces while trying to film. But, again, the journalists did not want CPJ to publicize the incident as it was later resolved between the powerful clans that wield influence over most of Gaza’s population.

PJS’ deputy head Tahseen al-Astal told CPJ that Palestinian journalists are reluctant to spotlight their own problems, driven by a collective desire not to “pivot eyes from the war in Gaza,” which they felt was a more pressing story.

“Most journalists have begun to practice self-censorship in their writing to avoid any problems with security,” he added.

Mohammed Abu Aoun is another of the few journalists willing to speak publicly.

A correspondent for Fatah-affiliated Awda TV, Abu Aoun told CPJ that he was beaten by Hamas’ Internal Security Force in 2024 while interviewing a woman near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“During the interview, the woman insulted Hamas and some of its leaders. The officers immediately took me to an unknown location and beat me,” said Abu Aoun, 26, adding that they searched his cell phone and told him to stop working in the vicinity of the hospital.

In response to CPJ inquiries, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the government had received no media complaints regarding “threats related to covering protests or public gatherings,” threats from security personnel, or summonses from internal security agents.

Al-Thawabta said the government had “fully opened the field” for media to cover events freely in a “safe, transparent” environment and it was committed to “ensuring that security agencies do not interfere with the content of media coverage or the work of journalists.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Akın said she received a threatening phone call a day before whistleblower Cemil Önal, her main source in the series, was murdered in the Netherlands on May 1, according to multiple reports. Önal, the former finance director for an alleged crime lord, made allegations of blackmail, extortion, bribery and money laundering against authorities in Turkey and Turkish occupied Cyprus.

“The urgency of securing journalist Ayşemden Akın’s safety could not be clearer after multiple death threats and the murder of her source,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities in Northern Cyprus must take swift action to ensure Akın’s protection, investigate threats on her life and hold those responsible to account.”

On Wednesday, Akın told CPJ via messaging app that she has been offered a limited police protection service in response to the threats, with a police car being sent to surveil her home for about a half an hour every morning. Akın said police appeared to pull the service before it was later reinstated after she posted about it on X. 

Police chief Kasım Kuni told Turkish news site Kısa Dalga there had been no request for increased protection, but Cansu N. Nazlı, a lawyer for Akın, countered this denial with documents showing three separate requests. The matter was brought to the agenda of the parliament of the KKTC on Tuesday by the opposition, and government spokesperson Özdemir Berova said Akın will be “protected.” 

Akın is a citizen of the Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, whose 1976 declaration of independence as the Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) is only recognized by Turkey.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they will take legal action against accusations in Akın’s reports in a statement.

CPJ emailed the Office of the Presidency in KKTC for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Treating journalism as a criminal act deprives Salvadorans of essential information,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator. “Prosecutors should abandon these cases now and ensure El Faro journalists can safely report on matters of public interest.”

On May 3, El Faro reported that sources close to the attorney general’s office had warned of imminent warrants for seven of its reporters on two possible charges: apología del delito (“advocacy of crime”), which is punishable by six months to two years in prison, and agrupaciones ilícitas (“unlawful association”), which carries a five- to 10-year prison term. Both statutes are commonly used against suspected gang members.

Salvadoran authorities have detained some 85,000 people since March 2022, when Bukele announced a crackdown on gangs under a state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights and civil liberties.

El Faro editor-in-chief Óscar Martínez, a 2016 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, told CPJ that the warrants followed a smear campaign by government officials accusing the outlet of being financed by gangs. On Tuesday, human rights lawyers with the Salvadoran Journalists Association formally requested that the prosecutor’s office provide information on the alleged investigation into El Faro’s journalists. 

CPJ emailed El Salvador’s attorney general’s office and the president’s office but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The post featured two images that placed de León’s photo alongside CPJ’s logo and depicted a fabricated conversation between a CPJ Latin America researcher and the journalist, according to CPJ’s review of the post, which has since been removed. 

Mary Lawlor, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, said the post “appears to delegitimize” journalistic work and called for an investigation. 

“Online smear campaigns threaten journalists across Guatemala through intimidation and threats of violence, putting independent outlets like Prensa Comunitaria at serious risk,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “Guatemalan authorities must act swiftly to identify and hold accountable those responsible and ensure the safety of Quimy De León and all journalists who carry out essential reporting.”

CPJ’s message to the prosecutor’s office and Santiago Palomo, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo’s communications secretary, did not receive a reply. 

In addition to the de León posts, anonymous social media accounts known as “net centers” have flooded the social platform X since February with posts falsely accusing Guatemalan journalist Nelton Rivera of collaborating with organized crime and calling for his arrest. Some of the posts included manipulated images showing Rivera behind bars next to jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora. 

Rivera is co-director of Km. 169, which publishes Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Since February, social media accounts known in Guatemala as “net centers” have targeted Rivera, co-director of the news agency Km. 169, which publishes the independent news websites Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda. The accounts flooded social media platform X with false and defamatory posts accusing the journalist of accepting foreign funding, collaborating with organized crime, and serving as a mouthpiece for the government.

“Authorities must take immediate steps to end these coordinated attacks and protect Nelton Rivera from efforts to silence him through public defamation and legal threats,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “Criminalizing journalists through smear campaigns and anonymous networks is a serious threat to press freedom in Guatemala.”

The campaign escalated in March and April, with dozens of posts reviewed by CPJ spreading manipulated images, threats of prosecution, and calls for Rivera’s arrest. Several posts include images showing Rivera behind bars next to prominent jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora, suggesting he will be imprisoned next.

Net centers, which are troll farms that use anonymous or pseudonymous accounts to spread disinformation and attacks on journalists and others, have been linked to political actors and officials inside the public prosecutor’s office. CPJ and other organizations have documented their involvement in past campaigns that preceded criminal charges against journalists — including those from elPeriódico, the newspaper founded by Zamora.

CPJ reached out to the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On Friday, March 28, the Facebook page “Noticias Chiapas al ROJO” published the names of 17 journalists active in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, and accused them, without evidence, of working for the alleged leader of a local gang.

“It is deeply concerning that alleged criminals use social media to smear journalists, placing their lives at risk,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico Representative. “Mexican authorities must provide protection to reporters implicated by this Facebook page and find those responsible and bring them to justice.”

Two Tapachula journalists who spoke to CPJ by phone on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal, believe Noticias Chiapas al ROJO was created by a criminal gang to spread disinformation against rivals, authorities and journalists.

Social media profiles posing as legitimate news outlets to spread disinformation is common practice in Mexico, according to numerous journalists and government officials CPJ has spoken with over the past several years.

This places journalists at an immediate risk of being targeted by gangs; in 2022, Tijuana photographer Margarito Martínez was killed after being targeted by similar social media pages.

CPJ attempted to contact Facebook via email for comment but did not receive a reply. The offices of the Chiapas state prosecutor and Chiapas governor Eduardo Ramírez did not respond to calls by CPJ for comment. 

An official with the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which coordinates protection of reporters at risk, told CPJ on Friday, March 28, that his agency was in the process of evaluating the risk facing reporters named by the Facebook page. He asked not to be identified by name, as he is not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Belarusian authorities continue to target members of the press in a reign of terror that has plagued the country since President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s disputed 2020 reelection,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s programs coordinator. “Authorities should drop all charges against journalist Anatol Sanatsenka, release him immediately, and ensure that no journalists are jailed for their work.”

Sanatsenka, former editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Babrujski Kurier independent news site, was detained on March 28 after police searched his home in the eastern city of Babruysk. A court in Babruysk sentenced Sanatsenka to 15 days of administrative arrest on March 31 and the same day authorities searched the home of Sanatsenka’s nephew, the former owner of Babrujski Kurier.

A Belarusian Association of Journalists representative told CPJ, on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, that Sanatsenka’s detention was “most likely” connected to his journalism.

Authorities previously held Sanatsenka for 30 days under similar charges in 2022. Babrujski Kurier’s website was blocked and labeled “extremist” in September 2022.

CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the country’s law enforcement agency, for comment but did not receive any response.

Belarus is the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 31 journalists behind bars, on December 1, 2024, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The letter urges Chapo, who was inaugurated January 2025 following a disputed election last year, to act swiftly in providing the whereabouts of  two missing journalists—Ibraimo Mbaruco, who disappeared on April 7, 2020, and Arlindo Chissale, last seen on January 7, 2025. Chapo, who once worked as a journalist, should also ensure accountability for the deaths of blogger Albino Sibia, shot by a police officer in December 2024 while covering a protest, and João Chamusse, murdered in December 2023.

CPJ has previously documented numerous incidents in which security personnel have attacked journalists, including during last year’s election season, and that journalists continue to face legal harassment under colonial-era laws. The letter calls for Chapo to make comprehensive reforms of legislation that criminalizes journalism.

Read the full letter in English and Portuguese.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

About 1,000 demonstrators threw stones and clashed with police, who responded with water cannons, in the eastern city of Surabaya, over a new law that increases the power of the military.

“It is the Indonesian government’s responsibility to protect, not assault, working journalists who are covering protests,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “These types of assaults on the free press must stop now.”

Rama Indra, a journalist with the local digital outlet Beritajatim, told CNN that several police officers forced him to stop filming them beating protesters and hit his head with their hands and a wooden stick to make him delete his footage. They also confiscated his cell phone, even though he identified himself as a journalist and presented his press ID card.  He reported the incident to the police.

Police also forced Wildan Pratama, a journalist with the local digital outlet Suara Surabaya, to delete his photos of about 25 arrested protesters at the same site.

The military law has triggered protests across Indonesia, with some fearing a return to military rule.

On March 23, at least eight student journalists were assaulted by police and military forces while documenting a similar protest in the East Java city of Malang, according to a local Tempo report.

CPJ’s emailed requests to the Surabaya police and Presidential Communications Office for comment did not receive immediate replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

A lawsuit by several lawyers against Daraj and Megaphone, before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, accused the outlets of “undermining the financial standing of the state” and “receiving suspicious foreign funds with the aim of launching media campaigns that would shake confidence in Lebanon,” among other allegations.

The statement calls on Lebanese authorities to protect independent media outlets and support the country’s economic recovery by ending the weaponization of baseless charges to silence independent media.

Read the full statement here. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On the same day, protesters gathered outside Indonesia’s Press Council building and demanded it to take action against Tempo, accusing the outlet of acting in the interest of “foreign agent,” billionaire financier George Soros.

“This is a dangerous and deliberate act of intimidation,” said CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Tempo is well-known internationally for its fiercely independent reporting; using this playbook from autocrats elsewhere simply will not work. President Prabowo Subianto must uphold press freedom and condemn this highly provocative act if he wants Indonesia to be taken seriously as the world’s third-largest democracy.”

The pig’s head, sent in a cardboard box, was addressed to a female journalist at Tempo who covers politics and hosts a popular podcast program, said Wahyu Dhyatmika, chief executive of Tempo’s digital team. He called the incident an attempt to “scare and silence” the Indonesian press into self-censorship, and said Tempo lodged a police report on Friday.

Tempo has reported critically on the Prabowo government’s policies, including a newly launched multibillion-dollar free school meal program. Founded originally as a weekly magazine in 1971 by CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award winner and writer Goenawan Mohamad, the outlet had been banned twice, first for two months in 1982 and later in 1994. It was relaunched in 1998 after the fall of dictator Suharto, who Prabowo once served under and who was accused of using military figures to crack down on dissent.

The national police and presidential office did not immediately respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Mallick, founder of the independent online media platform Raftar, was arrested on accusations of running “several programs against the security establishment.” The FIA had visited Raftar’s office a day earlier, harassed Mallick and his staff, and verbally summoned him to appear at their offices on Thursday, according to a post by Raftar on social platform X. Upon his appearance, he was detained without any official legal notice.

“The alarming detention of prominent journalist Farhan Mallick, along with the disappearance of journalist Asif Karim Khehtran and the abduction of exiled journalist Ahmed Noorani’s brothers, shows how the Pakistani government has no regard for press freedom and independent journalism. This must stop, and the state of Pakistan should respect the law,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Officials must immediately and unconditionally release Mallick and allow him and his media outlet to independently carry out their work.”

On Friday, Mallick appeared before the Judicial Magistrate (East) court in Karachi, where the magistrate ordered him placed in FIA custody for four days. The journalist’s lawyer told the court that he was detained despite previous orders from the Sindh High Court preventing any legal action against him.

In late 2024, Mallick said that FIA agents briefly detained him at Karachi’s airport and stopped him from boarding a flight to Doha, telling him after the flight left that he was on a travel ban list. After being subjected to two FIA inquiries the month before, he had petitioned the Sindh High Court to stop the harassment, he said.

Raftar, whose YouTube channel has about 750,000 followers, describes itself as “a dynamic platform dedicated to driving social change through the power of storytelling.” The outlet produces reports and documentaries on economic, political, and security issues in Pakistan. Mallick was previously news director of privately owned TV channel Samaa TV.

CPJ’s messages for comment to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar have received no response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The decision to return journalist José Rubén Zamora to prison is a blatant act of judicial persecution. This case represents a dangerous escalation in the repression of independent journalism,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “We call on authorities to release him immediately, stop using the justice system to silence critical journalism, and to respect press freedom and due process.”

Zamora’s return to jail on money laundering charges that have been widely condemned as politically motivated was ordered by Judge Erick García, who had initially granted Zamora house arrest on Oct. 18, 2024. García said during Monday’s hearing that he and his staff had been threatened and intimidated by unknown individuals, according to a report by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre.

Zamora, 67, was first arrested on July 29, 2022, and spent more than 800 days in pretrial detention before being placed under house arrest. A pioneering investigative journalist, Zamora has faced decades of harassment and persecution for his work, which CPJ has extensively documented. He received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995 for his commitment to independent journalism. His newspaper, elPeriódico, was forced to shut down in 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The decision to return journalist José Rubén Zamora to prison is a blatant act of judicial persecution. This case represents a dangerous escalation in the repression of independent journalism,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “We call on authorities to release him immediately, stop using the justice system to silence critical journalism, and to respect press freedom and due process.”

Zamora’s return to jail on money laundering charges that have been widely condemned as politically motivated was ordered by Judge Erick García, who had initially granted Zamora house arrest on Oct. 18, 2024. García said during Monday’s hearing that he and his staff had been threatened and intimidated by unknown individuals, according to a report by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre.

Zamora, 67, was first arrested on July 29, 2022, and spent more than 800 days in pretrial detention before being placed under house arrest. A pioneering investigative journalist, Zamora has faced decades of harassment and persecution for his work, which CPJ has extensively documented. He received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995 for his commitment to independent journalism. His newspaper, elPeriódico, was forced to shut down in 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Bangladesh’s interim government — established amid high hopes of political and economic reform— has drawn criticism from journalists and media advocates for its January introduction of drafts of two cyber ordinances: the Cyber Protection Ordinance 2025 (CPO) and Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025.

While the government reportedly dropped controversial sections related to defamation and warrantless searches in its update to the CPO, rights groups remain concerned that some of the remaining provisions could be used to target journalists. According to the Global Network Initiative, of which CPJ is a member, the draft gives the government “disproportionate authority” to access user data and impose restrictions on online content. Journalists are also concerned that the proposed data law will give the government “unchecked powers” to access personal data, with minimal opportunity for judicial redress.

“Democracy cannot flourish without robust journalism,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh’s interim government must deliver on its promise to protect journalists and their right to report freely. Authorities should amend proposed laws that could undermine press freedom and hold the perpetrators behind the attacks on the press to account.”

CPJ’s calls and text messages to Nahid Islam, the information, communication, and technology adviser to the interim government, requesting comment on the ordinances did not receive a reply.

Meanwhile, CPJ has documented a recent spate of beatings, criminal investigations, and harassment of journalists for their work.

Attacks

A group of 10 to 12 men attacked Shohag Khan Sujon, a correspondent for daily Samakal newspaper, after he and three other journalists investigated allegations of medical negligence at a hospital in central Shariatpur district on February 3. 

Sujon told CPJ that a clinic owner held the journalist’s legs as the assailants hit his left ear with a hammer and stabbed his back with a knife. The three other correspondents — Nayon Das of Bangla TV, Bidhan Mojumder Oni of News 24 Television, and Saiful Islam Akash of Desh TV — were attacked with hammers when they tried to intervene; the attack ended locals chased the perpetrators away.

Sujon told CPJ he filed a police complaint for attempted murder. Helal Uddin, officer-in-charge of the Palang Model Police Station, told CPJ by text message that the investigation was ongoing.

In a separate incident on the same day, around 10 masked men used bamboo sticks to beat four newspaper correspondents — Md Rafiqul Islam of Khoborer Kagoj, Abdul Malak Nirob of Amar Barta, Md Alauddin of Daily Amar Somoy, and Md Foysal Mahmud of Daily Alokito Sakal — while they traveled to a village in southern Laximpur district to report on a land dispute, Islam told CPJ. 

The attackers stole the journalists’ cameras, mobile phones, and wallets and fired guns towards the group, causing shrapnel injuries to Mahmud’s left ear and leg, Islam said.

Authorities arrested four suspects, two of whom were released on bail on February 10, Islam told CPJ. Laximpur police superintendent Md Akter Hossain told CPJ by phone that authorities were working to apprehend additional suspects.

Threats

Shafiur Rahman, a British freelance documentary filmmaker of Bangladeshi origin, told CPJ he received an influx of threatening emails and social media comments after publishing a January 30 article about a meeting between the leadership of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence and the armed group Rohingya Solidarity Organisation.

Multiple emails warned Rahman to “stop or suffer the consequences” and “back off before it’s too late.” Social media posts included a photo of the journalist with a red target across his forehead and warnings that Rahman would face criminal charges across Bangladesh, leaving Rahman concerned for his safety if he returned to report from Bangladesh’s refugee camps for Rohingya forced to flee Myanmar.

“The nature of these threats suggests an orchestrated campaign to silence me, and I fear potential real-world repercussions if I continue my work on the ground,” Rahman said.

CPJ’s text to Shah Jahan, joint director of the National Security Intelligence, requesting comment about the threats did not receive a reply.

Criminal cases

Four journalists who reported or published material on allegedly illicit business practices and labor violations are facing possible criminal defamation charges after Noor Nahar, director of Tafrid Cotton Mills Limited and wife of the managing director of its sister company, Dhaka Cotton Mills Limited, filed a November 13, 2024, complaint in court against them. If tried and convicted, they could face up to two years in prison.

The four are:
* H. M. Mehidi Hasan, editor and publisher of investigative newspaper The Weekly Agrajatra.

* Kamrul Islam, assignment editor for The Weekly Agrajatra.

* Mohammad Shah Alam Khan, editor of online outlet bdnews999.  

* Al Ehsan, senior reporter for The Daily Post newspaper.

CPJ’s text to Nahar asking for comment did not receive a reply. 

Md Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the Uttara West Police Station, which was ordered to investigate the complaint, told CPJ by phone that he would send the latest case updates but did not respond to subsequent messages.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

The White House barred an AP reporter from covering two official events at the White House following AP’s issuing of widely used style guidelines saying that Trump’s order changing the name to Gulf of America only carried authority in the U.S. and that as a global news agency it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.” 

Although there was nothing inaccurate or illegal in AP’s actions, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt – in explaining the decision to ban AP – said on Wednesday that the executive was tackling “lies.”

“Retaliating against AP – one of the world’s leading providers of fact-based news – for its content undermines the U.S. president’s stated commitment to free speech and prevents its audience in the U.S. and abroad from getting the news,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “These actions follow a pattern of smearing and penalizing the press from the current administration and are unacceptable.”

Other specific areas of concern include: 

Retaliatory lawsuits: Despite his inauguration-day executive order stating his commitment to the First Amendment and freedom of speech, Trump has been involved in at least 29 defamation and media-related lawsuits since announcing his presidential candidacy in 2015, according to Axios. These types of lawsuits often involve lengthy and expensive litigation that can cripple an organization’s budget. CPJ’s research shows that these types of lawsuits from public figures can embolden local authorities to follow suit, and lead to self-censorship by news outlets. 

Punitive action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): CPJ is also concerned about the potential misuse of the Federal Communications Commission’s powers to grant and rescind licenses for local broadcasting. In the past several weeks, the FCC has opened investigations into stations including NPR and PBS. The regulatory body is also investigating the northern California radio station KCBS for informing listeners about where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be conducting raids. These types of punitive actions undermine news organizations’ ability to do their work effectively. 

Suspension of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding: The freezing of USAID money – the legality of which is currently being challenged in the courts – is likely to have significant repercussions for a free press globally. CPJ is concerned about the sudden withdrawal of funding for a wide range of independent news organizations worldwide who cannot operate without external funding because of restrictions they face from non-democratic actors.

Targeted attacks against journalists and news organizations: CPJ is concerned about personal attacks on journalists directed by senior leaders of the current administration, including the president, against individual journalists and warns that this is likely to increase the likelihood of both online and physical attacks against members of the press. It is also worrying to see senior administration figures use derogatory language against Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Free Liberty and others, which provide a critical defense against propaganda disseminated by non-democratic governments worldwide. As the U.S. seeks to pursue Trump’s stated goal of “hope, prosperity, safety, and peace,” the administration would be well served to accept, foster, and protect a pluralistic and free press as guaranteed under the First Amendment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

Tan Estrada, 28, had faced escalating repression by Cuban authorities for months. After he was fired from teaching journalism at the University of Camagüey in 2022 over his criticism of the regime, he became a freelance reporter for Cuban outlets overseas including YucaByte, CubaNet, and Diario de Cuba. Last April, he was briefly detained and fined for his journalism; then, in December, he was summoned to report to a police station.

At the time, his entire family was under scrutiny for his work; he said that police patrolled the streets around his house in Camagüey. Rather than report for the summons, he made the difficult decision to flee, joining other Cuban journalists who have left the country in the wake of the October passage of a repressive Social Communication Law banning anti-government speech and requiring non-state media to seek government approval.

CPJ spoke by phone with Tan Estrada from Guyana, where he is living with the help of friends and relatives while he figures out his options, including seeking a visa to visit the United States. He spoke about the new law, just the latest clampdown in one of the hemisphere’s most restrictive countries for the press, what fuels his passion for the profession, and how he plans to continue covering Cuba from abroad.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What motivated you to become a journalist in a country where state control of the media has existed for so long?

Ever since I was a child, I always wanted to be a journalist. In 12th grade I took a very rigorous “journalism attitude test.” To study journalism in Cuba you have to pass this test. It covers general culture, Spanish, grammar, and writing. I passed and so was able to enter the profession and eventually become a professor. My motivation was always wanting to help people, to give them solutions to their problems, and to tell interesting life stories of people who really needed to be heard. I wanted to be that voice of information, that voice of oxygen for everyone with situations that need to be solved.

Were you able to teach the profession in an objective way, or are you obliged to teach the Cuban government’s understanding of what it means to be a journalist at the service of the state?

The University of Camagüey is an old institution and very indoctrinated by the regime. If you really want to teach your students to be good journalists, you have to depart from those norms. I tried to teach in an objective way, based on facts, on standard international norms of how to do journalism professionally, letting the students be free to choose what was the real news, rather than impose the truth on them. In the official state media, what the Cuban Communist party says is the focus of the news, even when that is not the important part of the news, but because the party orders it to be. That’s not real journalism.

I used to teach my students to put everything on a scale: you can choose the journalism that really reflects the real problems of ordinary Cubans, or you can simply to be another propagandist of the communist regime in Cuba.

