“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Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina.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.

Amaglobeli, founder and director of award-winning independent news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, has been unjustly detained since January on the charge of attacking a police officer, for which she faces up to seven years in jail. The charge has been widely condemned as disproportionate and politically motivated.

The organizations condemned the smear campaigns against and degrading treatment of Amaglobeli, who has become a symbol of the resilience of Georgian independent media.

Read the full statement here.

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

His arrest follows a warrant issued by a specialized criminal court that also targets two other journalists — Sabri bin Mukhshen and Muzahim Bajaber. All three journalists have been critical of the local government in recent reporting and social media posts. The warrant violated Article 13 of Yemen’s Press and Publications Law, which protects journalists from prosecution for expressing their opinions.

“Bajabeer’s arrest is yet another example of the systematic campaign to silence journalists in Hadramout and the areas controlled by Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government (IRG),” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “We call on the IRG to immediately release Bajabeer and end all forms of intimidation against the three Hadramout-based journalists.”

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate condemned the ongoing harassment, threats, and surveillance against Bajabeer, his family, and colleagues by local authorities in a July 4 statement.

Bajabeer’s arrest comes a week after the July 21 release of journalist Muzahim Bajaber, who had been detained for more than a month and still faces three open cases related to his journalism. He spent 12 days in the Criminal Investigation prison without being presented to a prosecutor, in violation of Article 76 of Yemen’s criminal procedure law.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since Houthi rebels seized the capital in 2014. The Saudi-backed IRG intervened in 2015 in an effort to restore the government to power.

CPJ contacted the IRG’s Ministry of Human Rights for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

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

Zamora was arrested in 2022 following a raid in which he was not informed of the charges against him. In less than 72 hours, authorities fabricated charges of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling. His first hearing, however, did not take place within the 24-hour legal timeframe after his detention, marking the beginning of a judicial process plagued by irregularities.

Since then, the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened three baseless criminal cases against Zamora, systematically violating his rights to due process, legal defense, and the presumption of innocence. The prosecution and judicial system have acted in bad faith, building a case designed to send a message that critical journalism will be silenced in the country.

This date now marks, in practice, the fulfillment of a sentence for crimes he did not commit.

The persecution did not stop with Zamora: Since his arrest, elPeriódico’s newsroom has faced relentless legal and financial attacks, ultimately leading to the newspaper’s closure. A criminal investigation was opened against nine additional journalists on staff and the remaining members of his family were threatened with criminal charges and forced into exile.  

Despite favorable rulings that have exposed the abuse of power by certain judicial entities, and despite international recognition from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and UN experts that his detention is arbitrary – and that he has been exposed to forms of torture – Jose Rubén Zamora remains behind bars.

The signatory organizations demand his immediate release, the full restoration of his fundamental human rights, and an end to his political persecution.

Signatory organizations

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Protection International Mesoamérica
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR)
Freedom House
Article 19 México y Centroamérica
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
IFEX-ALC
Latin American Working Group (LAWG)

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

This week, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) boarded the Handala, a ship associated with the Flotilla Freedom Coalition, that was attempting to reach Gaza with supplies for starving Palestinians. The IDF detained 20 activists, who had their hands held up, in graphic images that the Freedom Flotilla Coalition captured.

Among those on the ship was Chris Smalls, who gained fame when he led a successful union drive at Amazon in Staten Island in 2022. Not only was Smalls detained, but he was physically beaten by the IDF. He was the only Black member on the Handala.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Smalls, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,” wrote the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Instagram. “They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back”.

Despite Smalls having been profiled by every major media outlet in the U.S. when he successfully led the union drive at Amazon, not a single major media outlet has covered his beating at the hands of the IDF.

In 2022, The New York Times even ran a Style section profile on his fashion choices among more than a dozen pieces that they ran on his organizing efforts, but the paper has not said anything about the beating of a high-profile labor activist at the hands of the IDF. Only three smaller, left-leaning outlets, Zeteo, The Grio, and Jezebel, covered it.

“This totally makes sense,” wrote University of New Brunswick Professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb on Bluesky. “A notable public figure in the US (Amazon labor organizer Christian Smalls) is illegally arrested by Israel and subjected to severe physical violence while on a hunger strike… and not one US media outlet of any type has decided that is news.”

This article is a cross-post from Payday Report and is a developing story. Payday Report will update it as more information becomes available.

