Newstapa’s office in the capital, Seoul, and the homes of two of its journalists were also raided on September 14, 2023, in connection with the report, which was published three days before Yoon won the March 9, 2022, elections, Kim told CPJ.

The outlet had reported on a claim that Yoon, as a prosecutor in 2011, had failed to indict a man involved in a banking and development scandal due to lobbying, according to news reports. Yoon denied the accusation and a freelance researcher who contributed to the Newstapa report is under scrutiny as to whether there was bribery involved in his work, those reports said.

The cellphones of Kim and the two Newstapa journalists were seized during those raids, said Kim, who founded the award-winning online news outlet of the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism in 2012.

“South Korean authorities must immediately end their harassment and intimidation of Newstapa and its journalists, who have been on the forefront of exposing the wrongdoings of officials and elites,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said on Friday. “The latest raid underscores the deteriorating press freedom in South Korea. Journalists must be allowed to report freely, especially in the run-up to the country’s legislative elections in April.”

At around 8am on December 6, a team of investigators, forensic experts, and prosecutors from the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office arrived at Kim’s house, the journalist said. When he asked them to wait until his lawyer arrived, the investigators brought in police officers and firefighters “to forcibly open the door,” said Kim.

“It seemed they were prepared to break in if I didn’t open it,” said the editor, describing the investigations as “excessive and aggressive” and aimed at silencing media outlets critical of Yoon.

The presidential office did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Newstapa has contributed to a series of global investigations, including the Pandora Papers and the Panama Papers, which revealed corruption linked to high-profile South Korean figures.

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

On Sunday, July 30, about 20 members of the Taliban provincial police raided the office of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV in Jalalabad city, in eastern Nangarhar province, after receiving information about a journalism training workshop attended by both male and female journalists from the broadcaster, according to news reports and a journalist familiar with the situation, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. On Tuesday, armed members of the Taliban provincial police then shuttered the broadcaster’s operations and sealed its office, according to those sources.

“The Taliban must allow the broadcaster Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV to resume operations promptly and ensure its employees, including female journalists, are allowed unfettered access to professional training,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “It is appalling that the Taliban cracked down on a media outlet because of women’s participation at a journalism training session. Denying women of their rights has become the hallmark of the Taliban regime.”

Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV has 35 employees, including nine women, according to the journalist who spoke with CPJ. Under the Taliban, women face severe restrictions on education and employment, which the United Nations says have increased in recent months.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom characterized by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.

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

On the evening of January 24, a group of police officers in the town of Beledweyne, a city in Somalia’s Hirshabelle state, harassed and beat Radio Hiiraan Weyne reporter Abdullahi Ali Abukar, accusing him of leaking footage of a January 21 police raid on the outlet, according to a Facebook statement published by the privately owned station and Abdullahi, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Separately, on the afternoon January 30, police officers in the town of Abudwak, in the Galmudug regional state, raided the privately owned Sooyal TV and Radio offices, taking equipment and arresting the station’s director, Mahad Bashiir Xilif, according to a joint statement by local press rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA), and another statement by the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ).

“Unless each arbitrary arrest or assault on a journalist is investigated credibly, impunity in attacks on the press will continue to fester within the ranks of Somalia’s security forces,” said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should investigate the attacks on journalists in the Galmudug and Hirshabelle regions, hold those officers responsible, and ensure that equipment damaged or confiscated during the raid on Sooyal TV and Radio is replaced or returned.”

On January 24, Abdullahi was walking home from work when he was approached by a group of officers, and accused of leaking CCTV footage of a January 21 police raid on Radio Hiiraan Weyne. Abdullahi told CPJ that Beledweyne police commander Mohamed Mohamud Durdage was in charge of the officers.

During that raid, Abdullahi was arrested and detained for several hours, alongside six of his colleagues, following the station’s reporting of an opposition group, as CPJ reported at the time.

For about 35 minutes on January 24, the officers forced the journalist to carry heavy stones, left on the streets earlier that day by protestors, and beat him with the butts of their guns, resulting in back and chest pain, according to Abdullahi’s interview with CPJ and a separate interview published on Facebook by Hiiraan Weyne.   

In a telephone interview on February 9, Beledweyne police commander Mohamed requested questions via WhatsApp, but did not answer them. CPJ questions sent via messaging application to Hirshabelle Information Minister Mohamed Abdirahman and via Facebook to the Hirshabelle State House, the office of the regional president, were also unanswered.

During the January 30 raid on Sooyal TV and Radio, police broke a desktop computer and confiscated a hard disk and two memory cards, Mahad told CPJ by messaging app, adding that the memory cards have since been returned.