In October, Cuba implemented a new Social Communication Law restricting reporting for domestic and foreign media outlets. How has this affected freedom of expression in Cuba?

I am an example of how the regime uses repression through this law of Social Communication.

In all the interrogations with a state security agent named “Cristian” in Camagüey, he threatened me that if I violated the communication law or was planning to violate it, I was going to be imprisoned.

We have cases in Cuba of political prisoners who are currently serving sentences of four to six years of imprisonment for simply posting on their Facebook wall or complaining about the situation of the blackouts and the untenable situation that ordinary Cubans are living in Cuba.

The communication law is nothing more than an attempt to silence, to put an end to the independent press in Cuba, because in the last few years independent Cuban journalism has played a fundamental role in the struggle to overthrow the Cuban communist regime.

Now most people do not go to the official media to consult if news is true or false. They go to independent journalists, like me, and the social media networks we use to communicate. This worries the regime because the independent journalists are doing a real job using fact-based objectivity to show the reality as it is, and we show the world how in Cuba the human rights of the population are constantly violated and how the Cuban regime is, little by little, destroying the population and plunging it into total chaos, hopelessness, hunger, and repression.

The law clearly states that news agencies, radio, television, and print and digital social media are a socialist priority and cannot belong to anyone else, that is to say, they belong to the Communist regime. They made it clear that everything that is outside that law, everything they have no control over, they consider illegal.

We are talking about a society where there is no right to public information on the part of the citizens, where access to information is restricted, where they prohibit and block access to independent [non-government] media. In Cuba, in order to access most of the independent media you need to create a VPN [a virtual private network that shields your IP address and geographical location].

Why did you decide to leave Cuba in the end?

The reason that made me leave Cuba was the brutal repression by state security against me for doing independent journalism.

In the last few weeks, the repression increased so much that it was not only against me, but also against my mother and my little brother, my closest, most beloved family who I lived with in Cuba. My life and my freedom were in danger. Police patrols were watching my house permanently, my phone internet was cut, and they tried to turn the neighbors against me. They didn’t succeed because the neighbors knew the kind of person I am.

A few weeks before all this, a student at the University of Camagüey, a person I trust very much, overheard a conversation between state security people at the university where an agent told another professor that they were going to make sure that when the year ended, I was going to be in prison. So, I knew they were going to get me, two plus two equals four.

My mother got worried that my freedom was in danger. Even at Havana Airport the Cuban state security were waiting for me. They put me in a room and strip-searched me. The immigration authorities blackmailed me, threatened me, and told me that if I returned to Cuba there would be major consequences [for my family].

I ended up in Guyana because Cuban state security made sure that the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega denied me entry. I wanted to go to Nicaragua and from there to the United States. Instead, I had to come to Guyana where I am stranded right now.

Now that you are in exile, how do you plan to proceed? Are you hoping to come to the United States? If so, do you plan to continue working as a journalist or is it too early to look that far into the future?

I have always said that the state security, the Cuban communist regime, will not silence me. I am going to continue doing independent journalism. I will continue to advocate for the freedom of the more than 1,000 political prisoners in Cuba. [In January, Cuba began releasing 553 prisoners under an agreement with the Vatican.] I will continue to be the pen of those people who need their life stories to be told, to denounce the regime, through my journalism, through my activism on social networks for the freedom of Cuba. My voice, my pen, will always be on the side of the ordinary Cuban who is struggling to free himself once and for all from that regime that for more than 60 years has brought so much terror and suffering.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean program staff.

“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”

Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.

Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.

At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:

• Pro-opposition New Generation Movement NRT TV camera operator Ali Abdulhadi and reporter Shiraz Abdullah were stopped from filming by about seven armed security officers, known in Kurdish as Asayish, according to a video posted by the outlet.

“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.

• Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali collapsed from teargas, a video posted by the privately owned digital outlet showed.

“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.

• An ambulance took pro-PUK digital outlet Zhyan Media’s reporter Mardin Mohammed and camera operator Mohammed Mariwan to a hospital in Koya after they were teargassed.

“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Kurdsat News reporters Gaylan Sabir and Amir Mohammed and camera operators Sirwan Sadiq and Hemn Mohammed were teargassed and their equipment was confiscated, the outlet said.

• Privately owned Westga News said five staff — reporters Omer Ahmed, Shahin Fuad, and Amir Hassan, and camera operators Zanyar Mariwan and Ahmed Shakhawan — were attacked and teargassed. Ahmed told CPJ that a security officer grabbed a camera while they were broadcasting, while Fuad said another camera, microphone, and a livestreaming encoder were also taken and not returned.

• Pro-PUK Slemani News Network reporter Kochar Hamza was carried to safety by protesters after she collapsed due to tear gas, a video by the digital outlet showed. She told CPJ that she and her camera operator Sivar Baban were treated at hospitals twice.

“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.

• A team from Payam TV, a pro-opposition Kurdistan Justice Group satellite channel, required treatment for teargas exposure.

“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.

• Madah Jamal, a reporter with the pro-opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union Speda TV satellite channel, told CPJ that he was also teargassed.

• Pro-PUK digital outlet Xendan’s reporter Shahen Wahab told CPJ that she and camera operator Garmian Omar suffered asthma attacks due to the teargas.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Gali Kurdistan’s reporter Karwan Nazim told CPJ that he had to stop reporting because he couldn’t breathe and asked his office to send additional staff.

“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

Raided and arrested

Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.

“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.

KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”

In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.

“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.

“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.

CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Croatian authorities must spare no effort in bringing all perpetrators to justice and ensuring the safety of Novosti’s staff,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Such intimidating attacks create a climate of fear for journalists and can have a chilling effect on press freedom. Authorities must take measures to prevent such threats in the future.”

On February 5, Novosti’s editorial office in the capital, Zagreb, received a letter addressed to the editor-in-chief and referencing the weekly’s recent 25th anniversary. The letter, which contained an unknown powder, referenced “Novichok,” a deadly nerve agent, and accused the newspaper of “Chetnikism” — a reference to the Chetniks, members of a Serbian nationalist guerrilla force.

In May 2024, CPJ reported that Novosti had received dozens of insulting, hateful, intimidating, and threatening messages after parliamentary elections that brought Croatia’s nationalist right-wing party, Domovinski pokret (DP- Homeland Movement), into a coalition government.

Lujo Parežanin, a culture editor for Novosti, told CPJ that on the same day as the letter, a reporter received an email containing insults and derogatory, intimidating comments directed at her and the newspaper.

Police have started an investigation into both threats, Parežanin said, adding that police had charged one person in connection to last May’s attack but that the court proceeding had yet to start in that case.

CPJ emailed the press office of the Zagreb Police Department for comment but did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

DRC ministers have accused journalists of supporting terrorism for reporting on rebel advances, suspended the Qatari-based Al Jazeera, withdrawn accreditation for the broadcaster’s reporters, and threatened to suspend other media outlets.

At the same time, journalists in Goma have told CPJ they are concerned for their safety; at least three reporters have received threatening messages. Rights groups have warned that civilians are at heightened risk of violence and called for their protection.

“The escalation of the long-running conflict in eastern DRC has worsened already harsh conditions for journalists trying to cover the conflict. All parties must prioritize the safety of journalists,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “Sadly, we are seeing death threats against journalists and Congolese authorities pursuing a strategy of censorship similar to that used by other governments to stifle public interest reporting of wars and security concerns.”

‘We will finish you’

Jonas Kasula, a reporter for the private online news site Labeur Info, and Jonathan Mupenda, a correspondent for the private channel Molière TV, told CPJ they had been living in fear since January 9, forced into hiding after they began receiving text messages threatening to kill them. The messages from unknown local numbers, reviewed by CPJ, warned the Goma-based journalists that they were under surveillance.

The messages specifically referenced their presence in Bweremana, a village about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Goma, where they had gone to cover the fighting. In early January, Kasula had published a report about the government-aligned Wazalendo militia’s resistance to advancing M23 and Rwandan forces. The M23 took control of Bweremana on January 21.

“On the 31st [of December], you were in Bweremana with your colleague Jonathan, we had all the possibilities to end your lives. But know that we control all your movements and once we arrive in Goma, know that your fate will be sealed,” one message said.

Separately, Goma-based freelance reporter Daniel Michombero posted a photo of his family on the social media platform X on January 26 and received several threatening replies accusing him of distributing “fake news” and suggesting that he may want to flee to Rwanda with other Congolese refugees or seek protection from the M23 to escape retribution. A reply to a separate post on Thursday, January 30, suggested he be arrested and traded for detained opponents of the government.

In 2021, Michombero and his wife were attacked in their home by men in military uniforms after he reported on local criticism of authorities’ response to a volcanic eruption near Goma.

‘Terrorists have no right to speak’

The DRC government has also threatened the press for reporting on the escalating conflict. 

In a January 7 post on X, Christian Bosembe, president of the regulatory Higher Council for Audiovisual and Communication (CSAC), threatened to suspend French news outlets Radio France Internationale (RFI), France 24, and TV5Monde’s Africa program for reporting the “alleged advances of terrorists.”

“We respect freedom of expression and information, but we firmly condemn any apology for terrorism. Terrorists have no right to speak in our country,” he said.

Similarly, when government forces recaptured territory a few days later, justice minister Constant Mutamba congratulated them on X, while warning that anyone, including journalists, who “relays the activities” of the M23 and Rwandan forces “will now suffer the full force of the law (DEATH PENALTY.)” The DRC lifted a 21-year moratorium on executions in 2024.

On January 9, following the airing of an Al Jazeera interview with M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa, DRC communications minister Patrick Muyaya told a news conference that media accreditation for Al Jazeera journalists had been withdrawn because of their interview with the “head of a terrorist movement,” which he likened to an “apology for terrorism” that was “totally unacceptable.”

“We are in a context of crisis and everyone must understand because we can even consider more radical measures,” he warned the assembled journalists.

On January 13, the regulator suspended Al Jazeera for 90 days for the interview, which it said “destabilized institutions of the republic.”

Controlling the narrative

Congolese authorities’ tactics echo those used by governments across the world, from Russia to the Sahel, seeking to control information about conflict in their territory. During the Israel-Gaza war, Al Jazeera was banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank by authorities, citing incitement and security concerns.

In 2022, Mali’s military government suspended RFI and France 24 because on the grounds that they published “false allegations” of abuses by Mali’s army, while authorities in Burkina Faso have suspended several outlets over their coverage of the country’s military and security situation.

In December, Niger’s military government suspended the British public broadcaster BBC for undermining troop morale and announced its intention to file a complaint against RFI following the outlets’ reporting on jihadist attacks.

CPJ’s text message requesting comment from M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, calls to Muyaya, and message to Al Jazeera via its website did not receive any responses.  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Africa Program Staff.

“The police seizure of Malaysiakini executive editor RK Anand’s laptop is a clear and gross violation of press freedom,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “The computer should be returned to him unconditionally and this type of coercion must stop immediately.”

Police confiscated the computer and took a statement from Anand after Malaysiakini reported remarks that former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin made about two ministers on his podcast, according to news reports. Jamaluddin is under investigation for defamation for those comments.

The regulatory Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) also demanded access to Malaysiakini’s content management system (CMS), used to publish content on the outlet’s website, those sources said.

CPJ was unable to confirm whether Malaysiakini complied with the media regulator’s request.  

Neither Malaysiakini nor the MCMC immediately replied to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

During the first week of January 2025, Pakistani security forces detained two Afghan journalists and their families before deporting them to Afghanistan, according to a letter the independent watchdog group, the Pak-Afghan International Forum of Journalists, sent to CPJ on January 16. The letter did not disclose the names of the deported journalists, who are members of the forum.

Separately, Afghan journalists Mujeeb Awrang and Ahmad Mosaviconfirmed to CPJ that on January 3 Pakistani authorities detained them at their homes in the capital, Islamabad, and held them in a vehicle for three hours, despite having presented valid Pakistani visas and Afghan passports. The journalists said they were threatened with imprisonment and deportation before being released without explanation.

“Pakistan’s security agencies must immediately halt the harassment and deportation of Afghan journalists,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “These journalists fled Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s threats to their lives. The Pakistani government must protect them, not mistreat them.”

The Pakistani government has instructed Afghan nationals, including journalists, to relocate from Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi to other cities by January 15, according to a report by the London-based independent media outlet Afghanistan International and a Pakistani journalist, who spoke to CPJ anonymously for fear of reprisal.

Afghan journalists continue to face imprisonment and persecution by the Taliban, with Afghan News Agency reporter Mahdi Ansary, sentenced on January 1 to 18 months in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda.

CPJ did not receive a response to its text asking for comment from Pakistan’s federal information minister, Attaullah Tarar. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Investigative journalism is crucial for uncovering corruption and holding power to account,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Efforts to discredit public interest reporting and target journalists through smear campaigns create a chilling effect on press freedom. CPJ urges the Indian ruling party BJP to respect journalists’ role in democracy and refrain from weaponizing their authority to intimidate the press.” 

Mangnale, the South Asia regional editor at the investigative news outlet Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), is known for his reporting on alleged corporate malfeasance, financial irregularities, and corruption involving the Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates.  

The official BJP account on social media X amplified Dubey’s claims, alleging that Mangnale fundraised for the opposition party and gave “Chinese money” to a person accused of involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots.

The BJP cited a report by French news outlet Mediapart in its claim; Mediapart refuted the allegations, saying the BJP “wrongly exploited” its report to discredit independent journalism.

These developments come after the U.S. Justice Department indicted Gautam Adani, chairperson of the Adani Group, and his associates in November 2024 for allegedly bribing Indian officials to secure contracts and misleading U.S. investors about the company’s anti-corruption practices.

Mangnale told CPJ that he anticipates these recent developments could trigger new legal cases or intensify existing ones against him.

In May 2024, Indian authorities summoned Mangnale for questioning about alleged involvement in terrorism in connection to his work with Newsclick. Formal charges have not yet been filed. He was also among several high-profile journalists in India to be targeted with Pegasus spyware. 

CPJ’s emailed requests seeking comments from Dubey and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

More than three years later, the two journalists run the agency from exile in the United States. To get out the news, they rely on the reporting of 15 female journalists hired in 10 provinces to replace the staff who fled. As the Taliban has become increasingly hostile to women journalists and the exile press, the newsroom takes extreme security precautions. Zoom meetings take place with a strict “cameras off” policy so that the women won’t be compromised if they recognize each other on the street.

In June, CPJ interviewed Karimi and Siddiqi in Columbia, Missouri, where they were attending a safety training for journalists in exile at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. During the interview, both men checked their phones often, explaining the importance of remaining available at all times for their reporters.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you describe the atmosphere for the press immediately after the Taliban takeover?

Karimi: When the Taliban took over, our hope collapsed overnight. We were working journalists for eight years before the takeover and we used our journalism against extremist Taliban ideology. Our work aimed to promote democratic values and human rights in our country by creating a newsroom and outlet for female journalists. Eight years of such work was evidence enough for the Taliban to attack us. 

Siddiqi: Social norms in Afghanistan regarding women’s rights are very sensitive and this was the main reason we had to flee. When you are talking about women’s rights in Afghanistan, you are not only facing danger from the Taliban, but also from others in the country who adhere to such radical beliefs.

I remember when we were working in Herat, our office was in a very safe location, but even our neighbors would question why so many women were entering the building. They assumed there was some ethical wrongdoing. Since our work highlighted women’s issues, we were in danger from the Taliban and the pervasive misogyny in the society at large.

The Afghanistan Women’s News Agency is one of just a handful of women-focused outlets covering Afghanistan, like Rukshana Media and Zan Times. What led you to found it in 2016?

Karimi: Siddiqi and I both taught at Herat University. As a professor of journalism, I witnessed my female students struggle and face a lack of resources and opportunities every day. The disparity between them and my male students was blatantly obvious. Lack of access to media equipment, gender inequality in the newsroom, harassment and discrimination was a daily reality for these women.

In light of this, I decided to create a safe environment for my female students to publish their stories, [to] access media equipment and the internet eight years before the Taliban takeover. Although the Taliban was not yet in power, the extremist ideology had already begun to spread rapidly.

Families were understandably concerned when their daughters went to school or the newsroom, but when we established this newsroom solely for women, almost all female journalists across Herat came to work there. As a professor, I had the trust of these women’s families. That’s why I, as a man, was able to set up this space and reassure the families that it was safe.

Part of your staff is in exile, but you still have many female journalists based in Afghanistan. What’s their experience like?

Karimi: All of our female reporters on the ground have to remain anonymous for their safety as per our contract. Their names are never published with their stories. There are currently 15 female journalists working with us, spread across 10 provinces. Some of them are our former interns whom we hired permanently and some of them are currently interns who receive training through Zoom, so that they can be the next generation of female reporters. All of them are actively reporting, even interns, as they learn and are simultaneously paid for their work.

Siddiqi: It’s important to add that our reporters know each other by name only. Our reporters have never met or seen each other’s faces since we require them to turn their cameras off during virtual meetings. We are extremely strict about our security protocols in order to ensure that if one of our reporters faces Taliban retaliation, their colleagues will remain safe. Our reporters know that even a minor mistake can put our whole newsroom in danger.

It is obvious that these women are well aware of the danger that comes with being journalists. Why are they still in the country and choosing to report despite these risks?

Siddiqi: From my understanding and through my conversations with them, there are two main reasons. One, these women are wholly committed to their work. When I am talking with them, I learn that they work more than eight hours a day because they love their job. They all know the impact that they are making in the current environment. Two, financial security is also a huge part of their choice to report. It is rare for women to work and receive salaries in the country under the Taliban. AWNA pays its journalists and this provides them with some level of control and financial independence.

Karimi: These female journalists know that the stakes are very high. Many times I have told them that their security is our priority. We don’t want any report or story that puts their safety at risk, but they still don’t prioritize themselves. They prioritize their reporting. Nobody can stop them from making their voices heard even in the most repressive atmosphere.

What is it like for you when your reporters are so far away while you are in exile?

Karimi: To be honest, I am not comfortable. Sometimes I think something bad has happened to a colleague. Trying to minimize their risk is one of our strategies and biggest challenges. I am very concerned every single day.

Have any of the female journalists working for AWNA had dangerous encounters with the Taliban?

Siddiqi: Just a few days ago, one of our female reporters called me from Kabul while she was attempting to report on a business exhibition. Upon entering the venue, she was detained by the Taliban. In the commotion of a large crowd, she somehow managed to hide herself and escaped without facing arrest.

I called her after that and I reiterated that this cannot be the norm. I told her that we cannot lose her and that without her, there would be no reporting. My colleague replied that she tries her best and knows all the newsroom security protocols. But even for non-political events, this is the risk and the reality for female journalists in the country.

How has reporting from exile shaped your view of the future of the media in Afghanistan? 

Karimi: In my opinion, the lack of free and independent media in the country has created a need for reliable media in exile to combat Taliban propaganda and control. There is a lack of female-run media. We have bypassed the Taliban firewall by providing information from exile to empower people within the country, especially women.

Siddiqi: There are so many Afghan women who are students, photographers, activists, and writers, as well as journalists who can no longer publicize their work on their own channels due to safety concerns. Many of them have found a place in AWNA in order to share their work and add value to the media atmosphere. These are all citizens and female journalists. There are thousands of women who have something to share, journalists by training or not, who are acting as citizen journalists. They have something to show and we are dedicated to uplifting it.

Do you both hope to return to your country if things change?

Siddiqi: I chose to leave my parents, siblings, everything in order to escape the regime.

Life is not easy for me here. I left my memories and emotions in Afghanistan. Everyday these memories disturb me. I was educated and began my career in Afghanistan and I believe I owe my country.

Karimi: Of course I hope to go back to my country. Right now, I feel that I have three lives as an exiled journalist: The first is the life I left behind in Afghanistan, which includes most of my family. Half of my mind and heart remains there. My second life is this one in exile where I am forced to rebuild my personal and professional life from scratch. My third life revolves around how to keep my colleagues safe and to honor their mission as female journalists. I am constantly navigating these three lives and it is a devastating reality.

What is your hope for Afghan women journalists in the future?

Siddiqi: There is no hope bigger than Afghan women having their basic human rights and access to education. If there is no education for women, there is no understanding of their reality and rights. If there is no understanding in a society, there is no justice. If there is no justice, we are no longer in a human society, but in a jungle. The Taliban has shut off all the doors that were once available for Afghan women and together, we are trying to pry them open.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Ananya Bhasin.

On November 28, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, ordered Jan, an anchor with NEO TV Network, to remain in detention for two days after his arrest at a security checkpoint following an alleged altercation with police, according to news reports and Jan’s lawyer, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, who spoke to CPJ. Mazari-Hazir disputed the police account of the arrest, and Jan’s son, Abdul Razzaq, said in a social media post that his father and another journalist had been abducted by men in an unmarked vehicle from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences the previous night.

The Islamabad police’s First Information Report (FIR) opening an investigation into Jan accuses the journalist of terrorism under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 and the Pakistan Penal Code and with possessing narcotics the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (CNSA) 1997. The FIR, reviewed by CPJ, alleges that Jan was found in possession of 246 grams of methamphetamine when his vehicle was stopped.

Before his arrest, Jan had been reporting on this week’s protests by supporters of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan. News anchor Munizae Jahangir posted on social media platform X that Jan had been reporting from hospitals on those injured or killed by gunfire, and it “seems that’s why he has been arrested for his journalistic work.”

Jan has previously faced legal action in what he says was retaliation for critical commentary on Pakistani authorities and his press freedom activism. On July 21, 2020, he was abducted by a dozen men in Islamabad in a still-unresolved incident.

CPJ contacted via messaging app Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, on Jan’s detention but did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

News reports and statements by human rights groups show that journalists covering the post-election crackdown have not been spared from the violence, which has left at least 45 dead. 

Authorities have assaulted or arrested at least nine journalists and expelled at least two foreign correspondents. The government has imposed several Internet disruptions, further hindering news gathering and reporting.

Journalism has become “too risky and often impossible,” Gervásio Nhampulo, a journalist in northern Niassa province, told CPJ. “We have families to consider if something happens to us.”

Since the elections, CPJ documented the following press freedom violations:

Journalists detained

• Police arrested Bongani Siziba and Sbonelo Mkhasibe, South African journalists with the Nigerian media outlet News Central, and Charles Mangwiro, a local reporter with the state-owned Radio Moçambique, on November 14 in the capital, Maputo. The journalists said officers took them to a police station before armed, masked men transferred them to a second location that Siziba told CPJ “looked like barracks.” Siziba and Mkhasibe told CPJ they were held blindfolded, questioned several times, and accused of being spies who wanted to portray Mozambique in a grim light. They were released the following day.

Siziba told CPJ she heard shots fired in an adjoining room and the cries of people who appeared to have been beaten. “We couldn’t sleep. We didn’t know if we were next,” she said. 

Mkhasibe told CPJ the men refused to give him his blood pressure and diabetes medication while detained. 