You can donate to help Payday Report Cover Labor Activists for a Free Palestine.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Mike Elk.

On July 23, KIS24 Info’s Steves Paluku, ElectionNet’s Paul Beyokobana, and Kisangani News newspaper’s Sébastien Mulamba visited the offices of Tshopo province’s Minister of Finance Patrick Valencio to ask him to respond to media criticism about his appearance in and alleged funding of a television series, Paluku and Beyokobana told CPJ.

Ministry officials beat the three journalists, who all work for privately owned outlets, with sticks and their fists, injuring Beyokobana’s hand, before armed police took them to a local police station and the Kisangani prosecutor’s office, where they spent the night, the journalists told CPJ.

The journalists’ lawyer, Andy Muzaliwa, told CPJ that they were released on July 24 and ordered to appear at the prosecutor’s office on Monday, July 28, to meet Valencio and his deputy chief of staff, Jacques Lomamisa.

Paluku told CPJ that the journalists did not appear in court on Monday because Muzaliwa was not available but were expected to do so in the coming days. Paluka added that on Monday he separately filed a complaint against Valencio at the Supreme Court of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, over his detention.

“The Congolese officials and police who attacked and detained journalists Steve Paluku, Paul Beyokobana, and Sébastien Mulamba must be held accountable and the legal proceedings against the journalists should be dropped,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal. “Authorities in the DRC should focus on ensuring the safety of journalists working to report the news, not violently silencing them for asking questions.”

Valencio’s office defended the minister, saying that Congolese law did not prohibit his participation in a film at a time when he was not a minister, the online outlet Boyoma Revolution reported.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Valencio and Lomamisa rang unanswered.

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

As Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE’s immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children, we look at the case of one family. In May, plainclothes ICE agents detained a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, along with his 9-year old sister and their mother, as they left their immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. In detention, the boy missed a key doctor’s appointment, and the family said his sister cried every night. As pressure grew over their conditions, the family was released on July 2. “The little boy doesn’t want to leave his home. He’s terrified. He sobs, cries and screams when his mother takes him out of the house,” says attorney Elora Mukherjee, who represents the boy and his family and is director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. She says the young children are traumatized after their month in ICE detention.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans, and Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News.

On Feb. 15, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas called his wife from inside a Texas immigration detention facility.

He asked her to record a message so there would be some lasting evidence of his story.

“They detained me simply because of my tattoos. I am not a criminal.”

The Trump administration had sent dozens of Venezuelan immigrants to Guantanamo. He was afraid the same would happen to him.

“Just in case something happens to me, so you can be aware.”

Uncertain about his fate, Ramos wanted to make sure there was a record of what happened to him.

A month later, he was gone.

Ramos never set foot in the U.S. — at least not as a free man. He left Venezuela in January 2024, hoping to earn enough money to pay for his newborn son’s medical needs. Born with a respiratory condition, the family’s “milagrito,” or “little miracle,” had severe asthma and repeatedly needed to be hospitalized. The cost of treatment had become impossible to manage on the meager wages Ramos made washing cars in Venezuela’s collapsed economy, so he trekked thousands of miles through a half dozen countries to reach the U.S. border.

When Ramos arrived, he didn’t sneak into the country. He followed the rules established by the Biden administration for immigrants seeking asylum. He signed up for an appointment through a government app and, when he was granted one, turned himself in to request protection. An immigration official and a judge determined he didn’t qualify, and Ramos didn’t fight the decision.

The government kept him in detention until he could be deported back to Venezuela.

In the months that followed, Donald Trump was elected president for a second term and began his mass deportation campaign. Among his first actions was to fly groups of Venezuelan immigrants whom he had labeled dangerous gang members to a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ramos, 30, panicked and called his wife to say he was worried that the same was going to happen to him. On a video call his wife recorded, he held up a document he said was proof that immigration authorities had agreed to deport him to Venezuela. But he worried that they would not honor that promise.

“I have a family,” he said, staring directly into the camera. “I am simply a hard-working Venezuelan. I haven’t committed any crimes. I don’t have a criminal record in my country nor anywhere else.”

A month later, a more upbeat Ramos called again. He seemed confident that U.S. officials would send him home. Ramos’ family started preparing for his return. They planned to bake him a cake, cook his favorite chicken dish and go to church together to thank God for bringing him home safely.

They never heard from him again.