Mahad was arrested and told by police that it was in connection to a January 30 report, published shortly before the raid, about Galmudug police officers on strike, angered by delayed salaries and an alleged government plan to replace them with new recruits.

Police then drove Mahad to the outskirts of Abudwak town, where he was held, blindfolded under a tree, for several hours, the journalist told CPJ. Later that day, the officers moved Mahad to a police station in Abudwak, where he was detained overnight before he was freed unconditionally, following the intervention of his clan’s elders and family.

The officers who raided Sooyal Radio and Television were identified by Mahad and the statements from the local press rights groups as members of the Darwish forces, a police unit deployed at federal and state level, whose mandate includes border policing, protecting government infrastructure and fighting terrorism, according to reports. Darwish officers have been previously trained by or received support from several international actors, including the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a regional peacekeeping force, the United Nations Mission to Somalia (UNSOM), and the Italian government, according to the joint SJS and SOMA statement as well as reports and statements posted by these groups.

Previously, the European Union’s delegation in Somalia, its training mission in the country (EUTM), and its Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP), have also supported the training of Darwish officers, according to these same sources.

Both UNSOM and the European Union delegation said they had not trained or supported local Darwish forces in Galmudug, according to emailed statements sent to CPJ. UNSOM said it is “engaged in efforts to strengthen capable, accountable and rights-based police” in the state and plans to fund future trainings of police officers in human rights.

The European Union said its past support of the Darwish was limited to “specific Federal Darwish units” deployed to another Somali region, the Southwest State. The EU said it would that, follow up on “any evidence or indications that EU-supported Darwish forces had been involved in press freedom violations in Galmudug.”

When CPJ called AMISOM for comment, Gifty Bingley, a spokesperson, said she could not immediately provide comment as the matter did not directly involve AMISOM officers. CPJ emails sent to AMISOM went unanswered.

Someone who answered the phone when CPJ called the Italian embassy to Somalia on February 10 acknowledged receipt of an emailed request for comment, but the questions remained unanswered as of publication time.

In a telephone conversation on February 9, Farah Abdille Hassan, a district commissioner in Abudwak, requested that CPJ send queries via WhatsApp, but did not immediately respond. Sharmarke Godad, the police commissioner in Galgaduud, in whose jurisdiction Abudwak falls, did not answer CPJ’s phone calls and did not respond to queries sent by text message. CPJ emails to the Galmudug State House and its internal security ministry were either unanswered or undelivered.

In a statement sent via messaging application, Galmudug Information Minister Ahmed Shire Falagle told CPJ that the incident had been reported to him by Sooyal. Ahmed said he “apologize[s] to the journalist who had to endure this inappropriate practice,” that the Galmudug government would “get to the bottom of this,” and that local police said they were investigating, “as they were not informed of the raid that took place.”

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, and CPJ has previously documented attacks on the press by security personnel — including arrests and assaults. In a statement on February 9, the United States’ State Department announced visa restrictions for officials who undermined the democratic process, including “unjust arrests or intimidation of journalists.” The SJS and SOMA welcomed the visa bans as a “move to uphold justice,” according to their joint statement.

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

The UPND supporters forced their way in by pushing the broadcaster’s security guard, Peter Maluku, out of the way, and threatened to attack Nkandu and damage property at the radio station if the journalist did not stop the program, which featured a discussion with an opposition member of parliament from Mpika, Robert Kapyanga, according to Dumingu, Nkandu, and a statement by the radio station, which was shared on its Facebook page.

After the program was halted, the UPND supporters remained in the station for about 30 minutes before leaving, Dumingu told CPJ. Nkandu told CPJ that he was terrified, but there was no damage to property, and no one was hurt.

The radio station management reported the attack to Mpika Police Station on December 2, 2021, where statements were recorded from Dumingu, Nkandu, and Maluku, Dumingu told CPJ.

On December 3, 2021, police summoned Nkandu and the security guard to identify ruling party supporters who had been arrested over the attack, but police released the supporters after the UPND made a public apology, which was broadcast on the station, and Mpika FM dropped the case, Dumingu told CPJ.

“They gave a public apology and vowed never to repeat the action. The party promised to punish the perpetrators. As we speak, the case is closed. We accepted the apology on condition that such does not happen again. If it does, we will not hesitate to take legal action and we shall not accept another apology,” Dumingu said.

Zambian Information Minister Chushi Kasanda condemned the raid in a statement, which CPJ reviewed and was published by local media. Reached by phone on December 22, 2021, the commanding officer for the police in Mpika, who identified himself only as Chabe, said Muchinga Province Police Commissioner Byemba Musole may have more details. When CPJ contacted Musole by phone, he said he did not have details of the case and promised to call back but did not.

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