Journalists shot at, attacked

• Aboutfive plainclothes security agents chased and shot at Cesar Rafael and Valdimiro Amisse, reporters of Catholic Church-owned Radio TV Encontro, after the journalists refused to delete footage of a demonstration in northern Nampula province on November 13. Amisse told CPJ they initially escaped but later ran into the same officers who beat them with sticks, threw rocks at them, and tried to take their camera until members of the public intervened.
• Police fired a rubber bullet at Paulo Julião, head of the Mozambican office of the Portuguese news agency Lusa, hitting him on the back on November 4 in Maputo. 
• Police officers assaulted and briefly detained Nuno Alberto, a reporter with the community Radio Monte Gilé, while he was covering protests on October 25 in Gilé, a town in the central Zambézia province. Alberto told CPJ that an officer grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground, and others kicked him, slapped him, and beat him with batons. The officers took him to a police station, where they beat him again and forced the journalist to wear a mask and hold a protest placard as officers took pictures of him. He was released after two hours without charge.
• Police fired tear gas at several journalists covering opposition protests in Maputo on October 21. TV Gloria camera operator Bruno Marrengula told CPJ that he was hospitalized for two days with a broken tibia after a police officer hit him with a tear gas canister. 
• Police fired tear gas at a group of journalists covering a press conference by opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane in a separate incident later on October 21. Gaspar Chirinda, a reporter with the private news network STV, said a tear gas canister was fired near his legs, hitting and injuring him. 

Expelled from the country

• Immigration officers confiscated the passports of Alfredo Leite and Marc Silva, Portuguese reporters with TV networks CMTV and NOW TV, on November 1 on allegations of working in Mozambique on tourist visas. Leite told CPJ they were expelled from Mozambique on November 3.

Equipment confiscated

• Intelligence agents confiscated the phones of Nhampulo and Jaime Joaquim, local journalists with the privately owned TV Amaramba, and Nunes Rafael, a reporter with Radio Esperança, a station owned by the religious group Church Assembly God Alfa and Omega, while they were reporting on protests in Niassa on October 26. The journalists told CPJ their devices were returned after two hours. 

In an October 22 press conference, spokesperson of the Mozambican Council of Ministers Filimão Swaze said police did not target journalists, and they were attacked while covering protests on October 21 because they were “in a place where there were also protestors.”

CPJ did not receive responses to calls and messages to Maputo police spokesperson Leonel Muchina, Mozambique police general commandant Bernardino Rafael, and Swaze.

In recent years, Mozambican authorities have harassed, beaten, and charged several journalists. Authorities have yet to credibly account for the 2020 disappearance of radio journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On October 26, protesters blocking a highway nearthe central Bolivian town of Melga threatened to hang Guzmán and briefly confiscated his crew’s TV camera. One of the protesters then tied a noose around Guzmán’s neck and tightened it, according to the Bolivian National Press Association (ANP) and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

 “The right to protest cannot be turned into aggression against other civilians, including journalists,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “CPJ hopes that the Bolivian authorities will identify and bring to justice those responsible for the attack on Jurgen Guzmán.”

Guzmán told CPJ that the attackers held the rope around his neck for at least 10 seconds, adding, “I put my hand under the twine to avoid being asphyxiated.”

Guzmán said the protesters then released him, returned the camera, and allowed his three-person crew to leave the area. 

The incident was one of several violent attacks against journalists covering anti-government protests and highway blockages, which began last month after authorities issued an arrest warrant for former President Evo Morales on charges of human trafficking and statutory rape. Many Morales supporters view mainstream journalists as allies of President Luis Arce, a fierce critic of Morales, Guzmán told CPJ.

On October 25, Red UNO TV reporter Romer Castedo and camera operator Ricardo Pedraza were assaulted and had equipment stolen. On October 29, Unitel journalist Josué Chubé was attacked by Morales supporters and detained for almost five hours. On November 1, a dynamite explosion during a protest knocked over Spanish news agency EFE photographer Jorge Ábrego, who also suffered a heart attack. He was treated at a hospital and released on November 5.

CPJ called and left messages with the Bolivia Attorney General’s office to inquire about investigations into recent attacks on journalists, but there was no answer.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Harassment and threats against journalists covering Bulgaria’s elections are deeply concerning,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Bulgarian authorities must send a clear message that violence against and intimidation of the press will not be tolerated, especially during elections when the public’s access to information is paramount.”

Two men repeatedly hit Petar Kartulev, a camera operator for the private station bTV, while he was documenting voting in the southern city of Haskovo, causing minor injuries. Police detained two suspects at the scene.

A local official threatened journalist Diyana Zhelyazkova of the online outlets Za istinata (For the Truth) and Radian.bg as she was investigating allegations that the official was violating election law by preventing secret  voting in the northern village of Vulnari. The official twice warned her to “be very careful,” the outlets reported, adding that Zhelyazkova filed a complaint to the police.

Three men prevented reporter Damiana Veleva of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from entering a polling station or taking photos in the southern village of Dolno Osenovo. One official told her that he did not want her “writing nonsense” and another man threatened to take her phone, which she was using to make an audio recording.  

A man insulted and threatened reporter Zdravka Maslyankova of the public broadcaster Bulgarian National Radio as she was investigating alleged vote-buying at a polling station in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo. Police asked the man to leave the area.

Bulgaria’s seventh parliamentary election in four years was won by the center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which will now seek to form a coalition government.

CPJ’s emails requesting comment from the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On October 20, at least 10 armed security guards working for Edelmetallum Resources Limited, a mining company operating in Ghana, detained and beat journalist Erastus Asare Donkor, camera technician Edward Suantah, drone pilot Majid Alidu, and driver Arko Edward as they reported on alleged environmental degradation associated with one of the company’s mines, according to Donkor and Edward, who spoke with CPJ.

“Authorities in Ghana must swiftly investigate and hold accountable the security guards of Edelmetallum Resources Limited responsible for attacking journalists and media workers Erastus Asare Donkor, Edward Suantah, Majid Alidu, and Arko Edward,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, in Johannesburg. “Reporting on environmental degradation is a matter of public interest, and too often no one is held accountable when the press in Ghana is attacked.”

The guards seized at least five phones, five drone batteries, a Lenovo tablet, a branded press jacket, and a headset, Donkor and Edward told CPJ. After forcing the crew to drive away with them, the guards deleted all information on at least two phones and made them delete their images. They also beat the media workers with their hands for at least 30 minutes. The guards later returned only the phones.

After the attack, Donkor had difficulty using his right eye, Edward had a swollen face, and Suantah and Alidu had ringing in their ears, according to Donkor and Edward.

The crew reported the attack to police and led them to the site, but the guards refused to go to the police station, Donkor said. Police later announced that three of the attackers had surrendered and were granted bail, he said.

CPJ’s calls to police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi for comment on the investigation went unanswered.

Edelmetallum’s managing director, Philip Edem Kutsienyo, said by phone that he did not want to speak with CPJ.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“With a new president, Sri Lanka has an opportunity to improve press freedom,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Police should drop their complaints against journalists Selvakumar Nilanthan and Tharindu Jayawardhana and allow them to work freely.”

On October 20, police in eastern Batticaloa district arrested Nilanthan after he did not attend a court hearing related to a 2019 investigation on multiple allegations, including obstruction of a public officer and defamation over his reporting on alleged government corruption.

Nilanthan told CPJ that neither he nor his lawyer received notice of the September hearing before he was detained in an overcrowded cell in Eravur town with an open defecation area. 

Nilathan was detained together with journalist Kuharasu Subajan, his surety in the case responsible for guaranteeing that the defendant appears for court hearings.

The two were released the next day, when Nilanthan was granted bail after a court denied the police’s request for a 14-day remand. His next hearing is on January 20. 

Separately, on October 9, Induka Silva — head of the police Criminal Investigation Department’s homicide unit — sought an order from the capital’s Colombo Fort Magistrate Court against Jayawardhana, editor-in-chief of the news website MediaLK, over a video in which he commented on allegations of misconduct against Silva and the appointment of Ravi Seneviratne to the Ministry of Public Security.

At the time the video was published, Silva was investigating Seneviratne over the government’s failure to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. Seneviratne was the senior deputy inspector-general of the CID at the time.

On October 12, Silva was transferred to the police headquarters, according to Jayawardhana and a copy of the order reviewed by CPJ.

Silva’s report, reviewed by CPJ, accused Jayawardhana — who has reported extensively on the attacks — of publishing false informationand obstructing the investigation into Seneviratne. The next hearing is scheduled for January 15, Jayawardhana told CPJ, adding that he feared he would be arrested.

Seneviratne told CPJ that Silva’s report against Jayawardhana violated the journalist’s freedom of expression. 

CID Director Mangala Dehideniya and Eravur police officer-in-charge N. Harsha de Silva told CPJ that they were unable to immediately comment and did not respond to CPJ’s subsequent text messages.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The seizure of Sudanese journalist Ashraf Omer Ibrahim’s home by the RSF in Nyala is completely unacceptable, especially during a time of war when the safety of all civilians is already at heightened risk,” said CPJ Interim MENA Program Coordinator Yeganeh Rezaian. “The RSF must immediately return Ibrahim’s home and cease targeting journalists for their political beliefs.”

In an October 17 statement on Facebook, the Sudanese Journalists’ Union called the seizure of Ibrahim’s home a crime against journalists and “free voices,” accusing the RSF of targeting homes of those they perceive as opponents, and demanded the return of Ibrahim’s home.

Ibrahim learned about the seizure of his home while living in eastern Port Sudan, where he relocated for safety after Nyala fell under the control of the RSF last year, according to a local journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ via messaging app on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

The RSF has been engaged in a civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, killing thousands, displacing millions, and resulting in grave threats to the media.

CPJ’s email to the RSF about the seizure of Ibrahim’s home received no reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Bouachrine, Raissouni, and Radi became global icons of the fight for press freedom in Morocco after they were arrested in separate cases between 2018 and 2020 and sentenced to 15, five, and six years respectively on sexual assault and other charges. Media freedom advocates and local journalists told CPJ that the “morals” charges were intended to dampen public support for the three journalists, known for their critical reporting on the government.

Though the journalists are free, they still face the burden of these convictions, a state of affairs exacerbated by authorities’ lack of communication about the terms of their pardon. Bouachrine, Radi, and Raissouni don’t know if their sentences were commuted, or if they were fully exonerated, a meaningful distinction in terms of their ability to go back to work.  

“In Morocco, in order for journalists to receive a press accreditation to legally work, they need not to have a criminal record. So, at the moment I cannot work in journalism until I figure out my unclear legal status,” Radi told CPJ.

If Bouachrine has a criminal record, it may impede him from trying to reopen Akhbar al-Youm newspaper, where he served as editor-in-chief until he was arrested in 2018, when Raissouni took over until he too was arrested in 2020. Akhbar al-Youm’s parent company, Media 21, was barred from accessing government funding, and the newspaper, one of the only independent outlets in the country, closed in 2021.

CPJ’s emailed Morocco’s Ministry of Justice about the terms of the journalists’ pardons and the Ministry of Interior for comment on the harassment facing the journalists, did not receive any responses.

Harassment in pro-government media

Compounding the journalists’ insecurity is intense harassment, much of it directed by pro-government media, in which the royal family and powerful businesspeople hold stakes. Media companies including Barlamane.com, Chouf TV, and Maroc Medias, published articles about the accusations against Bouachrine, Radi, and Raissouni while ignoring evidence proving their innocence, which the journalists said played a central role in their convictions. Now that the three are out, the smears have started again.

Weeks after the journalists’ release, pro-government news website Al-Jarida 24 called them “fake heroes” and slammed a human rights group that hosted them for press conference as “glorifying individuals with a dark past of sexual assault and human trafficking.”

Aida Alami, a Moroccan journalist and a visiting professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, said the negative coverage fits a pattern. “Such attacks are common in Morocco and are meant to never lift the pressure off released journalists, even after they are freed,” she said.

She pointed to the case of journalist Hajar Raissouni, Raissouni’s niece, who was smeared in pro-government news site Barlamane.com after she received a royal pardon for a 2019 conviction of having sex outside of marriage and seeking an illegal abortion. 

More recently, Barlamane.com went after her uncle Raissouni for giving an interview to Spanish outlet El Independiente in September describing the royal pardon as “a correction to the crimes committed by the intelligence services against us and our families with a lack of ethics never seen before in Morocco.” An unsigned article in Barlamane.com slammed Raissouni for his decision to speak to El Independiente, claiming without evidence that the Spanish outlet receives funding from Algerian intelligence. (Morocco and Algeria severed ties in 2021.) Raissouni, said Barlamane.com, has “renewed his loyalty to enemies of the state.”

In a phone call with CPJ, Raissouni defended the interview. “The only reason I spoke to El Independiente in the first place is because [authorities] will never allowme to speak in the local media outlets about how I am, and always have been, innocent and how I am being targeted in this country regardless of being pardoned.”

He called the negative coverage “beyond a defamation campaign,” saying that Barlamane.com wants him back in prison. In a recent article it called his mouth a “criminal environment” requiring “legal examination.” Before his last legal ordeal, the outlet was part of a drumbeat of coverage leading up to his arrest by urging an investigation against him.

Threatening phone calls

Radi, meanwhile, has been spared the smear campaigns that targeted Bouachrine and Raissouni, but he faces another form of insidious harassment, he told CPJ.

“In the first three days of our release, some individuals were following me every time I walk in the streets. But after we [Radi, Raissouni, and Bouachrine] held two press conferences about our release, I stopped being followed but started getting phone calls threatening to arrest me again if I don’t shut up,” he said.

This wasn’t the first time Radi was surveilled; Amnesty International said that in 2019 and 2020 Radi’s phone was infected with Pegasus, an Israeli-made spyware. In 2022, the Pegasus Project, a collaborative investigation, found that Raissouni and Bouachrine were also selected for surveillance.

Raissouni believes that the Moroccan government has effectively erased independent journalism in the kingdom, using what he calls “sewage journalism” — the pro-government media — to intimidate independent outlets and journalists. Even the few independent outlets that remain have resorted to self-censorship, he said.  

“Today, it is impossible to go back to work in journalism in Morocco. There are no remaining outlets today that would allow their journalists to write anything that is not aligned with the state narrative. ‘Sewage journalism’ has become one of the most famous forms of journalism in the kingdom, when it is supposed to be true independent journalism,” said Raissouni.

Even if Radi is able to go back to work, he’s not sure what kind of opportunities await him. “There is no free media anymore. There is simply nowhere to write your opinion anymore.”  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Staff.

“We are alarmed by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s derogatory remarks against journalists in Slovakia,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative in Berlin. “Such hostile rhetoric from the highest levels of government endangers journalists and erodes public trust in the media. Government officials should support the work of journalists instead of smearing them.”

Fico’s latest verbal attack on the press, made at an October 8 news conference when he was questioned about the stability of his governing coalition, illustrates a concerning trend of growing hostility towards the media.

CPJ was on a mission in Slovakia in May when a gunman tried to assassinate Fico. Journalists said they were facing an “orchestrated pattern” of abuse, with politicians verbally attacking reporters in public and online, and their supporters then amplifying their messages on social media. Several feared that such insults could easily escalate into physical violence again, as happened with the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

Since Fico returned to power in October 2023, he has intensified his anti-media rhetoric and members of the ruling coalition blamed journalists for the May shooting, linking it to their critical coverage.

CPJ’s emailed request for comment to Fico’s press department did not receive an immediate reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ condemns the intimidation of journalists Yuriy Leskiv, Elmira Shagabuddinova, and Olena Hnitetska, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to ensure timely investigations,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must hold the perpetrators to account and ensure that journalists can work safely. No journalist should be subjected to violence for reporting matters of public interest.”

On September 26, in the western city of Sambir, two unidentified men in the street cursed Leskiv, a freelance journalist, attempted to physically attack him, and said that he should stop writing about the activities of the mayor and other local officials, according to a Facebook post by the journalist and a post by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a local advocacy and trade group. The police have identified the two individuals, according to another Facebook post by Leskiv, who regularly reports on alleged corruption and wrongdoings involving local officials.

Separately, on September 29, in the southeast city of Zaporizhzhia, an unspecified number of individuals obstructed Shagabuddinova, a journalist with the local news website 061.ua, while she was reporting on the aftermath of a Russian strike on a residential area, according to the Ukrainian press freedom group Institute of Mass Information (IMI). A woman tried to snatch Shagabuddinova’s phone from her hands and demanded she delete the pictures she had taken. Shagabuddinova filed a complaint with the police.

On September 30, in the southeastern city of Kherson, an unidentified man assaulted Hnitetska, a journalist with the online news outlet MOST, while she was reporting on the construction of underground schools in the city, according to IMI and a Facebook post by the Kherson police, who are investigating the assault. The man prevented Hnitetska from filming the construction site, snatched her phone from her hands, and threw it into a construction pit.

CPJ emailed Ukraine’s national police for comment on the three cases but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Togolese authorities must urgently identify those responsible for the physical attacks on journalists Hyacinthe Gbloedzro, Godfrey Akpa, Yawo Klousse, Yvette Sossou, Romuald Koffi Lansou, and Albert Agbeko, and hold them to account,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “Covering a political meeting should not mean putting yourself at risk of violence.”

The journalists attacked included:

• Hyacinthe Gbloedzro, a reporter with the privately owned Nana FM radio, who told CPJ that attackers in plain clothes threw chairs at the conference table and journalists in front of it, causing a stampede. An assailant then hit him with a chair.
• Godfrey Akpa, a reporter with the privately owned Ici Lomé news website, who told CPJ that an attacker punched him in the face and that, after he fell, more than 10 others beat him, trying to take his phone. Akpa said gendarmes watched without intervening.
• Yvette Sossou, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper La Dépêche, who told CPJ that she was grabbed, knocked to the ground, and punched, resulting in severe abdominal pain and headaches. The attackers also took her phone, equipment, and money.
• Yawo Klousse, news director of the privately owned online website Afrique en ligne, who told CPJ that assailants hit him with chairs and took his bag.
• Romuald Koffi Lansou, a reporter for the private news YouTube channel TogoVisions, who told CPJ that the assailants punched him in the back and threw his tripod and other colleagues’ phones into a nearby well.
• Albert Agbeko, publishing director of the privately owned news site Togo Scoop, who told CPJ that he was hit on his back with a chair and that an attacker snatched his phone while he was filming. On October 4, an unidentified person called Agbeko and said that “they were going to hit him” for continuing to cover rallies when “they were asked to stop,” according to a recording of the call shared with CPJ.

On September 30, Togolese police announced they opened an investigation and that security forces had not taken protective measures because the rally had been banned.

When CPJ called the armed forces ministry, a representative said they had no information about the incident.

Calls and messages to Yawa Kouigan, Togo’s minister of communication, media, and culture,  and spokesperson for the Togolese government, went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Senegalese authorities must stop arresting journalists for their work and hold accountable the attackers of Ngoné Diop and Maty Sarr Niang,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, in New York. “The authorities should take swift action to prevent furthering the previous government’s harm to Senegal’s press freedom, characterized by repeated detentions of journalists, media outlet suspensions, and other attacks on reporters.”

On September 30, the police special cybersecurity division arrested Dia over comments he made during a September 23 Sen TV online broadcast about alleged police corruption according to Fatima Diop, host of the Sen TV program, where Dia is a regular commentator.

Separately, Seck, founder of YouTube news site Yerim Post TV, which he no longer runs, was detained on October 1 over a September 27 7TV program in which he questioned the accuracy of a budget-related announcement by Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, his lawyer Mamadou Gueye Mbow told CPJ.

On Thursday, Dia and Seck were released and had their cases dropped, according to their lawyers.

On October 2, several supporters of opposition leader Bougane Guèye Dany insulted Diop, a reporter for the privately owned news site Sans Limites, and prevented her from covering Dany’s arrival for questioning at the cybercrime division. The supporters also slapped Niang, another Sans Limites reporter, in the head and criticized her coverage of Dany, according to Diop’s video of the incident.

Mame Gor Ngom, director of the government’s information and communication office, acknowledged CPJ’s request for comment but had not yet provided a response.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Mouhamed Guèye, spokesman for the Senegalese police, and Moussa Niang, general coordinator of Dany’s movement, went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The Cuban government continues to be nothing short of draconian in its efforts to squash independent reporting on the island,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen in Washington, D.C. “Cuban authorities must release journalist Yeris Curbelo Aguilera and should stop harassing Rafa Escalona.”

Curbelo Aguilera, a 39-year-old journalist and civil rights activist with the non-state media outlet Palenque Visión, was arrested June 16 and released on bail June 18 following a physical altercation with local youths, whom his family alleged were acting as government agents in the confrontation. One of the youths was also prosecuted for the incident but was acquitted at trial, his wife claimed.

The court convicted Curbelo Aguilera of causing “minor injuries” in the incident, according to Cuban local media.

Curbelo Aguilera has stated that he was prosecuted in retaliation for his reporting on anti-government protests in the eastern town of Caimanera in 2023.

In a separate incident, the local music news outlet, Magazine AMPM, announced in an online statement that it was suspending publication and taking “an indefinite pause” due to Cuban counterintelligence agencies “increasing pressure and harassment” of its editor, Rafa Escalona. According to AMPM, Escalona was interrogated and threatened with legal action by Cuban state security agents over grant money recently awarded to the magazine.

In recent years, Cuba’s non-state journalists have come under intense pressure from the government, which does not legally recognize the rights of news outlets outside official state media. Cuban law prohibits news outlets from receiving foreign funding and journalists who receive foreign funding can be accused of an act of “subversion.”

A Cuban government representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment about either case.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We welcome Serbian authorities’ quick response to the death threat made against employees of Tanjug news agency and call on them to swiftly conclude their investigation and to hold the perpetrators to account,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must ensure the safety of all journalists reporting on Kosovo and not allow threats against the press to go unpunished.”

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo as a country and many of Kosovo’s Serbian minority also reject the designation.

The September 30 email said, “we follow the movements of every journalist of your pseudo-media agency in Kosovo. Rest assured that one of them will get a bullet to the back of their head the next time they set foot on the soil of the Republic of Kosovo.”

In its reporting, Tanjug has used the term “Kosovo Metohija” which was the country’s name when it was a Serbian province. The death threats described the term as “chauvinist” and called Tanjug a “propagandist” and “warmongering” in the service of Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić.

After the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbian government forces fought ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. The war was ended by NATO bombing in 1999.

Tanjug was Yugoslavia’s state-owned news agency for decades until the country broke up and it became Serbia’s official state news agency. Since 2021, it has been under private ownership.  

CPJ emailed questions to the Serbian Ministry of Interior which oversees the police, but received no reply.

In May, CPJ reported that Serbian journalists and press freedom advocates pointed to a concerning increase in threats and attacks against the press.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

New York, September 23, 2024 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today announced the Climate Crisis Journalist Protection Initiative, which will ensure that journalists reporting on climate issues are able to do so freely and safely. The initiative will provide climate journalists with assistance, safety training, and other forms of support.

CPJ has raised nearly one-third of the funds needed for the $1 million dollar initiative, which CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg unveiled today at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative meeting. The annual meeting is a venue for civil society groups to publicly commit to action on global problems. 

“Journalists probe political corruption and the organized crime networks exploiting natural resources. They report on environmental devastation and the innovations and policies to stop it,” said Ginsberg at the meeting. “Such reporting is becoming increasingly dangerous. Climate change is the issue of our time and one that requires journalists to be able to report freely and safely. This initiative will help ensure that.”