On March 15, a day after that call, Ramos and more than 230 other Venezuelan men were sent to the CECOT maximum-security prison in El Salvador, one of the most notorious in the Western Hemisphere. Without publicly providing evidence, the administration accused each of them of being members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan prison gang it designated a terrorist organization.

In the months since the mass deportation — one of the most consequential in recent history — the Trump administration has released almost no details about the backgrounds of the people it deported, calling them “monsters,” “sick criminals” and the “worst of the worst.” Several news organizations have reported that most of the men did not have criminal records. ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of Venezuelan journalists from Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Rebel Alliance Investigates) and Cazadores de Fake News (Fake News Hunters) went further, finding that the government’s own records showed that it knew the vast majority of the men had not been convicted of violent crimes in the U.S. We also searched records in South America and found that only a few had committed violent crimes abroad.

Now, a case-by-case examination of each of the deportees, along with interviews with their lawyers and family members, reveals another jarring reality: Most of the men were not hiding from federal authorities but were instead moving through the nation’s immigration system. They were either in the middle of their cases, which normally should have protected them from deportation, or they had already been ordered deported and should have first been given the option to be sent back to a country they chose.

Like Ramos, more than 50 of the men had used the government app called CBP One to make an appointment with border officials to try to enter the country. Others had crossed illegally and then surrendered to border agents, often the first step in seeking asylum in immigration court.

According to our analysis, almost half of the men were deported even though their cases hadn’t been decided yet. More than 60 of them had pending asylum claims, including several who were only days away from a hearing where a judge could have ruled on whether they would be allowed to stay. Judges or federal officials had issued deportation orders for about 100 of the men, and a handful had even agreed to pay their own way home. Others, like Ramos, had spent their entire time in the U.S. in detention. They had no opportunity to commit crimes in the U.S.

Meanwhile, many of those who were allowed into the country had been appearing at their court hearings and immigration check-ins. At least nine had been granted temporary protected status, which gives people from countries affected by disasters or other extraordinary conditions permission to live and work in the U.S.

By and large, these were men who had been playing by the rules of the country’s immigration system.

Then, the Trump administration changed the rules.

A day before the administration deported the men to El Salvador, Trump invoked an obscure 18th-century law called the Alien Enemies Act and declared that Tren de Aragua was invading the country. Administration officials argued that the declaration authorized them to take extraordinary measures to remove anyone it had determined was a member of the gang and to make sure they would not threaten the U.S. again.

Following the March 15 deportations, the Trump administration moved to shut down their pending immigration cases. Since then, more than 95 cases have been dismissed, terminated or otherwise closed by judges, according to our analysis. They disappear from the dockets, some marked as dismissed just hours before a scheduled hearing.

Michelle Brané, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official in the Biden administration, said it was “very un-American” to deport people who followed the immigration rules at the time. “You can’t retroactively say that those people were acting illegally and now punish them for that,” she added.

Lawyers for the Venezuelan men have filed several lawsuits against the administration, calling the summary removals from the country a gross violation of their clients’ rights. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled in June that the move deprived the men of their constitutional rights and called their plight Kafkaesque. He wrote that the men “never had any opportunity to challenge the Government’s say-so,” and that they “languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”

The government has appealed the ruling.

Meanwhile, Ramos’ mother, Crisálida del Carmen Bastidas de Ramos, waits anxiously for any news about her oldest child. “What is my son thinking? Is my son eating well? Is my son sleeping? Is he cold?”

“Is he alive?”

Although the Trump administration routinely describes the men as criminals and terrorists, it has not provided evidence to support the claim. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at DHS, defended sending them to the Salvadoran prison. “They may not have criminal records in the U.S., beyond breaking our laws to enter the country illegally,” she said in a statement, “but many of these illegal aliens are far from innocent.”

For example, she said one of the TPS holders sent to El Salvador admitted he had previously been convicted of murder. We obtained Venezuelan court records confirming that the man had been convicted of murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. McLaughlin said his case proved that immigrants had been granted status in the U.S. under Biden without being thoroughly vetted. Three former DHS officials from the Biden administration said the vetting process has remained standard across administrations, including during the first Trump term, and that many governments do not share criminal background histories with U.S. officials.

Trump has moved to strip TPS protections from hundreds of thousands of people.