The Climate Crisis Journalist Protection Initiative will: 

• Provide financial and non-financial support, including mental health assistance and tailored safety workshops, to journalists via a dedicated emergency fund 
• Further CPJ’s research to detect global hotspots and safety trends, map journalist needs, and conduct preventative outreach
• Help increase awareness of the threats facing climate reporters and transform existing journalist protection mechanisms to account for climate-related threats
• Engage with the private sector to ensure that journalists face no barriers to and no reprisal for their reporting on companies that are exacerbating or working to solve the climate crisis

Between 2009 and 2023, at least 749 journalists and news media outlets reporting on environmental issues were targeted with murder, physical violence, arrest, online harassment, or legal attacks, according to UNESCO. More than 300 of these attacks occurred between 2019 and 2023 – a 42% increase on the preceding five years (2014-2018).

CPJ has long documented climate-related attacks on journalists and has published safety advice on covering extreme weather events, flash floods, and wildfires. In 2001, CPJ established its journalist assistance program to dispense emergency grants to journalists in distress worldwide. In 2023 CPJ provided assistance to 719 journalists from 59 countries. 

CPJ’s Climate Crisis Journalist Protection Initiative was unveiled during the 2024 annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on September 23, during a session on solutions for journalists covering crises, featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others.

About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Media Contact: press@cpj.org 

About the Clinton Global Initiative 

Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative is a community of doers representing a broad cross-section of society and dedicated to the idea that we can accomplish more together than we can apart.  

Through CGI’s unique model, more than 9,000 organizations have launched more than 3,900 Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable projects and programs. Learn more about the Clinton Global Initiative and how you can get involved at www.ClintonGlobal.org

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is deeply alarmed by Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank, just months after it shuttered Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel after deeming it a threat to national security,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information on a war that has upended so many lives in the region. Al Jazeera’s journalists must be allowed to report at this critical time, and always.”

Al Jazeera aired footage of the raid, during which soldiers confiscated documents and equipment from the office. Soldiers seized the microphone from Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari while he was live on air with correspondent Givara Budeiri outside the building. Al Jazeera said the forces also removed a poster of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American correspondent murdered by Israeli forces in 2022, from the building.  

The September 22 military order accused the broadcast’s West Bank operations of “incitement to and support of terrorism.” Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi confirmed the raid in a statement to Reuters, calling Al Jazeera a “mouthpiece” for Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We will continue to fight the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters,” he said.

CPJ’s headquarters in New York emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America desk for comment on the raid and closure but received no immediate response.

“This is part of a larger campaign against the Palestinian outlets and media in general aimed at erasing the truth,” al-Omari said in an interview with Al Araby Al Jadeed. “We’ve been under increasing incitement since the beginning of the war.”  

In May, the Israeli cabinet voted to ban Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel after the country’s parliament passed a law authorizing the shutdown of foreign channels’ broadcasts if the content was deemed to be a threat to the country’s security during the ongoing war. Until Sunday the broadcaster had continued to operate from Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation; it still operates in Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed numerous Al Jazeera staff and freelancers since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

They offered to release Guaita if her mother, Xiomara Barreto, who worked on the opposition campaign to defeat President Nicolás Maduro, turned herself in. Barreto, who is in hiding, rejected the proposal.

“My daughter is being held hostage,” Barreto said in an August 25 voice recording posted on social media five days after her daughter’s arrest. Then, addressing authorities holding Guaita, she said: “You are doing great damage to an innocent person just because you were unable to arrest me.”

Such extortion schemes are part of what press watchdog groups describe as an unprecedented government crackdown on the Venezuelan media following the election that Maduro claims to have won despite strong evidence that he lost to opposition candidate Edmundo González.

Besides Guaita, his regime has jailed at least five other journalists – Paúl León, Yousner Alvarado, Deysi Peña, Eleángel Navas, and Gilberto Reina. (Another, Carmela Longo, has been released but faces criminal charges and has been barred from leaving the country.)

These journalists are among more than 2,000 anti-government protesters and opposition activists who have been detained following the July 28 balloting, a wave or repression that prompted González, who may have beaten Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin according to opposition tallies, to flee to Spain where he has been granted political asylum.

‘This government has gone crazy’

Venezuela has now reached a decades-long high of journalists it has imprisoned, according to Marianela Balbi, director of the Caracas-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, and CPJ’s own data from prior years.

Like Guaita, several were arrested while covering anti-government protests. They face charges of terrorism, instigating violence, and hate crimes. If convicted, Balbi said, they could face up to 30 years in prison each, yet they have no access to private lawyers and have instead been assigned public defenders loyal to the Maduro regime.

Carlos Correa, director of the Caracas free press group Espacio Público, said security agents don’t even bother to secure arrest warrants and have, in some cases, demanded bribes of up to US$4,000 not to detain journalists. In addition, at least 14 journalists have had their passports canceled with no explanation, according to Balbi.

“This government has gone crazy,” Correa told CPJ. “The most hardline elements are now in control and they are angry about being rejected at the polls.”

Among the hardliners is Diosdado Cabello, the number two figure in the ruling United Socialist Party who last month was appointed interior minister. Cabello, who is now in charge of police forces, is a frequent press basher whose defamation lawsuit against the Caracas daily El Nacional prompted the Maduro regime to seize the newspaper’s building as damages in 2021.

Cabello also uses his weekly program on state TV to insult and stigmatize journalists. On the September 5 episode, for example, Cabello accused the online news outlets Efecto Cocuyo, El Pitazo, Armando.Info, Tal Cual, and El Estimulo, of trying to destabilize Venezuela and, without evidence, claimed they were financed by drug traffickers.

All this has created “a lot of fear and frustration,” Balbi said. “This is what happens in countries with no rule of law.”

Journalists flee amid sharp drop in press freedom

To be sure, Venezuela’s press freedom erosion predated the election, as the Maduro government has closed TV and radio stations, blocked news websites, confiscated newspapers, and fomented fear and self-censorship over its 11 years in power. But since the vote, the situation has deteriorated precipitously with the government imposing internet shutdowns and blocking communication platforms, while individual journalists face impossible choices to continue their work.

Several reporters have fled the country. One journalist, who had been covering anti-government protests in the western state of Trujillo, was tipped off last month by a government security agent that her name was on an arrest list. She hid with friends and then, after learning that police were staking out her home, made her way to neighboring Colombia.

“There is so much dread,” said the journalist who, like several sources for this story, spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity. Government officials “don’t care that you are innocent. Never before have I felt so fragile and vulnerable.”

Those who remain in Venezuela are exercising extreme caution. They are self-censoring, staying off-camera in video reports, leaving their bylines off digital stories, and avoiding opposition rallies. Some radio news programs have gone off the air or have switched to musical formats.

A journalist in western Falcón state told CPJ that security agents are tracking the articles and social media posts of individual journalists and said they have filmed her while covering opposition rallies.

“They make you feel like a criminal or a fugitive from justice,” said the reporter who is considering leaving journalism and fleeing Venezuela.

A veteran reporter in Carabobo state, just west of Caracas, told CPJ that she has worked for years to make a name for herself as a fair and balanced journalist but is now being told by her editors to remove her byline from her stories for her own protection.

Meanwhile, it’s become more difficult for reporters to interview trusted sources and average Venezuelans because, even when they are promised anonymity, they fear government reprisals, a journalist based in western Zulia state told CPJ.

CPJ called Maduro’s press office and the Interior Ministry for comment but there was no answer.

Outlets band together and use AI to shield individual reporters

To protect themselves, many journalists are staying off social media and are erasing photos, text messages, and contacts from their mobile phones in case they are arrested and the devices are confiscated. Some have gone to opposition marches posing as members of the crowd rather than taking out their notebooks and recording gear and identifying as journalists. On such outings, some are required to check in with their editors every 20 minutes to make sure they are safe.

“We are trying to report the news while also protecting our people,” said César Batiz, the editor of El Pitazo, who fled the country several years ago and works from exile in Florida. “We realize that no story is more important that our journalists’ safety.”

Since the election, El Pitazo is jointly publishing stories with several other media outlets in an effort to make it harder for the regime to target any individual news organization. For added protection, many of these same news sites are taking part in Operación Retuit, or Operation Retweet, in which their journalists put together stories that are narrated on video by newsreaders created by artificial intelligence.

“So, for security reasons, we will use AI to provide information from a dozen independent Venezuelan news organizations,” says one of the avatars, who appears as a smiling young man in a plaid shirt in the initial Operación Retuit video posted on X on August 13.

Thanks to all of these efforts important stories are still being published, including reports on regime killings of protesters, the imprisonment of minors arrested at anti-government demonstrations, and electoral observers describing government fraud during the July 28 balloting.

Or, in the words of Batiz: “The regime is cracking down so we have to be more creative.”

Still, Correa, of Espacio Público, says the repression is taking its toll. “Without a doubt there are fewer journalists covering important stories in Venezuela, and much more caution and fear.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by John Otis.

Bekirov, who is an ethnic Crimean Tatar from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied region of Crimea, was a correspondent for independent Russian news website Grani and reported on Russian authorities’ raids and trials of Crimean Tatars for Crimean Solidarity’s YouTube channel before he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in March 2022.

“The harsh treatment of Remzi Bekirov in prison is indicative of the plight of jailed Crimean Tatar journalists whom Russian authorities punish with lengthy prison terms on fabricated terrorism charges in retaliation for their reporting on human rights abuses in the occupied Crimea,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Russian authorities must immediately release Remzi Bekirov and all other jailed Ukrainian journalists and ensure their safe return to their homeland.”

Bekirov is imprisoned at a penal colony in Russia’s southern Siberia region of Khakassia on charges of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization and “preparing for a violent seizure of power,” according to his lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, who spoke to CPJ, and Crimean Solidarity, a human rights organization that reports on politically motivated cases. The IK-33 colony is located in the region’s capital, Abakan, more than 4,000 km from his home in Ukraine’s Crimea.

Bekirov “receives heightened scrutiny,” including strict monitoring of his correspondence, regular cell searches, and being placed in solitary confinement five times since his transfer to IK-33 in August 2024, Kurbedinov told CPJ, adding that Bekirov was in solitary as of September 13.

CPJ’s email to the press office of Russia’s Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments requesting verification and details about Bekirov’s treatment did not receive a response. CPJ’s call to the Crimean branch of the Russian Ministry of Interior did not go through.

Kurbedinov said Bekirov appeared particularly frightened during their recent meeting, which a prison administrator monitored. Kurbedinov said Bekirov’s detention far from Crimea is harmful and “intentional,” making visits from family and attorneys difficult.

Since Russian authorities cracked down on independent media in Crimea after annexing the peninsula in 2014, many have engaged in “citizen journalism,” particularly focused on human rights issues affecting Crimean Tatars.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The statement listed a number of incidents in which Ağırel, a columnist for the pro-opposition daily Cumhuriyet, has been threatened or harassed since late 2023 over his reporting on allegations of drug trafficking, money laundering, sports betting fraud, and the highly publicized murder trial of Sinan Ateş, the former chair of the far right group the Gray Wolves, which is the youth branch of the government-allied Nationalist Movement Party.

“We are profoundly alarmed by the relentless death threats and the escalating harassment aimed not only at Murat Ağırel, but also at his family. These brazen acts of intimidation are a stark reminder of the perilous environment in which independent journalists in Turkey must operate,” the statement said.

Read the joint statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

In his September 4 speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanekzai attacked the independent outlet as an “enemy” for reporting that aid relief sent to the flooded northern province of Baghlan had been allegedly misused. This latest criticism follows the Taliban’s ban in May on journalists and experts from cooperating with Afghanistan International and on people providing facilities for broadcasting the channel in public.

Separately, on September 4, Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice officials met with Afghan media executives in the capital Kabul and gave them verbal orders to replace Persian words — which they described as “Iranian” — with the Pashto equivalent in their reporting.

Persian, also known as Farsi, is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and in neighboring Iran. But the Taliban mainly speak Pashto and they have removed Persian words from signboards for public institutions and spoken out against the teaching of Persian in universities since their return to power in 2021.

The officials also ordered the journalists to respect Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

“The Taliban must immediately halt their campaign of intimidation against Afghanistan International and lift their restrictions on Persian-language reporting,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban’s recent vice and virtue law has already emboldened their notorious morality police to further restrict the media, threatening to annihilate press freedom gains made during the two previous decades of democratic rule in Afghanistan.”

CPJ’s text messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid requesting comment went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The U.N. mechanism is a peer review of each member state’s human rights record. It takes place every 4 ½ years and includes reports on progress made since the previous review cycle and recommendations on how a country can better fulfill its human rights obligations.

CPJ’s submission, together with the MENA Rights Group, a Geneva-based advocacy organization, and the local human rights groups Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq and Community Peacemaker Teams Iraq, shows that journalists face threats, online harassment, physical violence, and civil and criminal lawsuits.

The submission notes an escalating crackdown on civic space in Iraq where crimes against journalists are rarely investigated, fueling a cycle of violence against the press, while public officials have voiced anti-press rhetoric and attempted to limit access to information.

Iraq is ranked 6th in CPJ’s Global Impunity Index 2023, with 17 unsolved murders of journalists, and is one of the few countries to have been on the Index every year since its inception in 2007.

CPJ’s UPR submission on Iraq is available in English here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Grave injustices are the hallmark of the Taliban’s rule,” CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi said on Wednesday. “The Taliban’s ruthless crackdown has pushed the few remaining media outlets in Afghanistan to the brink. The international community must stand with the Afghan people, and foreign governments should streamline resettlement processes and support journalists in exile so they can continue their work.”

Over the last year, the Taliban have detained at least 16 Afghan and foreign journalists, shut four radio and TV stations, banned a popular London-based broadcaster, and suspended the licenses of 14 media outlets. At least one of the detained journalists was severely beaten.

The Taliban have also banned the broadcast of women’s voices and announced a plan to restrict access to Facebook in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s intelligence agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence, alongside the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have been at the forefront of the ongoing media crackdown.

The hostile media environment has driven hundreds of Afghan journalists to flee to neighboring countries where many are stuck in legal limbo, without the right to work or clear prospects of resettlement. At least one Afghan journalist was injured in a shooting in Pakistan.

CPJ’s text messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid requesting comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We are deeply concerned about the safety of Al Jazeera’s northern Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after the IDF’s claim that he was ‘covering up’ for Hamas and Islamic Jihad after Israel killed dozens in its Saturday strike on a Gaza City school complex,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Al Jazeera journalists have been paying a devastating price for documenting the war. They and all journalists should be protected and allowed to work freely.”

Israel has said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were operating from a mosque inside the school complex.

Al Jazeera Media Network condemned Israel’s “blatant act of intimidation and incitement” against Anas, saying that the IDF’s comments “are not only an attack on Anas’s character and integrity but also a clear attempt to stifle the truth and silence those who are courageously reporting from Gaza.”

Al Sharif has previously received threats over his journalism work and his father was killed on December 11, 2023, after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Jabalia.

CPJ has documented the killing of at least seven journalists and media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera – which Israel has banned from operating inside Israel – since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October.  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Advocates estimate that hundreds of Russian journalists have fled into exile, where some continue to face transnational repression such as arrest warrants and jail terms in absentia Those who remain are under heavy scrutiny as independent reporting hangs on by a thread. 

While practicing journalism in Russia has long been difficult, the government has stepped up efforts to quash the work of the media by passing new anti-press laws, amending others, and expanding censorship efforts. “The overall aim, no doubt, if we’re talking about all these tools, of course it’s to muzzle, and they manage to do that, so that people … self-censor,” the JMWU representative told CPJ. 

Here are the most common methods Russia has used to silence the press since the war began: 

Criminalizing ‘fake news’ about the war 

One of the Russian government’s first acts to prevent coverage of the war, in March 2022, was to pass amendments to the criminal code to punish the distribution of “fake news” about the army. At least five journalists are imprisoned for allegedly distributing fake information on the military, one is under house arrest, and several others have been charged in absentia. That includes U.S.-Russian journalist and author Masha Gessen; Russia issued an arrest warrant against Gessen in 2023 for allegedly spreading “fake information” about Russia’s massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha in a 2022 interview and sentenced Gessen to eight years in absentia on July 15, 2024. A week later, on July 23, the Russian authorities sentenced Mikhail Zygar,  the former editor-in-chief of the now-exiled Russian broadcaster Dozhd TV (TV Rain) and a CPJ 2014 International Press Freedom Awardee, to eight-and-a half years in absentia over an Instagram post about the Bucha massacre.

Russia has used anti-state laws to retaliate against other members of the press, such as the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, convicted on espionage charges, and Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who is serving a 22-year prison term for treason. Another journalist, Antonina Favorskaya, was charged with participating in an extremist formation after covering the court hearings of late opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Her colleague Artyom Krieger is currently jailed on similar charges. 

Expanding ‘foreign agent’ and ‘undesirable’ designations 

Russia’s “foreign agent” law, first introduced in 2012 and extended in 2017 to specifically target media outlets and journalists, originally required recipients of foreign funding to apply a “foreign agent” label to any published material and report their own activities and expenses to the government. Initially seen as a badge of honor and opposition by independent news outlets and journalists, the label has become more burdensome during the war. In March 2024, Russia banned advertisements on “foreign agent” outlets, harming the bottom line for many news organizations and YouTube channels. Russia has also made it easier for authorities to impose the “foreign agent” label on individuals and outlets by removing the requirement that the Ministry of Justice prove foreign funding in July 2022. 

According to Dmitrii Anisimov, a spokesperson and campaigner for the human rights news website OVD-Info, as of July 2024, some 268 journalists and media outlets were labeled as “foreign agents” in the country. With the Ukraine war, journalists have been increasingly fined for failing to list their status or submit the required reports, and some even face imprisonment. Prior to her release, Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian journalist and an editor for U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained for more than nine months after being accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent” and later sentenced to 6-and-a-half years on charges of spreading “fake” news about the Russian army. Denis Kamalyagin, a Russian journalist in exile, is facing two years in jail for not complying with the law, he told CPJ. 

Since the war, Russia has also been increasingly applying another label—“undesirable” —to media outlets. Widely considered an escalation of the “foreign agent” label, the “undesirable” label was first introduced in 2015 to effectively ban organizations registered abroad from operating in the country. Working for an “undesirable” organization can carry a six-year prison sentence and administrative fines. It’s also a crime to distribute content from an “undesirable” organization or donate to it from inside or outside Russia. 

Before the war, the investigative site Proekt, was the only media outlet deemed “undesirable,” but as of July 2024, 20 have been slapped with the label, according to Anisimov. Between January and June 2024, Russian authorities opened at least 28 media-related cases against individuals for “participation in an undesirable organization,” according to Alexander Borodikhin, a data reporter with independent news outlet Mediazona. Borodikhin told CPJ that of the 28 cases, 12 are against journalists, 14 are against people who reposted “undesirable” content, and two are against journalistic sources. 

Maria Epifanova, CEO of Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta Europe, which was deemed “undesirable” in June 2023, told CPJ that the label impacted the outlet’s work and finances. Freelancers in Russia “have to work in fear, write under pseudonyms,” she said. Anyone who talks to the outlet is also at risk. “We have to hide the names and details that help identify a person. That dramatically influences the credibility of articles,” Epifanova said.

Some outlets can’t survive the designation. HelpDesk media was launched shortly before the full-scale invasion “to show the war in Ukraine through the eyes of ordinary people,” according to the website. On May 20, less than five months after being labeled “undesirable,” it announced its closure, saying it did not have enough funds to keep operating. 

Revoking media licenses and blocking websites

Some Russian outlets are in danger of losing their government-issued licenses over coverage, particularly since Russia passed a July 2022 law allowing authorities to invalidate the registration of media outlets without a court order. According to the Mass Media Defense Center, a Russian group that provides legal aid to journalists and news outlets, as well as other journalists CPJ spoke with, registration has many benefits, including faster responses to requests for comment from officials and eligibility for accreditation to cover official functions. 

Leading Russian independent news site Novaya Gazeta — not to be confused with Novaya Gazeta Europe, made up of ex-employees of the former who fled the country — had both its print and online licenses canceled in September 2022. Nadezhda Prusenkova, the head of the outlet’s press department, told CPJ that the outlet is in survival mode. “No circulation, no advertising, just crowdfunding and [an] online shop. No salary for journalists. No possibility to work officially [from places that require accreditation].” 

Some outlets have their content blocked online before they lose their license. Mark Nebesnyi, the editor-in-chief of independent news outlet Svobodnye Media, told CPJ that the Russian state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, blocked its website shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion without any explanation. He believes the blocking was in retaliation for the outlet’s critical reporting on the war, the Russian government, and the outlet’s investigations into alleged embezzlement of the state budget. After the blocking, which he said caused a significant economic blow, Svobodnye Media lost its license in October 2023. 

According to a representative of Russian independent internet freedom group Roskomsvoboda, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, the organization’s records show that more than 18,500 websites had been blocked in connection with their reporting on the war as of May 2024. Many websites pull down their own content in fear of retaliation, Roskomsvoboda reported last year. 

Foreign journalists and their outlets have also faced arbitrary and repressive measures. Several members of the foreign press were forced to leave following the withdrawal of their accreditation or the denial of their visa renewals. In late June, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that access to 81 European media outlets would be blocked because they spread “false information” about the war. 

“[In Russia], independent journalism is still possible. But that’s the problem. You never know how long you’re going to exist and what you’re risking,” the JMWU representative said.

CPJ emailed the Russian investigative committee, the Russian prosecutor general’s office, and media regulator Roskomnadzor for comment on measures against the press, but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Anna Brakha.

“Pakistani police must immediately cease their attempts to detain independent journalist Usman Khan and allow the media to report on current affairs without fear of intimidation or arrest,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “Pakistani authorities must do more to protect independent voices across the country. We have seen an alarming uptick in attacks on the press in Pakistan, with seven deaths so far this year.”

Khan told CPJ from an undisclosed location that uniformed and plainclothes police officers raided his home on July 31, August 2, and August 5, but he escaped. Khan said he knew that authorities planned to arrest him over his coverage because military officials questioned protesters about him and phoned his father to summon Khan back to Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

Khan reports for and manages the Zaiwa News channel on YouTube and Facebook, which covers current affairs in volatile Baluchistan where insurgents have long demanded independence from the central government.

On his X account, Khan reported extensively on the army’s crackdown on demonstrators marching to the port city of Gwadar to attend a July 28 protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Baluchistan. Three people were killed in clashes with security forces.

CPJ’s email requesting comment from Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, Inspector General of Police in Quetta, did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ is investigating multiple incidents including one in the capital Abuja on August 3, where masked security forces fired bullets and teargas at several journalists wearing “Press” vests and their media-branded cars at the national stadium.

Attacks on the press have been reported across the country since July 31, including by unidentified assailants who smashed the windows of a Channels Television-branded bus carrying 11 journalists and a car carrying two journalists in the northern city of Kano and others who assaulted journalists while they were reporting in southern Delta State, as well as police arrests of reporters in Maiduguri in northeastern Borno State.

“Nigerian authorities must identify and hold accountable all those responsible for shooting at, attacking, harassing, and arresting numerous journalists while covering the #EndBadGovernance protests,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The Nigerian public and the world deserve to be informed about the nationwide protests, but too often, journalists covering demonstrations are met with violence. Nigerian security forces must prioritize the safety of the press.”

Abuja police spokesperson Josephine Adeh told CPJ via messaging app that police did not carry out any attacks on the media. Delta State police spokesperson Bright Edafe told CPJ by phone that police in the state had not received any official complaints about attacks on the press.

CPJ is working to confirm whether the journalists that it interviewed filed police complaints.

CPJ’s calls to Borno State Commissioner for Information Usman Tar and Kano State police spokesperson Abubakar Zayyanu Ambursa requesting comment went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is deeply disturbed by the killing of journalists Hasan Mehedi, Md. Shakil Hossain, and Abu Taher Md Turab while they were reporting on the quota protests in Bangladesh,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Bangladesh government must hold to account those responsible for all assaults on journalists and fully restore internet and phone services to allow the free flow of information needed to cover matters of public interest.”

Bangladesh authorities imposed an internet shutdown and severely disrupted mobile services on July 18. Broadband internet was partially restored in limited areas on Tuesday evening, but mobile services and social media remained blocked as of July 26.

Mehedi, a reporter for the news website Dhaka Times, was fatally shot on July 18 while covering clashes in the Jatrabari area of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, according to news reports. Dhaka Times editor Arifur Rahman Dolon told CPJ that Mehedi was killed by law enforcement officials, but limited internet availability prevented him providing additional details.

Hossain, a correspondent for Daily Bhorer Awaj newspaper, was also killed on July 18 while reporting in Bangladesh’s central Gazipur city, according to the Sweden-based investigative news website Netra News and the journalists’ association Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Turab, a reporter for the Daily Jalalabad and Daily Naya Diganta newspapers, was wearing a press vest when he was fatally shot by police firing into a July 19 procession of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party in northeast Sylhet city, according to New Age newspaper and a Daily Jalalabad reporter, who spoke to CPJ anonymously for fear of reprisal.

Meanwhile on July 18, protesters set fire to the headquarters of state-run Bangladesh Television in Dhaka, as well as several of the broadcaster’s vehicles, when riot police retreated inside the premises.  

CPJ has confirmed attacks on the 14 journalists listed below and is continuing to investigate reports that dozens more have been assaulted either by police, protesters, or supporters of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. Of the 14, several required hospital treatment for injuries including head wounds.

Police attacks

July 16
Police fired rubber bullets at newspaper correspondents Mehedi Mamun (Daily Bonik Barta); Wajahatul Islam, (Daily Janakantha); Abdur Rahman Khan Sarjil, (Dainik Bangla), and freelancer Jubayer Ahmed, despite their identifying themselves as journalists covering demonstrations at Jahangirnagar University (JU), on the outskirts of Dhaka, Mamun and Islam told CPJ.

July 17
– Police grabbed the phone of Abdullah Al Mamun, a correspondent for Prothom Alo newspaper, while he was recording police action against students trying to leave JU’s campus. Al Mamun told CPJ that, despite identifying himself as a journalist and showing his press card, officers beat him with rifles and batons and fired a rubber bullet at him as he tried to flee.

– Shadique Mahbub Islam, a features writer for The Business Standard newspaper, told CPJ that police fired sound grenades at him and two other unidentified reporters while they were photographing a protester’s arrest at the Dhaka University (DU) campus. Police trying to surround protesting students again fired two sound grenades and tear gas in front of Islam later that day.

July 18
– Muktadir Rashid, a correspondent for Bangla Outlook website, told CPJ that he was hit with birdshot pellets as police and ruling party activists fired at protesters near Dhaka’s Mirpur police station.

– Jibon Ahmed, a photojournalist for Daily Manab Zamin newspaper, told CPJ that police in Dhaka fired lead pellets at a group reporting in the same area after he raised his hands and identified himself and around seven others as journalists.

Chhatra League attacks

July 15
– The Business Standard’s Islam told CPJ that despite showing his press identification, Chhatra League supporters beat him with rods and threw bricks at him as they forcibly dispersed protesters at DU’s campus.

– Prabir Das, a senior photographer for The Daily Star newspaper, told CPJ that Chhatra League supporters beat him with sticks while he was reporting from DU’s campus. Dipu Malakar, photojournalist for Prothom Alo newspaper, said he was also reporting on campus when a Chhatra League supporter threw a brick at him.

July 16
Chhatra League supporters beat Sakib Ahmed, a correspondent for the South Asian Times, with a rod and snatched his press card while he was reporting at JU, the journalist told CPJ.

Protester attacks

July 11
Protesters in the Shahbagh area of Dhaka pushed Somoy TV reporter Toha Khan Tamim and hit him with a helmet. Demonstrators also damaged the camera of the broadcaster’s senior video journalist Prince Arefin before chasing him, according to Omar Faroque, the broadcaster’s chief input editor.

July 16
Protesters in northern Bogura city beat Jamuna Television senior reporter and local bureau chief Meherul Sujon with bamboo sticks while he was wearing a press card and carrying a microphone, the journalist told CPJ.

Bangladesh’s state information minister Mohammad Ali Arafat and Chhatra League president Saddam Hussain did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

But now Le Nouvelliste’s survival — and that of more independent media outlets in the country — may be in grave danger after gang rule has descended the island nation into virtual lawlessness following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

Besides a handful of major TV, radio and print outlets, Haiti has hundreds of small radio and TV stations, many of them operating on social media platforms with tiny budgets and only a handful of mostly freelance reporters.

Many media outlets have been forced to cut staff due to falling advertising and others say they are close to being forced out of business.

Headquartered in Haiti’s capital, Port au-Prince, Le Nouvelliste has had “difficult situations” before, said publisher Max Chauvet, 73, the grandson of the paper’s founder. 

“But never like this,” Chauvet added. “It’s the first time in our history that the paper’s offices were physically taken over.” 

On April 25, suspected gang members occupied and looted Le Nouvelliste’s offices. The incident followed a March attack on a prominent broadcaster, Radio Télévision Caraïbes, which was forced to leave its studio in downtown Port-au-Prince. Also in April, the office of the National Press, which prints the Le Moniteur government bulletin, was attacked. 

And in March, the main gate and windows of Radio Télévision Caraïbes were hit by stray bullets. No casualties were reported. But the owner decided to move offices as a precaution. 

Gang members have spread all over the city since launching a coordinated offensive against the government in February, including an attack on two large prisons which resulted in the escape of more than 4,000 inmates. Several universities and hospitals, as well as the National Library of Haiti, have all been looted. 

After Le Nouvelliste’s offices were occupied in April, the paper was forced to stop printing. The paper remains online for its audience of 110,000 free subscribers, as well as its 528,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, and 590,000 followers on Facebook. 

Chauvet said he didn’t believe that the looting of Le Nouvelliste’s offices was in response to its reporting but rather a result of the “absence of the state.” That vacuum “has allowed looters to take advantage of the deterioration of security” across the city, he said. 

Chauvet told CPJ he was waiting for a full inventory of the items seized and destroyed but feared the paper may never recover. 

Attacks on journalists

The crisis facing media outlets in Haiti is the result of attacks by gangs on journalists and their offices, as well as the economic impact of widespread insecurity.

At least six Haitian journalists have been murdered in direct reprisal for their work since Moïse’s 2021 assassination. Haiti ranked as the world’s third-worst nation in CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index, which measures where killers of journalists are most likely to go unpunished. 

CPJ has also documented numerous kidnappings of journalists in recent months and attacks outside the capital, including Radio Antarctique in the town of Liancourt whose studio was burned down by gang members in 2023. Its director Roderson Elias left Haiti and the outlet has ceased operations.  

In recent years, several Le Nouvelliste journalists have been attacked. Prominent investigative journalist and editor Roberson Alphonse survived an assassination attempt in 2022 that left him hospitalized for eight days with gunshot wounds to the chest, stomach, and arms. He has since left the country. 

Alphonse was the second of the paper’s top reporters to be forced into exile, after the departure of Robenson Geffrard in 2022 due to death threats.

Advertising has dried up

The prolonged insecurity has also hit media owners hard financially as advertising from local businesses has dried up. Chauvet and other media owners worry how much longer they can keep operating, as they also grapple with competition from online news sources and social media influencers.

“There is no revenue to pay staff,” Chauvet said, adding that he had to lay off some staff and wasn’t sure how long the company could meet its payroll and stave off bankruptcy. “It’s an existential crisis.” 

Chauvet is considering the option of a paywall, but fears driving away low-income subscribers. 

“Countless media outlets have ceased broadcasting, reduced their airtime, dismissed staff, or are surviving hand to mouth,” Frantz Duval, editor of Le Nouvelliste, wrote in an April editorial marking the paper’s anniversary. 

“Insecurity has reduced economic activity, and this has had an impact on advertising, the only source of revenue for the vast majority of the press … The few media companies that receive subscriptions are seeing their customer base shrink daily. Families can’t afford to pay for information and entertainment. In all sectors, customers and employees are leaving, weakening the ecosystem.”

Sleeping on a mattress in the office

After 34 years in business, Radio Télé Galaxie, one of Haiti’s early FM band radio stations, has been on and off the air since April. 

“We are trying to stay active but mostly by doing social media,” director Jean Robert Jean-Bart told CPJ. Due to financial challenges, the station was forced to lay off 90% of its 50 staff. 

“It’s been 34 years of hard work and investment, but our savings have run out,” said Jean-Bart. 

One of his staff, Arnold Junior Pierre, was forced to flee his home in a gang-controlled neighborhood last August and has been sleeping on a mattress in the office ever since.

“I live in my workspace, which makes my situation very difficult. But I’m grateful to have somewhere to sleep,” Pierre told CPJ. “I continue to pursue my profession with passion. But we are all having to beg for survival. It’s a sad reality,” he said.

Chauvet told CPJ he worried that money from organized crime and drug traffickers could be used to influence media coverage. “In the absence of formal financial revenue, there is a lot of dirty money in the country which could find its way into the new online media,” he said.

Last month, a U.N.-backed contingent of 400 police officers from Kenya arrived in Haiti to help restore law and order and pave the way for new elections. But Chauvet worries it may be too late to save many local businesses. 

“If there is no economic recovery soon, it will be too late. What Haiti needs is a Marshall Plan,” said Chauvet, referring to the massive economic reconstruction effort in Europe after World War II.

In April, more than 90 Haitian journalists, backed by the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, called on Haiti’s new transitional council to protect the media, saying that they live in constant fear of being attacked, kidnapped, or murdered.

“Doing our job has become so dangerous that a daily act of heroism is needed to keep going,” the appeal said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by David C. Adams.

The joint statement urged the European Commission and EU Member States to take immediate and decisive action to protect NGOs and independent journalists in Hungary.

On June 26, Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Office announced that it had  launched an investigation into the Hungarian branch of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International and Átlátszó, an investigative journalism outlet that focuses on corruption. The office was established last year as a government authority with broad powers to investigate foreign interference in public life.

The bill creating the office “bears the hallmarks of a Russian-style foreign agent law” and it “could bring a new level of state-sanctioned pressure and chill independent reporting,” CPJ said in a statement last year.

Read the full statement of solidarity here.

Disclaimer: CPJ’s Europe representative Atilla Mong is a former investigative journalist for Átlátszó, currently serving as a member of its supervisory board.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Officers questioned nearly all of those detained about their connections to Shafiur Rahman, a U.K.-based Bangladeshi freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker whose reporting covers how Bangladesh government policies have negatively impacted the Rohingya population, according to Rahman and two of those detained, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. Several of those detained from the APNOR meeting were also shown Rahman’s photo and asked if they knew him.

Authorities also ordered participants to remove the passwords from their mobile phones and laptops, which remained in police custody as of June 25, according to the sources who spoke to CPJ.

Bangladesh hosts over one million Rohingya refugees in camps that human rights organizations say are characterized by poor conditions.

Rahman told CPJ that he was not associated with APNOR. Rahman added that the latest actions posed a threat to his safety and ability to work in Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, where journalists have reported receiving threats from the country’s authorities as well as from those living inside the camps.

“These actions amount to harassment by proxy, as the authorities are using their influence to silence and intimidate me indirectly as well as intimidating [Rohingya] youth who have nothing to do with me,” the journalist said.

Rohingya journalists have told CPJ and other press freedom organizations that Bangladesh authorities have subjected them to surveillance, harassment, and threats in retaliation for their work.

Mohammad Ali Arafat, Bangladesh’s state minister for information and broadcasting, told CPJ that he would look into the matter but did not provide further information by the time of publication. Rashed Hasan, deputy director and public relations officer of National Security Intelligence, did not respond to CPJ’s messages requesting comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The two men co-founded the YouTube-based channel Ethio News in 2020, which had reported extensively on a conflict that broke out between federal forces and the Fano militia in the populous Amhara region in April 2023, a risky move in a country with a history of stifling independent reporting.  

Belay was swept up in a crackdown against the press after the government declared a state of emergency in August 2023 in response to the conflict.

After months in hiding, Belete decided to flee when he heard from a relative that the government had issued a warrant for his arrest. CPJ was unable to confirm whether such an order was issued.

“Freedom of expression in Ethiopia has not only died; it has been buried,” Belete said in his March 15 farewell post on Facebook. “Leaving behind a colleague in a desert detention facility, as well as one’s family and country, to seek asylum, is immensely painful.” (Belaye and others have been released this month after the state of emergency expired.)

Belete’s path into exile is one that has been trod by dozens of other Ethiopian journalists who have been forced to flee harassment and persecution in a country where the government has long maintained a firm grip on the media. Over the decades, CPJ has documented waves of repression and exile tied to reporting on events like protests after the 2005 parliamentary election and censorship of independent media and bloggers ahead of the 2015 vote.

In 2018, the Ethiopian press enjoyed a short-lived honeymoon when all previously detained journalists were released and hundreds of websites unblocked after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister.

But with the 2020 to 2022 civil war between rebels from the Tigray region and the federal government, followed by the Amhara conflict in 2023, CPJ has documented a rapid return to a harsh media environment, characterized by arbitrary detentions and the expulsion of international journalists.

CPJ is aware of at least 54 Ethiopian journalists and media workers who have gone into exile since 2020, and has provided at least 30 of them with emergency assistance. Most of the journalists fled to neighboring African countries, while a few are in Europe and North America. In May and June 2024, CPJ spoke to some of these exiled journalists about their experiences. Most asked CPJ not to reveal how they escaped Ethiopia or their whereabouts and some spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears for their safety or that of family left behind.

CPJ’s request for comment to government spokesperson Legesse Tulu via messaging app and an email to the office of the prime minister did not receive any response.

Under ‘house arrest’ due to death threats

Guyo Wariyo, a journalist with the satellite broadcaster Oromia Media Network was detained for several weeks in 2020 as the government sought to quell protests over the killing of ethnic Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa. Authorities sought to link the musician’s assassination with Guyo’s interview with him the previous week, which included questions about the singer’s political opinions.

Following his release, Guyo wanted to get out of the country but leaving was not easy. Guyo said that the first three times he went to Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, National Intelligence and Security Service agents refused to let him board, saying his name was on a government list of individuals barred from leaving Ethiopia.

Guyo eventually left in late 2020. But, more than three years later, he still feels unsafe.

In exile, Guyo says he has received several death threats from individuals that he believes are affiliated with the Ethiopian government, via social media as well as local and international phone numbers. One of the callers even named the neighborhood where he lives. 

“I can describe my situation as ‘house arrest,’” said Guyo, who rarely goes out or speaks to friends and family back home in case their conversations are monitored.

Transnational repression is a growing risk globally. Ethiopia has long reached across borders to seize refugees and asylum seekers in neighboring Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, and South Sudan, and targeted those further afield, including with spyware.

Journalists who spoke to CPJ said they fear transnational repression, citing the 2023 forcible return of The Voice of Amhara’s Gobeze Sisay from Djibouti to face terrorism charges. He remains in prison, awaiting trial and a potential death penalty.

“We know historically that Ethiopian intelligence have been active in East Africa and there is a history of fleeing people being attacked here in Kenya,” Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region at PEN International, the global writers’ association that advocates for freedom of expression, told CPJ.

Several of the journalists exiled in Africa told CPJ that they did not feel their host countries could protect them from Ethiopian security agents.

“The shadow of fear and threat is always present,” said one reporter, describing the brief period he lived in East Africa before resettling in the United States.

‘We became very scared’

Woldegiorgis Ghebrehiwet Teklay felt at risk in Kenya, after he fled there in December 2020 following the arrest of a colleague at the now-defunct Awlo Media Center.

As with Guyo, Woldegiorgis’s initial attempt to leave via Addis Ababa failed. Airport security personnel questioned him about his work and ethnicity and accused him of betraying his country with his journalism, before ordering him to return home, to wait for about a week amid investigations.

When Woldegiorgis finally reached the Kenyan capital, he partnered with other exiled Ethiopian journalists to set up Axumite Media. But between November 2021 and February 2022, Axumite was forced to slow down its operations, reducing the frequency of publication and visibility of its journalists as it was hit by financial and security concerns, especially after two men abducted an Ethiopian businessman from his car during Nairobi’s evening rush hour.

“It might be a coincidence but after that  businessman was abducted on the street we became very scared,” said Woldegiorgis who moved to Germany the following year on a scholarship for at-risk academics and relaunched the outlet as Yabele Media.

‘An enemy of the state’

Tesfa-Alem Tekle was reporting for the Nairobi-based Nation Media Group when he had to flee in 2022, after being detained for nearly three months on suspicion of having links with Tigrayan rebels.

He kept contributing to the Nation Media Group’s The EastAfrican weekly newspaper in exile until 2023, when a death threat was slipped under his door.

“Stop disseminating in the media messages which humiliate and tarnish our country and our government’s image,” said the threat, written in Amharic, which CPJ reviewed. “If you continue being an enemy of the state, we warn you for the last time that a once-and-for-all action will be taken against you.”

Tesfa-Alem moved houses, reported the threat to the police, and hoped he would soon be offered safety in another country. But more than two years after going to exile, he remains in limbo, waiting to hear the outcome of his application for resettlement.

Last year, only 158,700 refugees worldwide were resettled in third countries, representing just a fraction of the need, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR; that included 2,289 Ethiopians, said UNHCR global spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur in an email to CPJ. The need is only growing: “UNHCR estimates that almost 3 million refugees will be in need of resettlement in 2025, including over 8,600 originating from Ethiopia,” Sarrado Mur said. 

“Unfortunately, there are very limited resettlement places available worldwide, besides being a life-saving intervention for at-risk refugees,” said Sarrado Mur.

Without a stable source of income, Tesfa-Alem said he was living “in terrible conditions,” with months of overdue rent.

“Stress, lack of freedom of movement, and economic reasons: all these lead me to depression and even considering returning home to face the consequences,” he said, voicing a frustration shared by all of the journalists that spoke to CPJ about the complexities and delays they encountered navigating the asylum system.

‘No Ethiopian security services will knock on my door’

Most of the journalists who spoke to CPJ described great difficulties in returning to journalism. A lucky few have succeeded.

Yayesew Shimelis, founder of the YouTube channel Ethio Forum whose reporting was critical of the Ethiopian government, was arrested multiple times between 2019 and 2022.

In 2021, he was detained for 58 days, one of a dozen journalists and media workers held incommunicado at Awash Sebat, another remote military camp in Ethiopia’s Afar state. The following year, he was abducted by people who broke into his house, blindfolded him, and held him in an unknown location for 11 days.

“My only two options were living in my beloved country without working my beloved job; or leaving my beloved country and working my beloved job,” he told CPJ. 

At Addis Ababa airport in 2023, he said he was interrogated for two hours about his destination and the purpose of his trip. He told officials he was attending a wedding and promised to be back in two weeks. When his flight took off, Yayesaw was overwhelmed with relief and sadness to be “suddenly losing my country.”

“I was crying, literally crying, when the plane took off,” he told CPJ. “People on the plane thought I was going to a funeral.”

In exile, Yayesew feels “free”. He continues to run Ethio Forum and even published a book about Prime Minister Abiy earlier this year.

“Now I am 100% sure that no Ethiopian security services will knock on my door the morning after I publish a critical report,” he said.

But for Belete, only three months on from his escape, such peace remains a distant dream.

He struggles to afford food and rent and worries who he can trust.

“When I left my country, although I was expecting challenges, I was not prepared for how tough it would be,” he told CPJ.

Belete says it’s difficult to report on Ethiopia from abroad and that sometimes he must choose between doing the work he loves and making a living.

“I find myself in a state of profound uncertainty about my future,” said Belete. “I am caught between the aspiration to pursue my journalism career and the necessity of leading an ordinary life to secure my livelihood”.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Africa Program Staff.

But now, Tito’s voice is beamed into Baeza from abroad.

After investigating drug gangs in and around Baeza, he received several death threats last year. So, in October, he and his wife and show producer Elvira del Pilar Nole, and their two children jammed their suitcases into the back of a borrowed car and escaped from Baeza in the dead of night. 

“We were absolutely sure that within the next 24 to 48 hours they were going to attack us,” Nole said. “So, we had to escape.”

Now, they transmit their two-hour morning program, “Buenos Días, América,” from the kitchen table of their cramped apartment in a smoggy, traffic-choked Latin American city which they declined to name out of fears for their safety.  Explaining why she and Tito continue to broadcast from abroad, Nole, 42, says: “We are like an umbilical cord for Baeza because we are the only ones providing local news.”

Tito and Nole have joined a growing exodus of journalists from the South American nation. An outbreak of drug-related violence has led to a surge in threats against journalists, César Ricaurte, the director of Quito-based press freedom group Fundamedios, told CPJ. He said that 16 members of the press have fled Equador since 2023, according to Fundamedios records.

“It has become a regular occurrence due to the rise of organized crime,” Ricaurte said in a phone interview. “Any reporting that that these groups think will hurt their businesses leads to threats and attacks on journalists.” 

Ecuadorian journalists are not the only ones on the run. Across the world, journalists are fleeing direct threats, war, and repressive regimes. Between 2020 and 2023, CPJ’s support to exiled journalists jumped by 227%, with journalists from Afghanistan, Iran, and Nicaragua making up the largest shares of exiled media members to receive help. 

“When a journalist is forced into exile, journalism suffers,” wrote CPJ Emergencies Director Lucy Westcott last year. “Many journalists cease reporting when they relocate, and readers, viewers, and listeners are robbed of the information they need to make informed decisions about their lives.” 

One recent prominent Ecuadorian journalist to pack his bags is José Luis Calderón, a reporter and on-air host for TC Televisión who was held hostage by masked gunmen when they briefly occupied the public TV station in Guayaquil on January 9. During a live newscast, viewers watched as Calderón, 48, tried to reason with the intruders who pointed guns at the journalist, placed a stick of dynamite in his jacket pocket, and threatened to kill his colleagues if police intervened.

“I was trying to calm down the gunmen because we were all in danger,” Calderón told CPJ in a phone interview. “My coworkers were pleading for their lives.” 

Eventually, police arrested the gunmen, but the episode had a devastating impact on Calderón. He told CPJ that he became anxious and paranoid, sought psychiatric help, and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Maintaining that TC Televisión could not guarantee his safety, he quit his job and in April left Ecuador for the United States, where he is seeking political asylum.

“I had to leave because I was in really bad shape,” Calderón said. “My mental health was at stake.”

A CPJ special report published last year found that political turmoil combined with rising organized crime in Ecuador have put journalists at much greater risk, leading to self-censorship among reporters working in high-risk areas, and prompting some to leave the country.

Over the past decade, the country’s drug-trafficking gangs have become increasingly violent while turning Ecuador into a major transit point for cocaine from neighboring Colombia, according to Insight Crime. Between 2019 and 2023, the homicide rate increased by more than 500 percent, according to the independent Ecuadorian Observatory on Organized Crime. 

Following the armed takeover of TC Televisión in January, President Daniel Noboa, who was elected last year on a law-and-order platform, declared a state of “internal armed conflict” against 22 criminal gangs. Since then, overall killings have decreased but extortions and kidnappings have risen and “the security situation remains dire,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Ecuador’s two main gangs, known as Los Choneros and Los Lobos, control many of the country’s prisons and work in concert with Colombian and Mexican cartels as well as corrupt Ecuadorian officials. Ecuadorian prosecutors say that members of Los Lobos planned last year’s assassination of presidential candidate and former journalist Fernando Villavicencio, who had vowed to crack down on gangs.

Journalists reporting on gangs are usually the ones who get threatened, says Karol Noroña, who used to write for the Ecuadorian news site GK. Her troubles began when she began investigating how gang leaders control penitentiaries and run illicit businesses from behind bars. After one of her sources told her that a gang leader was threatening to kill her, Noroña fled Ecuador in April 2022.

“The gangs realized I was not on their side,” Noroña told CPJ in a phone interview. “That’s why I had to go into exile.”

She has split her time between Bogotá and Buenos Aires but says life in exile is sad, depressing, and expensive. 

“The hardest part is getting uprooted,” she said. “I never wanted to leave the country. Not being able to work took away the most important thing in my life.” 

Noroña and other Ecuadorian journalists who have gone into exile told CPJ they’ve received some help from independent groups, like Fundamedios. (CPJ has also provided journalists assistance grants to reporters from Ecuador.) But these journalists complain that government officials in Ecuador have shown zero interest in their plight.

Last year, Ecuador’s government created a “protection mechanism” made up of government officials, civilians, and independent media workers to support at-risk journalists. But Ricardo Rivas, president of the mechanism, told CPJ that the government has so far refused to provide it with any money despite a budget request for about $66,000 to protect media workers. 

“The government talks about the importance of freedom of expression and respect for the press, but in practice it’s not interested,” said Rivas, whose brother, photographer Paúl Rivas, was kidnapped and killed by Colombian guerrillas in 2018. 

Carlos Lauria, author of the CPJ special report on Ecuador and currently executive director of the Inter-American Press Association, said it’s imperative for Ecuador’s government to fund the protection mechanism. In a phone interview with CPJ, he added that the forced exodus of so many journalists — as well as self-censorship by those who remain in the country — had badly damaged press freedom in Ecuador. 

“This is a huge blow for Ecuadorians who need access to vital information in order to debate the country’s problems and make informed decisions,” Lauria told CPJ.

Irene Vélez, the government’s secretary of communications, did not respond to CPJ’s text messages seeking comment. 

The longer journalists remain in exile, the harder it can be for them to remain in the profession, says Ricaurte of Fundamedios. Calderón, for example, is living in Miami, unemployed, and wondering if he’ll ever again find work as a journalist.

“I feel more at peace living in the U.S.,” he says. “But now I have to start my career over, from scratch.”

For Tito and Nole, the husband-and-wife team running Radio Selva from exile, the station keeps them linked to Ecuador and doing the work they love. That’s why from Monday through Friday, they rise at dawn to gather information via phone interviews, chat groups, and social media to keep their morning news show alive.

One subject they no longer cover is drug trafficking. Indeed, their problems began two years ago when Tito, at the urging of local residents whose children were becoming addicting to cocaine, began investigating who was selling drugs in and around Baeza. 

Soon after, burglars broke into Tito and Nole’s house in Baeza and stole their laptops and cell phones. A lawyer who defends gang members warned that they should leave Baeza. To emphasize the point, a man on a motorcycle threatened Tito.

“He lifted up his shirt and showed me his gun,” Tito said. “He called me a ‘toad’ [a police informer] and said: “If you keep publishing this stuff, you will see what will happen.” 

When the family, which includes two daughters ages 13 and 8, decided to flee, they initially moved to another town in Ecuador last October. But when the menacing phone calls didn’t stop, they left the country in January. 

Few people know their whereabouts. Indeed, Baeza residents and town officials are sometimes puzzled when Tito and Nole insist on telephone rather than in-person interviews for their radio program. But they prefer to be discreet about their location. Should people in Baeza find out that the journalists were forced out, they may feel too afraid to speak with them, Nole says. 

It’s unclear how long the family can keep up the charade. They will have to return to Ecuador by the end of the year if they want to renew their government license to operate Radio Selva. It’s also difficult to drum up advertising when they can’t go door-to-door to win over prospective clients. 

But Tito and Nole acknowledge that it’s unlikely security will improve in Ecuador anytime soon or that the drug gangs in and around Baeza will go away. Meanwhile, the journalists have applied for political asylum in the country where they are staying and are mulling proposals from the U.N. refugee agency to relocate to a country even farther away from Ecuador.  

However, such a move would mean unplugging Radio Selva for good. And if that happens, Nole said, “it means that the bad guys win.” 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by John Otis.

“Just like after the murder of our colleague Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, we are once again at a crossroads,” they said in a joint statement, referencing the 2018 killing of Kuciak, likely in retaliation for his journalism on corruption. “This heinous act must not trigger further aggression, verbal attacks and revenge … We must all try to defuse the situation. Otherwise, tension and violence will escalate.”

In Slovakia, journalists have long endured verbal attacks and harassment from across the political spectrum, including under the pro-Western administration that ruled before Fico returned to power for the fourth time in October 2023.

But the editors’ May 16 warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

During CPJ’s latest visit to Slovakia, representatives met with journalists, press freedom advocates, and diplomats in the days surrounding the attack, who described the atmosphere as “depressing,” “toxic,” and “unprecedented.” Several said they saw the attempt on the prime minister’s life as a new chapter in the government’s war on the media. 

On May 18, six newsrooms were threatened with arson in the comments section of a YouTube video by the far-right conspiracy theorist Daniel Bombic, who encouraged the threat, according to Mapping Media Freedom, a project of European press freedom organizations which tracks, monitors, and reacts to violations of press and media freedom in EU member states and candidate countries.

YouTube has since taken down the video and canceled Bombic’s channel for violating the platform’s guidelines.

Bombic, who lives in London, has a huge social media following and is wanted by Slovak authorities on extremism charges. He has hosted senior politicians on YouTube and uses his popular Telegram channel to harass and smear journalists.

CPJ was unable to find contact details to request comment from Bombic.

Since the May 15 attack, the police have worked with half a dozen newsrooms to bolster their security, a government official with knowledge of the situation told CPJ on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Politicians make retaliatory threats against the media

Almost immediately after the attempted assassination, members of the ruling coalition blamed the attack on journalists by linking it to their critical coverage and issued retaliatory threats. 

“This is your fault,” said Ľuboš Blaha, a deputy speaker of parliament and a member of Fico’s Smer party, who has used social media to accuse the press of bias and to smear journalists. “You, the liberal media, the political opposition, what hatred you spread against Robert Fico, you built the gallows for him,” he told reporters before the prime minister was discharged from hospital later in May.

Andrej Danko, leader of the nationalist SNS party, asked reporters, “Are you satisfied now?” and warned that a “political war” had begun and there would be “changes to the media.”

Journalists told CPJ they were not surprised by the vitriol. The environment for the press has taken a nosedive since the 2018 Kuciak murder, which triggered Slovakia’s biggest protests since the 1989 Velvet Revolution. The demonstrators called for an investigation into the journalist’s killing and an election, forcing the then-Prime Minister Fico to resign within weeks.

While in opposition, Fico ramped up his anti-media rhetoric against independent media, which he has long been openly aggressive towards given journalists’ exposure of multiple scandals within his party. Fico successfully used disinformation channels to win popularity by spreading COVID-19 conspiracies.

A 2023 study by the Bratislava-based think tank Globsec found that only 37% of Slovaks trusted the media, compared to 53% in neighboring Czech Republic — reflecting an environment that has been toxic for many years. Numerous politicians have benefited from attacking journalists, a populist call that resonates with a segment of the Slovak public.

In November, the prime minister described four leading outlets as “enemies” in a Facebook video and his office said that it would stop communicating with them because of their “hostile political attitudes.”

In his first video address since the attack, apparently recorded at home and posted on Facebook on June 5, Fico laid the blame for the attack on Slovakia’s liberal opposition, the “anti-government media” and foreign-funded NGOs for creating a climate of hatred and intolerance that made the shooting possible, the BBC reported. He said he did not believe the shooting was the act of “a lone lunatic,” without providing further details.

The day after the attempted assassination, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula was charged with attempted murder.The suspected assailant had a mixed past: he was a poet who founded a platform against violence, while also linked to an ultra-nationalist, pro-Russian paramilitary group. He had expressed criticism of Fico and said in a video filmed after his arrest that he disagreed with government’s policy towards the media.

Journalists fear draconian changes ahead

Journalists told CPJ that they feared politicians would use the attack on Fico as a pretext to push through draconian changes.

This month, parliament is expected to pass a law to abolish the public broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), which Fico has accused of bias, and give the government more control over its planned successor, Slovak Television and Radio (STVR). A senior Ministry of Culture official, Lukáš Machala — who has questioned whether the Earth is round and denounced the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak, a journalism nonprofit founded after Kuciak’s killing, as a “plague” for investigating disinformation — has been named as a candidate to lead STVR. 

Private TV stations are under pressure too.

TV Markíza, Slovakia’s biggest commercial broadcaster, is in turmoil after the host of its most popular debate show was sacked for airing his personal opinions. Michal Kovačič went off-script and spoke about the daily pressure from politicians and management to censor debates and a “creeping Orbánization” of the media.

“If we don’t stop it now, it will have devastating consequences for Slovak democracy,” Kovačič said, referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Fico, whose right-wing government has systematically stifled Hungary’s media, including through forced closure, lawsuits, police harassment, and the use of spyware.

CPJ’s emailed request for comment to the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for media regulation, did not receive a reply.

Increasingly hostile atmosphere for journalists

Even before the shooting, the atmosphere for the media was tense. Slovakia has become increasingly polarized following the victory of Fico’s Smer party in September’s parliamentary vote and April’s presidential election on a pro-Russian, anti-Western platform.

Tensions have risen with mass protests this year over government moves to take control of the public broadcaster RTVS and to close down a special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office that was in charge of the investigation into Kuciak’s murder, as well as pursuing cases involving Fico and his allies.

Journalists told CPJ that they were facing an “orchestrated pattern” of abuse, with politicians verbally attacking reporters in public and online, and their supporters then amplifying their messages on social media. Many felt that the aggressive political rhetoric was worse than before Kuciak’s murder and several expressed fears that such insults could easily escalate into physical violence once again.

Matúš Kostolný, editor-in-chief of the independent Dennik N daily, one of the four “unwelcome” outlets banned from government buildings, told CPJ that the atmosphere was now “more aggressive and more toxic” than after Kuciak’s 2018 murder and he had witnessed an uptick in hateful rhetoric targeting his staff in the last couple of months.

“We can see its impact in our email boxes and social media accounts,” he said.

In the first 100 days of 2024, the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak recorded 20 online attacks against journalists. The center said that 11 of these incidents took place after politicians made negative comments about those individuals.

“Politicians not only fail to condemn these attacks on the media, but increasingly contribute to the hostile environment for journalists,” Lukáš Diko, the head of the center and a longtime journalist.  

“We are not only targeted by politicians, but also by their supporters, both on social media and sometimes also in person. This is leading many to self-censor or to leave the profession.”

Women no longer feel safe working in the media

Women journalists have been particularly affected.

“I have learned many synonyms for prostitutes,” said Beata Balogová, editor-in-chief of daily SME newspaper, describing the surge in sexualized, aggressive hate speech she has received via social media and email in recent months.

“Female journalists have become more cautious,” the prominent veteran journalist told CPJ, referring to the decisions women now make about what stories are safe to publish and where they can go without fear of being verbally abused or attacked.

Her colleague, Zuzana Kovačič Hanzelová, announced in February that she was taking time out to “escape the hate” because she no longer felt safe walking down the street following the publication of her address and phone number and constant online smears.

“My boundaries of what is normal have shifted to the point that it feels like a normal Friday when people wish to rape me and would like to hang me,” she wrote in her farewell column in SME. 

Justice remains elusive for Kuciak

The lack of justice for Kuciak has exacerbated the press’s insecurity.

On CPJ’s trip to Slovakia, representatives met Kuciak’s parents, Jozef and Jana Kuciak, at a memorial to their son in Bratislava’s historic Old Town, where passersby greeted the two, well known for their tireless fight against impunity for their 27-year-old son’s death.

“Keep it up,” one woman encouraged the couple.

Kuciak is widely believed to have been targeted in retaliation for his reporting on corruption for the news website Aktuality. His last story looked at transactions by firms linked to businessman Marián Kočner connected to a luxury apartment scandal.

Despite the conviction of four hitmen and intermediaries, Kočner has twice been found not guilty of masterminding the killings. The Supreme Court has yet to announce a date to hear the appeal against Kočner’s 2023 acquittal, filed by state prosecutors.

Jozef Kuciak also saw warning signs for an era of renewed violence in the prime minister’s shooting.

“I am horrified that something like this could happen again,” said Jozef Kuciak, who is retired but often travels with his wife from their remote village to meet with lawyers, journalists, activists, and politicians to lobby for justice.

He said he had hoped that his son’s death would remind Slovakians to shun violence, whatever their differences, because “human life is just so valuable and cannot be replaced.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Attila Mong.

On June 9, Serbia’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won a vote for Belgrade city council and in partial local elections nationwide, which faced claims of voting irregularities and were punctuated with clashes between supporters of populist President Aleksandar Vučis and the opposition, according to media reports.

On June 2, around noon in Serbia’s north Novi Sad city, a man approached Uglješa Bokić, a journalist for the daily newspaper Danas, punched him in the chest and attempted to snatch his phone before fleeing, according to media reports, a video his employer published, and the journalist who spoke with CPJ via email. 

Bokić, who was filming in the Novi Sad Fair area where skirmishes broke out between police and opposition supporters, told CPJ that he was clearly identified as a journalist with a press ID around his neck and reported receiving bruises, hematomas, and a sternum contusion in the attack, requiring hospital treatment.

Bokić told CPJ that he recognized his attacker as a former police officer and supporter of SNS, which “views my media outlet as hostile,” he said. Serbian media reported that the man was Vladimir Kezmić, a former police officer. Bokić, also a former police officer, told CPJ that they do not know each other. Bokić said he reported the attack and gave a statement to the Novi Sad police, and he has not received further updates as of June 11.

On June 2, in the Zemun Polje neighborhood of Belgrade, a group  of SNS supporters tried to take equipment belonging to Portal Mašina news site journalist Marko Miletić as he filmed alleged voting irregularities outside the ruling party’s local headquarters, according to Cenzolovka, a news website that covers media and press freedom, a video his employer published, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via email. 

According to these reports, Miletić was alerted by opposition supporters about alleged election malpractice in the district. While he was photographing documents provided by the opposition outside the headquarters, several individuals emerged from the building, approached him and the opposition activists. A woman with the SNS supporters attempted to snatch his mobile phone while he was filming, and together with two men, she chased him away.

Miletić told CPJ that he did not report the attack to the police because he does not trust the “institutions of the justice system” and he fears for his safety after the attack.

“Serbian authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into recent attacks on journalists covering elections, hold the perpetrators to account, and ensure that members of the press can cover issues of public interest without fear of physical attacks and reprisal,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “The environment for journalism in Serbia is increasingly hostile, and authorities must take effective actions to protect journalists.”

In a CPJ report published in May, journalists critical of President Vučić and his policies said they sometimes felt targeted in orchestrated campaigns by ruling party supporters, politicians, public officials, and pro-government media.

In a statement, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia condemned the attacks against journalists and said on June 3 that the election campaign period and the election day itself “were marked by campaigns to slander journalists, targeting and interfering with their work, and even physical attacks by ruling officials and activists of their party.” 

CPJ emailed the press department of the Serbian Progressive Party and the prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad but received no reply. CPJ was unable to find contact details for Kezmić. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On May 16, in Mozambique’s central Zambézia province, about 10 private security guards assaulted and threatened STV reporter Jorge Marcos and camera operator Verson Paulo at a Renamo opposition party event, according to the two journalists, a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and video footage of the incident reviewed by CPJ.

The police were also there but did nothing, Marcos said, and Paulo added that his camera was damaged in the incident.

Marcos said that the private security officers also yelled insults and accused them of working for Venâncio Mondlane, a challenger to presidential hopeful Ossumo Momade, leader of the opposition Renamo party, in October’s election.

Three private security officers interrupted TV Sucesso reporter Ernesto Martinho and camera operator Valdo Massingue during a May 5 live report from a school in the capital of Maputo, where the ruling Frelimo party was holding a congress to elect its next presidential candidate, according to the MISA statement and the journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

Frelimo has governed the country and nominated all of its presidents since the country became independent in 1975. Its current president, Filipe Nyusi, is term-limited and will leave office after the upcoming national election.

The private security officers expelled both journalists from the school grounds, told Martinho that he was banned from covering the event, and threatened to also ban all TV Sucesso journalists. Martinho said that a security officer briefly confiscated his microphone, and Valdo said that security personnel also tried to confiscate his camera.

“Mozambique’s October 2024 elections will be pivotal, and political parties must not be allowed to dictate what information reaches the public domain by harassing and intimidating journalists,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Mozambican authorities, as well as the leadership of the Frelimo and Renamo parties, must hold those responsible to account for attacks on at least five journalists covering election-related events.”

On March 28, journalist Atanázio Amade was arrested while he was covering the voter registration process in the northern Nampula province, after a Frelimo party official alleged that the journalist did not have the proper credentials to be present, according to the journalist who spoke to CPJ and the MISA statement.

Amade, who works with the community radio Ehale, said that he was taken to a local station where the national police’s district commander Américo Francisco, and directors with Mozambique’s Information and National Security Service (SISE) and the Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), forced him to delete footage of voters waiting in long queues to register and told him that he “was infringing the law and committing fraud because he was monitoring the electoral registration without special authorization.” Amade said he did not know the names of the SISE and SERNIC directors.

Renamo spokesperson José Manteigas and Frelimo spokesperson Ludmila Maguni did not respond to CPJ’s phone calls or messages. Rosa Chaúque, spokesperson of the police in Nampula told CPJ via phone that she would look into the incident involving Amade and get back to CPJ. Chaúque did not answer several subsequent calls or messages.

Emina Tsimine, spokesperson for Sernic, told CPJ via message app that Amade did not identify himself before taking photos at the registry posts and that electoral posts have “heightened levels of security.” She added that Sernic and SISE “merely made the journalist aware of the need to identify himself to avoid these situations” and that both police forces took 20 minutes to speak to him to ascertain his identity, not being responsible for the journalist being held for five hours.

SISE representatives could not be reached for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On May 16, in Mozambique’s central Zambézia province, about 10 private security guards assaulted and threatened STV reporter Jorge Marcos and camera operator Verson Paulo at a Renamo opposition party event, according to the two journalists, a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and video footage of the incident reviewed by CPJ.

The police were also there but did nothing, Marcos said, and Paulo added that his camera was damaged in the incident.

Marcos said that the private security officers also yelled insults and accused them of working for Venâncio Mondlane, a challenger to presidential hopeful Ossumo Momade, leader of the opposition Renamo party, in October’s election.

Three private security officers interrupted TV Sucesso reporter Ernesto Martinho and camera operator Valdo Massingue during a May 5 live report from a school in the capital of Maputo, where the ruling Frelimo party was holding a congress to elect its next presidential candidate, according to the MISA statement and the journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

Frelimo has governed the country and nominated all of its presidents since the country became independent in 1975. Its current president, Filipe Nyusi, is term-limited and will leave office after the upcoming national election.

The private security officers expelled both journalists from the school grounds, told Martinho that he was banned from covering the event, and threatened to also ban all TV Sucesso journalists. Martinho said that a security officer briefly confiscated his microphone, and Valdo said that security personnel also tried to confiscate his camera.

“Mozambique’s October 2024 elections will be pivotal, and political parties must not be allowed to dictate what information reaches the public domain by harassing and intimidating journalists,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Mozambican authorities, as well as the leadership of the Frelimo and Renamo parties, must hold those responsible to account for attacks on at least five journalists covering election-related events.”

On March 28, journalist Atanázio Amade was arrested while he was covering the voter registration process in the northern Nampula province, after a Frelimo party official alleged that the journalist did not have the proper credentials to be present, according to the journalist who spoke to CPJ and the MISA statement.

Amade, who works with the community radio Ehale, said that he was taken to a local station where the national police’s district commander Américo Francisco, and directors with Mozambique’s Information and National Security Service (SISE) and the Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), forced him to delete footage of voters waiting in long queues to register and told him that he “was infringing the law and committing fraud because he was monitoring the electoral registration without special authorization.” Amade said he did not know the names of the SISE and SERNIC directors.

Renamo spokesperson José Manteigas and Frelimo spokesperson Ludmila Maguni did not respond to CPJ’s phone calls or messages. Rosa Chaúque, spokesperson of the police in Nampula told CPJ via phone that she would look into the incident involving Amade and get back to CPJ. Chaúque did not answer several subsequent calls or messages.

Emina Tsimine, spokesperson for Sernic, told CPJ via message app that Amade did not identify himself before taking photos at the registry posts and that electoral posts have “heightened levels of security.” She added that Sernic and SISE “merely made the journalist aware of the need to identify himself to avoid these situations” and that both police forces took 20 minutes to speak to him to ascertain his identity, not being responsible for the journalist being held for five hours.

SISE representatives could not be reached for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

At around 6:00 p.m. on June 4, seven police officers chased and arrested Sheila Wilson while she was reporting live from a protest by hundreds of former secret service agents over alleged non-payment of pensions, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ.

Wilson, a reporter with the the non-governmental organization Center for Democracy and Human Rights, was broadcasting live on the Facebook page of the advocacy group’s President Adriano Nuvunga.

Wilson said the police officers grabbed her, threw her under the seat of a police van, and took her to the Fourth Station in Maputo where she was held for six hours without being allowed to contact anyone.

Wilson told CPJ that upon her release, the police retained her phone and told her that she would face an investigation, without specifying the charges. 

“I handed my life to God when they told me that they would have a little chat with me at the station,” she said, adding that she was fearful that she would die in police custody like an activist did in 2023. “I was lucky to get off with a bruise and a bump on the head only.”

Robbed while interviewing police spokesperson

During the June 4 protest, five unidentified men grabbed the arms of reporter Laves Macatane and camera operator Hélder Matwassa, immobilizing them and pushing Matwassa to the ground, the journalists told CPJ. Macatane and Matwassa, who both work with the private broadcaster STV, were interviewing Maputo police spokesperson Leonel Muchina when the assailants stole their camera,  the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said in a statement, and the journalists told CPJ.

The journalists told CPJ that their assailants ran through a police security cordon and left in a Toyota vehicle that had no license plates without being questioned or chased, despite the heavy presence of police officers.

“It paints a very disheartening picture of press freedom in Mozambique that instead of protecting journalists covering a protest, police violently arrested one reporter and stood by as two others were robbed,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo in Nairobi. “Authorities should credibly investigate the robbery of the two STV journalists and discontinue any criminal proceedings against CDD reporter Sheila Wilson.”

Macatane told CPJ that police spokesperson Muchina approached him after they filmed police charging at elderly protestors, including a woman who cried as she was dragged on the ground and beaten, and asked the journalists not to air the footage due to the risk of it causing “unrest.” When Macatane refused, Muchina spoke to his colleagues, then came back a few minutes later and asked to be interviewed. 

“While we were doing [the interview] the men in plainclothes came and grabbed us, threw Matwassa to the ground, and took his camera — all while the police spokesman watched unmoved,” Macatane said. 

That evening, the journalists said, police at Maputo’s Third Station initially refused to record the complaint on the grounds that the stolen equipment belonged to STV, not the individual journalists.

When STV editor-in-chief Emildo Sambo came to the station to press their case, the police finally agreed to register the complaint, the journalists and STV’s director of information Olivia Massango told CPJ.

Macatane said he believed that he recognized some of his assailants among officers inside the police station, as well as the same Toyota car with no license plates outside of the building.

The officer who registered the journalists’ complaint said it would be handled by the independent National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) as it was outside the police’s jurisdiction, Macatane said.

Muchina referred CPJ’s request for comment to the national police as he said he was not authorized to speak with an “international institution.”

National police commander Bernardino Rafael did not respond to CPJ calls and text messages requesting comment.   

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

During the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March, which commemorates the June 5 capture of East Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the 1967 war, Israeli settlers and far right protesters assaulted Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi, who contributes to the local news agency Al-Asiman News, and Israeli journalist Nir Hasson, a reporter for the Israeli daily Haaretz, according to the journalists’ employers, and Kwasmi and Hasson, who spoke to CPJ in person and on the phone on June 5 and 6, respectively.

“Israeli security forces stood idly by while protesters harassed and assaulted Palestinian and Israeli journalists who were reporting on the march. Not only did they fail to do their duty, but they blamed Palestinian journalist Saif Kwasmi for protecting himself from aggression,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martìnez de la Serna. “We call on Israeli authorities to investigate these incidents, identify the culprits and hold them to account.”  

Kwasmi told CPJ that he was filming the closure of local shops in Jerusalem’s Old City after Israeli police ordered the businesses to shut down during the march.

“I was wearing my vest marked with the word ‘press’ and the card given to us by the police spokesperson. A group of young Israeli settlers started to harass us and tried to attack (Palestinian journalist) Diala Jweihan. They began to push me and tried to snatch my cell phone. I had to protect myself and tried to push them away from us because there were more than 20 settlers assaulting us,” Kwasmi said.

Kwasmi explained that the Israeli border police officers did nothing to assist them until they realized that an Israeli journalist (Nir Hasson) was also under attack. Only then did they begin to push settlers away. 

“An Israeli police officer started hitting me and took me to a side street to arrest me. I told him that I am a journalist and produced my card. They escorted the journalists outside of the Old City and to a place for journalists,” Kwasmi explained. 

Later that day, two border police officers approached Kwasmi at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate and questioned him for about half an hour about his work and his reason for being there. A police commander and a member of the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet subsequently joined them and accused Kwasmi of incitement, a claim that he denied. Kwasmi told them he is a journalist and holds a card from the Israeli Journalists’ Union, but they told him that in order to work as a journalist he needs permission from the Israeli Government Press Office.    

A witness from CPJ who was at the march saw Israeli radical activist Yedydya Epstein, who is famous for disrupting the work of Al-Jazeera reporters in Israel, on the scene filming the questioning of Kwasmi and urging the police to arrest him.

For his part, Haaretz reporter Nir Hasson told CPJ that, hours before the start of the march, a group of Israeli settlers were marching on Jerusalem’s Old City terrorizing the locals and attacking the journalists systematically to prevent them from covering the attacks on the local residents.

“At some point the settlers attacked Saif and two other journalists in front of Israeli border police officers who just stood there and did nothing at first so I had to step in to stop the attack. I was pushed to the ground and beaten by the settlers. I didn’t sustain any serious injuries,” Hasson said.

Hasson added that the Israeli police didn’t allow journalists to work freely and failed to protect them.

“They gathered all the journalists in a place away from settlers instead of stopping the attackers. They prevented journalists from covering what was happening to the local residents,” he said.  

According to CPJ research, Israeli police officers briefly detained and assaulted Kwasmi in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque in April 2024. 

CPJ had documented numerous assaults on journalists since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Since late last year, Tajik law enforcement agencies have repeatedly summoned, interrogated, and threatened relatives of five Azda TV journalists in relation to the journalists’ work, according to Azda TV director and chief editor Muhamadjon Kabirov, who spoke to CPJ by telephone. Kabirov said the harassment of the journalists’ family members has been going on for several years but has intensified in recent months.

Separately, four of the five Azda TV journalists feature alongside at least a dozen exiled Tajik journalists in a Russian interior ministry wanted list published by Russian media earlier this year. Kabirov told CPJ there was “little doubt” Russian authorities placed them there at the request of the Tajik government.

International rights organizations regularly name Tajikistan as one of the world’s most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression – the silencing of overseas dissent by tactics including a suspected assassination, rendition, and family intimidation. CPJ has repeatedly documented how Tajik authorities harass relatives of exiled journalists in retaliation for the journalists’ work.

“Tajikistan continues to uphold its dismal reputation as one of the world’s worst perpetrators of transnational repression. Having forced dozens of journalists into exile, authorities continue to hound and harass them by targeting their relatives. No journalist should have to endure the anguish of knowing they are putting their loved ones at risk,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Tajik authorities must stop this appalling practice of transnational punishment. Exiled journalists play a crucial role in delivering independent news and countering Russian propaganda in Tajikistan, and Western governments and journalist organizations should support them.”

Azda TV was formed in 2019 and publishes primarily on YouTube, where it has almost 180,000 subscribers across its Tajik and Russian-language channels, which feature a popular flagship daily news show. The outlet’s website has been blocked in Tajikistan, according to Kabirov.

Kabirov told CPJ that Tajik police and prosecutors have summoned his father, father-in-law, and mother-in-law on “dozens” of occasions in the past months, pressuring them to persuade Kabirov to cease his work and convince him and his wife to return to Tajikistan. Kabirov’s 72-year-old father-in-law passed away from a heart attack the day after one of these repeat interrogations, he said, but added that he didn’t have enough information to say whether this was related to authorities’ harassment.

Tajik law enforcement have similarly harassed relatives of Azda TV presenters Firuz Hayit and Shuhrat Rahmatullo, and journalists Amrullo Nizomov and Mahmadsharif Magzumzoda – at times summoning them two or three times a month over the journalists’ work, according to information from the journalists passed to CPJ by Kabirov. Nizomov told CPJ that police detained his two brothers for a week last September and beat them, and have continued to summon them since, which he believes is due to his work for Azda and critical posts on social media.

Tajik authorities have not officially announced a ban on Azda TV as “extremist” as they have with other exiled media, but in 2022 they justified a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence handed down to journalist Abdullo Ghurbati in part with his subscription to Azda TV’s YouTube channel, saying the outlet was linked to “extremist and terrorist” opposition groups.

Several Azda TV staff fled Tajikistan along with what reports say could be dozens of journalists in 2015-17, amid a crackdown that followed the banning of the country’s main opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). Kabirov and several of his colleagues are closely related to prominent exiled or jailed IRPT leaders, while Kabirov is also a well-known human rights activist, and his and his colleagues’ family members have previously been targeted for these reasons, but the journalists told CPJ they are certain that recent pressure is due to their journalistic work.

Harassment of the journalists’ family members has peaked in relation to Azda’s coverage of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s visits to Europe in September and April, which accompanied a wider wave of pressure on relatives of Europe-based Tajik activists, Kabirov said, but the harassment has strengthened over the past two years as Azda’s reports have become more analytical and as alternative critical voices have increasingly been silenced.

CPJ has previously documented how Tajik authorities have harassed relatives of exiled journalists Humayra Bakhtiyar, Mirzo Salimpur, and Anora Sarkorova. Last year, Shavkatjon Sharipov, head of broadcasting at exiled news outlet Payom, alleged that Tajik authorities extradited his brother from Russia on what he described as spurious extremism charges in retaliation for Sharipov’s work.

In February, independent Russian outlet Mediazona published the Russian interior ministry’s full database of wanted individuals. CPJ has identified the names of a dozen Tajik journalists on the list: Kabirov, Rahmatullo, Nizomov, and Magzumzoda from Azda TV; journalists Sharipov, Abdumanon Sheraliev, Tahmina Bobokhonova, and Soima Saidova from Payom;  Muhamadiqbol Sadriddinov (Sadurdinov), founder of exile-based broadcaster Isloh TV; independent journalist and activist Temur Varky (Klychev); and ethnic Pamiri journalists Anora Sarkorova and Rustam Joni (Djoniev).

Some of the journalists told CPJ they were aware of retaliatory criminal cases or convictions against them, and others have previously been reported in the media, while Tajik authorities confirmed a criminal case against Sarkorova following the publication of the Mediazona report. Kabirov said he, Nizomov, and Magzumzoda were not aware of any criminal prosecution against them in Tajikistan but that they weren’t surprised  to find themselves on the wanted list. “The Tajik government uses any mechanisms and opportunities to target activists and journalists,” Kabirov said, adding that the Azda journalists “usually avoid travelling to post-Soviet countries” due to the risk of extradition to Tajikistan.

CPJ emailed Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Office of the Prosecutor-General for comment, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Men dressed in military fatigues and forming a protective cordon around MK leader Jacob Zuma took aggressive action against a group of journalists trying to photograph and film Zuma’s arrival at the rally in Soweto, southwest of the city of Johannesburg, according to a statement by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), an industry body, and an account by Amanda Khoza, who covers the presidency for the privately owned digital news publication News24.

Zuma, the country’s former president who left office in 2018 following a series of corruption scandals and launched MK in 2023, was holding the rally to launch his new party’s manifesto ahead of the country’s May 29 elections.

Khoza published videos on X, formerly Twitter, showing the men shoving journalists, some of whom fell to the ground, as Zuma entered the stadium. Zuma himself is banned from running as a candidate in the election after a May 20 Constitutional Court ruling that a previous criminal conviction made him ineligible.

Khoza told CPJ that she was among the journalists who were pushed and fell. A separate video clip, reviewed by CPJ, shows one of the men rushing towards another journalist holding a camera, violently pushing her as other reporters protested his behavior.

Another journalist, who is not being named due to safety concerns, said that one of the men in military fatigues sexually assaulted her. “He literally held my breasts, looked me in the eyes before violently pushing me away,” she said. A third journalist at the scene – who requested anonymity, also for safety concerns – told CPJ that they witnessed the sexual assault on the woman journalist and saw the men in military fatigues kicking some of their colleagues. 

CPJ was unable to determine the exact number of journalists who were harassed or assaulted during the rally.

“Ensuring the safety and freedom of journalists to report without fear of sexual and physical assault is crucial for South Africa’s democracy and the integrity of its forthcoming elections,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program in Maputo, Mozambique. “Given the high rate of gender-based violence in South Africa, former president Jacob Zuma and the leadership of his MK party must not tolerate the thuggery within their ranks. They must take immediate action to hand over those responsible to authorities for arrest and prosecution, or risk complicity through inaction.”  

Zuma founded his MK party in December 2023, naming it after the armed wing deployed by the African National Congress (ANC) during its fight against apartheid. Opinion polls indicate that the ANC – the governing party since winning the 1994 democratic election under Nelson Mandela – could lose its majority in the upcoming vote.

Ahead of the election, SANEF urged political parties and candidates to endorse a Statement of Commitment submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, which includes provisions on ensuring media access to election-related information and the protection of journalists against “any act of intimidation, harassment, harm or other unlawful conduct”.  

South African law requires all political parties and candidates taking part in the elections to abide by an Electoral Code of Conduct that includes provisions directing them to “respect the role of the media before, during and after an election,” ensure access to public meetings, and to “take all reasonable steps to ensure that journalists are not subjected to harassment, intimidation, hazard, threat or physical assault by any of their representatives or supporters.”  

MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela, South African Police Service spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, and Electoral Commission spokesperson Kate Bapela did not respond to CPJ’s repeated calls and queries sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On May 18, the private bodyguards of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine, harassed and assaulted the three journalists who were covering the funeral of a prominent businessman in the central region district of Lwengo, according to media reports, a statement by the local press rights group the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, and the journalists who separately spoke to CPJ. The attack happened just after Kyagulanyi, who is president of the National Unity Platform (NUP) political party, arrived at the burial grounds and greeted mourners, according to media reports and the journalists. 

“Ugandan journalists must be allowed to work without fear of violence,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Authorities should ensure accountability for the assault and harassment of these three journalists, and NUP opposition party officials must take concrete steps to ensure that their private security personnel do not pose a threat to the media.”

Kayondo, a reporter with the privately owned Radio Simba, told CPJ that she was filming Kyagulanyi’s arrival when two bodyguards attacked her, pushing her to the ground. The journalist said one of bodyguards repeatedly slapped and punched her in the back. Kayondo said she was treated at a local hospital for a nosebleed and general body pain, adding that her mobile phone and sweater were stolen during the attack.    

Namusaazi, a reporter with the privately owned Next Media Services, told CPJ that she witnessed the attack on Kayondo, shouted for the bodyguards to stop, and told them that Kayondo was a journalist. Namusaazi said that the two bodyguards then turned on her, punching her on the knee and breaking her camera. Namusaazi said that she recognized the man who broke her camera as Achileo Kivumbi, a known member of Kyagulanyi’s security detail. Namusaazi did not suffer injuries requiring treatment.

Mutyaba, a reporter with the privately owned Nation Media Group, told CPJ that Kivumbi grabbed her camera and tried to confiscate it but was ordered to return it by Edward Ssebuwufu, the head of Kyagulanyi’s security detail who is also known as Edwward Mutwe. 

On May 20, the Greater Masaka Journalists Association (GREMAJA), a local journalist umbrella body, issued a two-day ultimatum for an apology and compensation from Kyagulanyi’s party and warned they would pursue litigation. Namusaazi and Kayondo filed cases at Kiwangala Police Station, in Lwengo district.

On May 21, Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, the NUP party deputy spokesperson, told CPJ in a telephone interview that the party has conducted internal investigations and said the accusations by the journalists are baseless. 

In a separate telephone interview on May 21, NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi told CPJ that the party believes journalism is not a crime, and they are investigating the incident. Ssenyonyi also serves as opposition leader in Parliament, which is a constitutional position appointed by the largest opposition party in Parliament. Ssenyonyi said that he had interviewed some of Kyagulanyi’s private security personnel, who provided an account of events at the funeral that did match the journalists’. Ssenyonyi said the bodyguards accused Namusaazi of insulting them and claimed that she did not have a camera. Ssenyonyi said that once investigations were concluded the party would act in the event of any wrongdoing, including by barring those culpable from future events. 

On May 21, Twaha Kasirye, the Greater Masaka Regional police spokesperson, confirmed to CPJ that Namusaazi and Kayondo had filed cases with police and had been requested to provide additional information, upon which investigating authorities will determine how to proceed.

The incident is the latest of several CPJ documented cases where journalists covering public events in Uganda have been targeted with robberies, detention, and assault.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The letter, also signed by 10 other groups, including international and regional press freedom organizations, requests that Minister for Internal Affairs Pance Toskovski refrain from publicly commenting on Saliu’s case until “an official investigation has been conducted,” as his prior comments may have put “undue pressure on police investigating the case.”

According to a CPJ report, Saliu was arrested about 27 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of the capital Skopje, shortly after he filmed police breaking up a fight between rival fans at a football match. Police claimed that the journalist attacked them, which Saliu denied. 

Authorities have rejected a complaint filed against the police by Saliu and independent local press freedom groups.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, May 6, an officer with Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs in the city of Dzhankoi, in northern Crimea, came to Zudiyeva’s home to question her but she refused to answer, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ and posted a video of the visit on X, formerly Twitter, and a report by local human rights group Crimean Solidarity. 

The next day, another officer with the Ministry came to her home and asked her to sign a document warning her about the “inadmissibility of violating the law,” Zudiyeva reported on Facebook. 

Both agents said they were “executing the order of higher authorities” Zudiyeva told CPJ.

“Lutfiye Zudiyeva is one of few remaining independent journalists in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea. She should not be pressured over her crucial reporting of human rights issues in the peninsula,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately stop harassing Zudiyeva and let members of the press work freely.”

The officer who spoke to Zudiyeva on Monday said he was with the criminal investigation department of the Ministry’s Dzhankoi branch and that he was sent by the Crimean branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Center for Combating Extremism, but he did not reveal the purpose of the questioning, those sources said. Zudiyeva refused to be questioned. 

The document Zudiyeva signed on Tuesday stated that the journalist is aware of her “responsibility for violating” the rules of mass protests, according to Crimean Solidarity. This document, which does not have any legal force, can be used as an aggravating factor to prosecute her if she were to cover an event that the authorities have deemed illegal, she told CPJ, adding that neither the document nor the police officer specified the basis of the warning, what event was at issue, or how the journalist was connected to it. 

“In fact, they use this document as an act of psychological pressure to deter the journalist from [covering the event] and make them engage in self-censorship,” she said.

On Monday, several local lawyers and activists were handed down similar warnings. 

“The practice of issuing warnings in May is a long-standing one. We assume that this is related to the upcoming date of May 18, the anniversary of the [Soviet authorities’] deportation of the Crimean Tatar people [in 1944],”she said. “Traditionally on these days in Crimea there are many events of different nature, including mass gatherings of Crimean Tatars at memorials […], as well as collective prayer services in all Crimean mosques”, Zudiyeva told CPJ, adding that “huge rallies” were previously held in the center of Simferopol, Crimea’s capital, but that the Russian authorities had banned them. “Naturally, journalists have tried to cover these events, because this date is important both for Crimean Tatars and for other residents of the peninsula,” she said.

Zudiyeva has covered the plight and trials of Crimean political prisoners as a member of Crimean Solidarity since 2016. She joined the editorial staff of Ukrainian media project Graty in July 2021 and is interning in the field of forensic journalism and storytelling, she told CPJ. 

In July 2023, a Crimean court fined Zudiyeva 12,000 rubles (US$132) and charged her with participating in an illegal protest “with the purpose of subsequently giving information in the media.” In February 2024, officers with the Center for Combating Extremism searched Zudiyeva’s house, seized her technical equipment and detained her for around six hours, according to media reports. 

Since 2019, Zudiyeva has been fined three other times, for a total amount of 6,500 rubles (US$71), in connection with her posts on social media, she told CPJ. She received the last two fines following the February search.

Crimean Solidarity is a support group that helps Crimean political prisoners by publicizing their prosecution and advocating for their release, as CPJ has documented. Since Russian authorities cracked down on independent media in Crimea after annexing the peninsula in 2014, many reporters have engaged in “civic journalism,” particularly focused on human rights issues affecting Crimean Tatars, according to media reports and CPJ’s research.

Russia held at least 10 Ukrainian journalists in jail at the time of CPJ’s annual prison census on December 1, 2023. The number has since increased to 14. 

CPJ’s call to the Dzhankoi branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia did not connect.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

During a televised news conference on Tuesday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab, an ally of authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, claimed that Armando.Info was part of a “media structure” that was using extortion to wage a dirty war against the government. 

Saab said that Armando.Info had demanded bribes from Tareck El Aissami during his term as oil minister from 2020 to 2023. In exchange, Saab alleged that Armando.Info promised to soften or kill negative articles about him, his allies, and the state-run oil company, and to criticize El Assiami’s government rivals. El Aissami, who served as vice president before becoming oil minister, was arrested on corruption charges last month. 

“Venezuelan authorities must halt their crusade against independent media. The retaliation against Armando.info’s investigations into top-level government corruption is intolerable,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “The harassment must cease, and authorities must permit all journalists at Armando.info to pursue their vital work without restrictions.”

In a statement posted on X, Armando.Info denied the allegations and described them as a preemptive strike by authorities ahead of a PBS documentary, set to air on May 14, highlighting Armando.Info’s efforts to expose government corruption in Venezuela.

“This is a very clumsy and improvised maneuver to try to discredit Armando.Info, intimidate its journalists, stop the broadcast of the documentary, and to silence us,” the outlet said in the statement.  

Armando.Info was founded 10 years ago in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, by Ewald Scharfenberg. In 2018, Scharfenberg, editor Roberto Deniz, and two more of the website’s journalists fled Venezuela after they were sued for criminal defamation over stories published in 2017 that alleged corruption within a state-run food distribution program during a time of widespread food shortages. In 2021, a criminal court in Caracas issued an arrest warrant for Deniz on charges of “inciting hate,” which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

In a phone interview, Scharfenberg told CPJ that Saab’s allegations would not stop Armando.Info from publishing its investigations. However, he said he was worried that government authorities could harass relatives of exiled Armando.Info journalists who live in Venezuela, as well as the website’s five Caracas-based reporters.

The accusations against Armando.Info come amid rising tensions in Venezuela ahead of a July 28 presidential election in which Maduro is seeking a third six-year term. 

The Caracas-based Institute for Press and Society, which promotes freedom of information and expression, said in a report last week that government officials had closed 11 radio stations between January and April, publicly stigmatized journalists and media outlets, and used the legal system to harass reporters.

There was no response to CPJ’s calls and emails seeking comment from the Attorney General’s office.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The tool will expand the reach and usability of CPJ’s suite of safety tools tailored for elections, protests, and digital and physical safety, among other areas. This vital resource comes at a time of increased political violence, polarization, and the targeting of journalists, both online and in person.

“In a year in which half the world’s population will head to the polls and amid heightened threats against the press, CPJ’s safety chatbot delivers crucial physical, digital, and psychosocial safety information directly into the hands of journalists whenever and wherever they need it,” said Lucy Westcott, CPJ’s emergencies director. “As journalists around the world confront multiple challenges in their work, this initiative will support journalists to stay safe before, during, and after their assignments.”

CPJ’s chatbot automatically sends safety information to journalists, providing them with critical safety resources, including risk assessments, guidance for reporting in a war zone, digital safety information, and advice on reporting in environments containing unexploded ordnance (UXO). 

To access the information, journalists should add CPJ’s journalist safety chatbot as a contact using the number +1 206-590-6191, open WhatsApp, and text the number “Hello.” From there, a menu of journalist safety resource options will appear for users to navigate and select from.  

By ensuring that journalists reporting on the ground can easily access potentially lifesaving information, CPJ’s journalist safety chatbot will reduce the barriers to access safety information and help mitigate safety risks for reporters in the field.

CPJ’s Emergencies team first released a limited version of the chatbot in 2023 to disseminate safety resources to journalists covering the Russia-Ukraine war. 

The newly expanded chatbot builds on the previous version by expanding the resources available and making them applicable to multiple reporting scenarios. This project was developed as part of the Chat for Impact Accelerator 2022 hosted by Turn.io in partnership with WhatsApp. 

About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. CPJ defends the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Media contact: press@cpj.org

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Amid bans on May Day celebrations, Istanbul police blocked a route in Istanbul’s Saraçhane district that leads to Taksim Square, deployed tear gas, fired rubber bullets, and detained hundreds of protesters participating in a march to the square and other locations, according to news reports. Journalists at the march site were also manhandled, subjected to tear gas, and police shot at least two reporters with rubber bullets in separate incidents.

“Police are legally obligated to protect field reporters, not obstruct them from performing their duty, but Turkish police routinely do the opposite. On May 1, police again used excessive measures against reporters, including brute force, tear gas, and rubber bullets,” Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative, said on Thursday. “Turkish authorities should stop these press freedom violations, investigate the May Day incidents, and hold those responsible to account.”

Fatoş Erdoğan, a reporter for critical outlet Dokuz8 Haber, told CPJ via messaging app that police shot her in the leg with a rubber bullet on the Saraçhane district road to Taksim Square, where authorities formed a blockade at the Valens Aqueducts, seen in a photo posted on X, formerly Twitter, by journalist Umut Taştan.

“We were [filming] with our eyes closed at the time due to [the police] spraying [tear] gas. I don’t know in this case if I was targeted with the bullet,” said Erdoğan, who was later forcibly removed from the yard of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality by the police, as captured on video. Erdoğan told CPJ that she would not be filing criminal complaints regarding the events of May 1, but she had made three previous complaints over similar incidents with law enforcement.

Taştan, a reporter for the critical outlet KRT TV, was shot in the foot with a rubber bullet at the police blockade in Saraçhane district, according to the nonprofit Media and Law Studies Association. CPJ was unable to reach Taştan for comment. The journalist last month also reported being hit with rubber bullets by the police in the eastern city of Van.

Istanbul’s riot police blocked routes to Taksim Square in other districts and prevented the press from working, according to news reports.

Police in the Beşiktaş district obstructed members of the media as officers took people into custody. A reporter for the critical Sözcü TV said in a live broadcast that she heard one police officer commanding others to “sweep the press.”

Celebrations in Istanbul’s Taksim Square have been historically significant for the leftists in Turkey, especially since the massacre of 1977, when unidentified people shot at the crowd, causing a panic which resulted in at least 34 dead and 136 wounded.

May Day gatherings were banned in Taksim Square following a military coup in 1980. In 2010, the ruling Justice and Development Party allowed Turks to celebrate May Day in the square for the first time in 30 years but then reinstated the ban in 2013. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not allowed the public into Taksim Square on May 1 since then.

On Tuesday, Erdoğan said that Taksim Square was not a suitable location for political rallies and authorities would not allow “terrorist organizations” to exploit the opportunity for propaganda purposes. The human rights group Amnesty International criticized the ban as unlawful and Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that it violated the right to assembly.

CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, for comment but did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The parliamentary resolution condemned Hong Kong’s adoption last month of a new security law, which includes offenses for treason, sabotage, sedition, theft of state secrets, and espionage. The latest legislation expands on a Beijing-imposed 2020 national security law, under which more than 200 people — including Lai — have been arrested, according to the European Parliament.

“The European Parliament’s resolution sends a clear signal to Hong Kong authorities — we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Apple Daily’s Jimmy Lai and pro-democracy activists who have been jailed for speaking out against repression,” said Tom Gibson CPJ’s EU representative. “Hong Kong and Chinese authorities should repeal the Hong Kong security laws and stop harassing and prosecuting journalists.”

In 2023, the European Parliament urged Hong Kong to immediately and unconditionally release Lai, saying that he had been detained on “trumped-up charges.”

Lai faces life imprisonment if convicted of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 security law.

A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy, including freedom of speech, under a “one country, two system” formula.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Two commercial banks, Premier Bank and Dahabshil Bank International told the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) on April 13 and April 17, respectively, that they had suspended the organization’s accounts on orders from the Banadir Regional Court, whose jurisdiction includes the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to copies of the banks’ emails reviewed by CPJ.

On April 15, IBS Bank orally informed SJS officials in Mogadishu that it had suspended the organization’s accounts, also citing court orders, according to Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the syndicate’s secretary general, who spoke to CPJ via email and messaging app.  

Abdalle told CPJ, that as of April 19, SJS and its lawyers have not officially received copies of the court’s suspension orders. However, Abdalle said the organization independently acquired, through its sources, a copy of the court’s directive to Premier Bank. In the April 9 letter, which SJS republished with a statement on April 14, the court said that the suspension order was in response to a report submitted by Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General, alleging that Abdalle and “his media organization used a fake media license to open the account and conduct illegal press activities while the organization named Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) is not registered.” The letter also authorized the attorney general to investigate SJS on these allegations and asked the banks to cooperate with this inquiry.

In an April 16  statement published on Facebook, Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General confirmed that it had submitted a report to the court, reiterated the allegations that SJS registered its accounts with “fake documents,” and said that the organization had breached sections of Somalia’s penal code that criminalize defamation, without specifying whom the organization was accused of defaming. The statement said that the attorney general would file charges against SJS once the investigations were concluded.

“The investigations into the allegations of criminal offenses by SJS are apparent acts of retaliation and the latest attacks on an organization that has been staunchly vocal about Somalia’s poor press freedom record,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Somali authorities should stop the legal harassment of the syndicate and reform the country’s laws to scrap criminal defamation, in line with international and regional standards on freedom of expression.”

SJS is under investigation for allegedly breaching sections of the penal code that punish the falsification of documents and certificates with up to 64 months in prison and impose a prison term of up to three years for defamation convictions, according to the statement by the attorney general, which does not state whether any specific SJS official would be criminally liable for these offenses. The organization is also accused of contravening sections of Somalia’s press law that require media outlets and training organizations to register with the ministry of information or face fines and prosecutions.

Abdalle said that the freeze on the SJS bank accounts was already having a “significant impact” on SJS’ work, but the organization remains “committed to advocating for press freedom, the safety of journalists, and human rights.”

He added, “We are actively engaging our legal team to address this matter, but our efforts can only succeed if the rule of law is upheld.”

CPJ has documented previous incidents targeting the organization, including  the arbitrary detention of the Syndicate’s staff, including Abdalle, and the organization’s human rights secretary Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul. In September 2023, cyberattacks temporarily knocked the organization’s website offline.

The office of the attorney general did not respond to CPJ’s queries sent via email; and Attorney General Sulayman Mohamed Mohamoud did not respond to requests for comment sent via messaging application or answer CPJ’s calls.

In their emails responding to CPJ’s queries, Premier Bank Head of Operations, Mahad Ahmed Mohamed, and Dahabshil Bank International’s Head of Operations, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamoud, declined to comment on the account suspensions.

Mahad said that Premier Bank is restricted from disclosing client information by “strict privacy laws and ethical banking standards.” Mohamed told CPJ to consult the bank’s email to SJS for detailed information.

IBS Bank did not immediately respond to an email from CPJ requesting comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

It’s a critical time for journalists. 

CPJ spoke to reporters and editors across India about their plans for covering these historic parliamentary elections in a difficult environment for the media, which has seen critical websites censored, prominent editors quit and independent outlets bought by politically-connected conglomerates, while divisive content has grown in popularity. 

Here are their biggest concerns:

Political violence 

During the run-up to the 2019 vote, there was a rise in assaults and threats against journalists during clashes between political groups, particularly in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir, according to data collected by CPJ and the Armed Conflict & Location Event Data Project. 

“Our state is now very famous or infamous for pre-poll, and post-poll, and poll violence,” Ishani Datta Ray, editor of Anandabazar Patrika newspaper in the eastern state of West Bengal, said at the launch of CPJ’s safety guide for journalists covering the election. “We have to guide them [our journalists] and caution them about the perils and dangers on the field.”

Dozens of citizens were killed in West Bengal’s 2019 and 2021 elections, largely due to fierce competition between the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

Datta Ray described how she spent the night on the phone to one of her journalists who was part of a group who were beaten during a clash between two political parties and trapped in a building in Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital, as party activists attempted to set fire to one of the reporters, whom they had doused in petrol. The journalists were eventually rescued by police and locals.

“Nobody should die for a newspaper. Your life is precious,” said Datta Ray. “If there is a risk, don’t go out.” 

Mob violence

Many journalists fear that they will not receive adequate protection or support from their newsrooms on dangerous assignments. 

More than a dozen journalists were harassed or injured during the 2020 Delhi riots, the capital’s worst communal violence in decades, in which more than 50 people died.

One female reporter told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that she and a Muslim colleague were sent to out report without any safety gear.

“People were standing with knives and swords on the streets of Delhi and asking journalists for their IDs” to try to determine their faith based on their names, she said. 

The journalist’s colleague was beaten up and she was thrown on the ground by a rioter. After she posted about the incident on social media, her employer summoned her back to the office. 

“She said that everyone must be thinking that we are not protecting our reporters. I said, ‘Leave what everyone thinks. What are you doing? You are not protecting your reporter. In fact, you’re shooting the messenger,’” she told CPJ.

Datta Ray described how politicians sometimes try to turn their supporters against journalists by calling out their names at rallies and saying, “They are against us. Don’t read that newspaper.” 

“We’ve had to text people that ‘Just come out of the crowd … Don’t stay there,’” she said. “You don’t have to cover the meeting anymore. Just come out because you don’t know what could happen.’” 

Criminalization of journalism 

Since the last general election, a record number of journalists have been arrested or faced criminal charges, while numerous critical outlets have been rattled by tax department raids investigating fraud or tax evasion.  

For the last three years of CPJ’s annual prison census, India held seven journalists behind bars — the highest number since its documentation began in 1992. All but one of the 13 journalists recorded in CPJ’s 2021-23 prison censuses were jailed under security laws. Some appear in multiple annual censuses due to their ongoing incarceration. 

Six were reporting on India’s only Muslim-majority region, Kashmir, where the media has come under siege following the government’s 2019 repeal of the region’s constitutional autonomy. 

India’s longest imprisoned journalist, Aasif Sultan, was arrested in 2018 for alleged militant ties after publishing a cover story on a slain Kashmiri militant. 

Since 2014, CPJ’s research shows, at least 15 journalists have been charged under India’s anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which allows for detention without trial or charge for up to 180 days, since 2020.

Datta Ray also said she was dealing with a growing number of cases against local journalists.

“Every institution should have a very strong back up of a legal team,” she said, recounting how West Bengal police spent five hours raiding the house of Parkash Sinha, a journalist who covers federal investigative agencies for ABP Ananda news channel, which is part of the same media group.

“You don’t know if your write up, if your TV report, has angered any establishment, any police,” said Datta Ray, who worked with lawyers to advise the reporter via a conference call while the February raid was going on. “You can be slapped with any kind of charges.”

“They copied everything from his personal laptop and from pen drives … they cannot do but they did it,” she said. 

Sinha has denied the charges in the ongoing case, which relate to a land dispute.

Attacks by other journalists 

Under Modi, Indians have become increasingly divided along political lines — and that includes the media. Government officials have labeled critics as “anti-national” and cautioned broadcasters against content that “promotes anti-national attitudes.” 

In February, India’s news regulator ordered three news channels to take down anti-Muslim content that it said could fan religious tensions, while the Supreme Court has called for divisive TV anchors to be taken off air.

Journalists are not immune.

“Indian media is very, very polarized now,” Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute, said at CPJ’s launch event. “We are seeing a clear divide in the Indian media, where one side is continuously egging the government to go arrest people from the other side, to take action, branding them as ‘anti-national.’”

She highlighted October’s police raid on the news website NewsClick, which has been critical of the BJP, and the arrest of its editor Prabir Purkayastha, who remains behind bars on terrorism charges for allegedly receiving money from China.

“We saw many Indian TV anchors go on air and ask for the arrest of the editor Prabir. They continue to call him all kinds of names,” said Rajendran, as she called for more solidarity among journalists and newsrooms.

Online harassment

Ismat Ara was among 20 Muslim women journalists whose pictures and personal information were shared for a virtual “auction” in 2022 by an online app called Bulli Bai, a derogatory term to describe Muslim women. Ara filed a police complaint which led to the arrest of the app’s creators.

Trolling is still a regular occurrence for her. This month, she posted on social media about being on an election assignment in the northern state of Uttarakhand, which is known for its Hindu pilgrimage sites. One of the comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, said, “In future you will have to apply for visa to visit these places in India.”

Since she was chased by a mob at the Delhi riots, Ara said she usually hides her Muslim identity while reporting.

“I think it helps not to be visibly Muslim,” she said, adding that she removed a picture of herself in a hijab on X after a BJP aide asked for her handle to check for “negative stories.” 

Some journalists at The News Minute receive abusive comments whenever they publish stories, Rajendran said.

“People have disturbed sleep patterns, they lose their confidence, they self-censor themselves, they do not want to tweet out stories,” she said, urging journalists to talk about their experiences with friends and colleagues.

Online censorship

In recent years, India has become a world leader in imposing internet shutdowns, according to the digital rights group Access Now. 

Government requests to platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, to take down or block content and handles in India for defamation, impersonation, privacy and security, or inflammatory content have increased multifold in the last few years. From October to December 2023, India had the most video takedowns globally with over 2 million YouTube videos removed. 

In early April, YouTube blocked prominent Hindi language news channels Bolta Hindustan and National Dastak without explanation. 

On Tuesday, X said it had blocked several posts by politicians and parties, which made unverified claims about their opponents, in compliance with orders from the Election Commission of India, while noting that “we disagree with these actions” on freedom of expression grounds. 

Digital rights experts have criticized India for failing to respect a 2015 Supreme Court order to provide an outlet that has allegedly produced offensive content with a copy of the blocking order and an opportunity to be heard by a government committee before taking action.

Device hacking 

Digital security is another growing concern. After The News Minute was raided by the income tax department, Rajendran said she organized a training for her staff on how to respond if an agency wants to take your device or arrest you.

Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of The Wire news website, has been repeatedly targeted with Pegasus spyware. 

“We need to fight for our right to work as journalists without this sort of intrusive, illegal surveillance,” he told CPJ. “A first step is to educate ourselves and devise technologically sound strategies to cope with surveillance.” 

In the wake of the revelations, Varadarajan’s devices were analyzed by a committee established by the Supreme Court but its findings have not been made public. 

“Until recently, journalists were primarily trained to uncover and disseminate the truth,” Rajendran concluded. 

“In today’s landscape, it is equally vital to educate both aspiring journalists and seasoned professionals on methods to safeguard themselves, their sources, and their personal devices.”

B.P. Gopalika and Naresh Kumar, chief secretaries of the states of West Bengal, and Delhi, respectively, did not respond to CPJ’s emails seeking comment on authorities’ efforts to protect journalists during the election.

Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Sanjay Jaju did not respond to CPJ’s email seeking comment on social media censorship. 

Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology S. Krishnan did not respond to CPJ’s email seeking comment on the allegations of hacking.

CPJ’s India Election Safety Kit is available in English, हिंदी, ಕನ್ನಡ, தமிழ் and বাংলা

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

Abuja, April 16, 2024—Nigerian authorities should immediately drop their investigation into the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and its founder, the award-winning undercover reporter, Fisayo Soyombo, and stop intimidating the chairperson of FIJ’s board of trustees, Bukky Shonibare, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On February 21, Soyombo published an investigation detailing how he had smuggled rice into Nigeria with the collusion of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) officials and accused local businessman Ibrahim Dende Egungbohun of being a smuggler. FIJ’s accompanying documentary was also broadcast by Arise News.

On February 26, Egungbohun’s lawyer, David Olaoluwa Folalu, petitioned the police, Arise News, and the regulatory National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over FIJ’s investigation, which it described as “defamatory, false and malicious” and “contrary to Section 24 of the cybercrimes (prohibition, prevention) Act, 2015,” according to multiple news reports, including by FIJ. Folalu demanded retractions, apologies, and 500 million naira (US$403,159) in damages, those sources said.

Separately, on March 15, another lawyer for Egungbohun, Bolarinwa Elijah Aidi, wrote to Soyombo, similarly demanding damages and retraction of the story, according to a copy of the letter posted on FIJ’s website.

Allegation of cybercrime

On March 26, FIJ board chairperson Shonibare was questioned by police at the National Cybercrime Center in the capital, Abuja, following their written request to interview her, reviewed by CPJ.

Shonibare told CPJ that the police said they were investigating an allegation of cybercrime in connection with one of FIJ’s articles, which they did not name, and asked about FIJ’s journalistic standards. The police also said they knew that Soyombo was not in Nigeria and instructed Shonibare to return with him, she told CPJ and said in a report on FIJ’s website.

Shonibare said that one official threatened her by saying that the police could access her personal and financial information via records associated with her phone number.

“Nigerian authorities must cease their efforts to intimidate the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, including its founder, the renowned investigative reporter Fisayo Soyombo, and the chairperson of its board of trustees, Bukky Shonibare, and allow them to continue reporting on issues of public interest,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “The Nigerian police’s investigation into such a reputable media outlet demonstrates the alarming extent to which they are willing to go to silence journalists seeking to expose crime.”

Death threat on social media

Soyombo said that he received a death threat on social media, reviewed by CPJ, telling him to stay away from Egungbohun, whose nickname is IBD Dende. It said, “step back from this called IBD DENDE … does [those] whom are paying you doesn’t [don’t] want you to live long.”

Soyombo said that two friends also warned him to be careful as they feared for his life after speaking with associates of Egungbohun and the Nigeria Customs Service who made threats against him.

On February 24, an opinion piece defending Egungbohun and criticizing Soyombo’s investigation was published in multiple local news outlets.

Soyombo is a winner of the Kurk Schork and Fetisov journalism awards and wrote about the coordinated discrediting of journalists in Nigeria while he was a fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Folalu confirmed to CPJ by phone that he was seeking to press charges for cyberstalking under Section 24 of the law and described the FIJ’s story as “deliberately targeted at the character and reputation of our client” and “purely criminal in nature.”

Folalu said his office had sent a pre-action letter to Arise News, notifying the outlet that they planned to file a civil suit against it demanding 500 million naira (US$403,159) in damages but put the matter on hold after the regulatory NBC wrote to Arise News on the same issue.

A senior member of staff at Arise News confirmed to CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that the outlet had received written communication from Egungbohun’s lawyers, which had been forwarded to their lawyers, but declined to provide further details.

Possible criminal case

Egungbohun’s second lawyer, Aidi, told CPJ on April 5, that his office had sent pre- action letters to Soyombo and Arise News, notifying them about the possible civil suit and that their plans did not preclude a possible criminal case against the FIJ.

NCS spokesperson Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada told CPJ via text message that the customs service remained “resolute in addressing genuine, evidence-based observations” but it was “not formally aware” of FIJ’s investigation.

He rejected the claim by Soyombo’s friends that NCS officials made threats against the journalist.

“Constructive, fact-based criticism channelled through appropriate means are always welcomed,” he said.

NBC spokesperson Ekanem Antia told CPJ on April 15 that the regulator did not receive any petition against Arise News about FIJ’s documentary.

Reached by phone and messaging app, Uche Ifeanyi Henry, director of the police’s National Cybercrime Center, told CPJ that requests for comment on the case should be send via the police’s “official channel,” but he did not specify a contact.

CPJ’s emails to the National Cybercrime Center and the police in Abuja requesting comment did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Yet one year into the war that has killed 14,000 people and displaced millions, journalists continue their struggle to cover its devastating impact.

Here are the top challenges to journalism in Sudan:

Journalists have been killed, injured, and harassed

At least two journalists have been killed in the war. Halima Idris Salim, a reporter for local independent online news outlet Sudan Bukra, was killed on October 10 when RSF soldiers ran her over with a vehicle while she was crossing the street on her way to report on conditions at a hospital in Umbada, a suburb of Omdurman. On March 1, Khalid Balal, media director at the Supreme Council for Media and Culture, a government regulatory body, and a member of the local trade union Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, was shot and killed by unidentified individuals at his home in El Fasher in North Darfur State. Two local journalists who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal said that Balal was killed due to his long career in journalism. These were the first media killings CPJ has recorded in Sudan since 2006, when one journalist was murdered in retaliation for his coverage.

Other journalists have been injured. CPJ has documented multiple incidents of the RSF beating and harassing local journalists. The SAF also beat a journalist, Mohamed Othman, early in the war.

Journalists are being detained by the paramilitary

On April 15, 2023, the RSF raided and seized control of the state television headquarters in Omdurman, stopping the broadcast and trapping journalists and media workers inside for weeks. The RSF continued to use the building for military operations and as a detention facility for 11 months until March 12, when the SAF seized it in a significant advance against the RSF.  

The RSF has detained other journalists through the course of the war, including at checkpoints and at military and civilian sites. Haitham Dafallah, editor-in-chief of local independent news website al-Maidan, was arrested by the RSF in January; as of mid-April, he and his brother Omar, who was arrested at the same time, remain in detention, according to the two local journalists. CPJ has not documented any journalist arrests at the hands of the SAF, though the SAF has detained many people, including at military and civilian sites.

Communications blackouts have impeded reporting

Telecommunications and internet services have been regularly interrupted over the past year, as fighting in major cities led to the destruction of mobile towers, repeated power outages, and fuel shortages. Between February and March, the country was in an almost total blackout, isolating Sudan from the rest of the world. Industry sources told Reuters that RSF was to blame for the widescale blackout, which RSF denied.

The interruptions have severely impeded the work of the press, who have had to access the internet through the Starlink satellite internet system founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. RSF rents devices at high prices, according to news reports, and one journalist, Ataf Mohamed, raised concerns in an interview with CPJ that the RSF is able to track journalists who use the internet via Starlink. 

Foreign news channels covering the war have been banned

In April, the Sudanese government, which oversees the SAF, suspended the work of the Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia news channel and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned channels Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, for allegedly failing to renew their licenses “uphold necessary standards of professionalism.” The move was criticized by the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, a local trade union, which called it a “clear violation of freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.” Local journalists who spoke with CPJ called it an attempt to control the narrative of the media coverage of the war.

Journalists and media outlets have relocated

The Sudan war has displaced millions of people, including many journalists who fled hostile conditions. CPJ’s Journalist Assistance Program, which provides support to frontline members of the press, has provided a window into the scale of the problem. At least 100 Sudanese journalists have applied for support, including those who have already fled the country and those trying to flee.

In addition, many news outlets have closed. Mohamed, a Sudanese editor who relocated his newsroom, Al-Sudani, to Egypt, estimated that close to two dozen print outlets have closed. He told CPJ that he relies on local journalists still in Sudan to provide updates using the internet from Starlink devices. In order to do that, the journalists have to go to RSF-controlled areas. “It is very dangerous for them to walk all that distance to send some information that can actually put them in danger,” he said.

Female journalists face gender-based violence

Since the war started, rights groups have documented a significant rise in conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls. Female journalists living in Sudan are not exempt from this danger.

Through its Journalist Assistance Program, CPJ has gathered testimonies from three local female journalists who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal. One said she was sexually assaulted by a member of the RSF, and two said that RSF members threatened them with sexual assault. With many women afraid of the stigma of reporting sexual violence, the number of journalists affected is likely higher.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

Fasan, regional bureau chief for the privately owned Galaxy Television, told CPJ that he was using his phone to film people and soldiers arriving at the site of a planned protest over economic hardship in Uvwie, part of the city of Warri, when a soldier demanded that he hand over his phone.

Fasan said he refused and presented his press identification, but one soldier hit him in the chest with a gun and ordered him into their van. The journalist said the soldiers accused him of resisting arrest, handcuffed him, and drove him around for an hour, during which time they took his phone and deleted the images that he had shot that morning.

When the military van returned to the site, a senior military official directed the soldiers to release the journalist without charge, which they did, according to Fasan and Gbenga Ahmed, a camera operator with ITV, who witnessed the event and spoke with CPJ. 

Disrupted vote counting

Separately, on February 17, unidentified men disrupted vote counting for a governorship election primary for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party in a hotel in Benin City, capital of southern Edo State, attacked at least three journalists covering the event, and destroyed an unknown number of cameras, laptops, and tripods, according to news reports, a journalist who was at the event, and Festus Alenkhe, chairperson of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Edo State, both of whom spoke with CPJ.

Two APC factions were simultaneously collating votes and announcing results when one group’s process was violently disrupted, according to media reports.