Ramos, McLaughlin said, was a terrorist who was flagged as a Tren de Aragua member in a law enforcement database at his CBP One appointment. His family denies he has anything to do with the gang. His lawyers said in court records that U.S. authorities wrongly identified him as a gang member based on his tattoos and an “unsubstantiated” report from Panamanian officials. A spokesperson for the Panamanian security ministry said he could not locate any documents about Ramos.

At least 163 men who were deported had tattoos, we found. Law enforcement officials in the U.S., Colombia, Chile and Venezuela with expertise in the Tren de Aragua told us that tattoos are not an indicator of gang membership.

Days before Albert Jesús Rodríguez Parra was whisked away, he appeared in immigration court and tried to convince a judge that his tattoos did not mean he was part of the gang.

He had come to the U.S. with a brother in 2023, applied for asylum and settled in Chicago. He told his mother that it was difficult to find work, but that he’d gotten an electric razor, learned to cut hair and offered trims on the street. In January 2024, he was arrested at a Walmart in the Chicago suburbs for shoplifting about $1,000 worth of food, laundry detergent, shampoo and other items. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, served a two-day jail sentence and tried to move on.

Rodríguez Parra, 28, got a job working in concessions at Wrigley Field, moved in with his girlfriend and sent money home to his mother to buy a refrigerator and a stove. Then, in November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents picked him up at his apartment. McLaughlin said he was in the country illegally and was a Tren de Aragua member. Rodríguez Parra continued his asylum case from immigration detention in Indiana.

He told his family he believed he would be released soon. But in early March, he was transferred to a jail in Missouri, then to one in Central Texas, then another in Laredo, in South Texas, each move bringing him closer to the border. Uncertainty began creeping into his calls home.

Despite the transfers, Rodríguez Parra’s attorney, Cruz Rodriguez, who works for a small immigration unit at the Cook County public defender’s office in Chicago, said he was confident in the merits of the asylum case. He felt optimistic when he logged into his client’s virtual bond hearing before Judge Eva Saltzman on March 10.

At the hearing, a government attorney asked Rodríguez Parra about a TikTok video he’d made of himself dancing to a popular audio clip of someone shouting, “Te va agarrar el Tren de Aragua,” which means, “The Tren de Aragua is going to get you.” Close to 60,000 users on TikTok have shared the clip.

Rodríguez Parra scoffed at the notion that a real gang member would make such a video. “It would be like they were outing themselves,” he said in Spanish. The audio clip has been used by Venezuelans to ridicule the widespread suggestion that everyone from the country is a gangster.

The government attorney also asked Rodríguez Parra about the tattoos that covered his neck, arms and chest — a rose, a wolf, carnival masks and an angel holding a gun. “In my country, it’s very normal to have tattoos,” he responded. “Each one represents a story about my life.”

He was also questioned about a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member who had crossed the border at the same time as him. Rodríguez Parra said he did not know the man.

At the end of the hearing, he pleaded with the judge to free him on bond. “I’m a good person,” he told her. “If I was in a gang, I wouldn’t have applied for asylum. I came fleeing my country.”

Saltzman denied Rodríguez Parra’s request, citing his shoplifting conviction. But she offered him a sliver of hope, reminding him that his final hearing was just 10 days away. If she granted him asylum, he’d be released and could continue his life in the U.S.

“You’re not facing a particularly lengthy detention without a bond,” she told him.

Five days later, he was gone. At what was supposed to be his final asylum hearing on March 20, Rodríguez Parra’s lawyer sounded despondent. He had barely slept. He didn’t know where the authorities had taken his client, but he’d seen a video posted online of shackled men being frog-marched into CECOT. The attorney had visited El Salvador and was aware of that country’s reputation for mistreating prisoners. He feared his client would face a similar fate.

He felt powerless. At the hearing, he turned to the government lawyer on the call. “For his family’s sake,” he told her, “would you happen to know what country he was sent to?”

The government’s lawyer had little to say.

“I’m operating under the same information as you,” she responded. “I have no further information to provide.”

Design and development by Anna Donlan and Allen Tan of ProPublica. Agnel Philip of ProPublica contributed data reporting. Gabriel Sandoval of ProPublica contributed research. Adriana Núnez and Carlos Centeno contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by .

“The forcible transfer of journalist Comlan Hugues Sossoukpé by Côte d’Ivoire to Benin, despite his refugee status in Togo, sends a worrying message to journalists across the region,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “He must be released immediately and unconditionally. Such aggressive, transnational tactics illustrate a cross-border collaboration to muzzle a critical journalist.”

On July 14, 2025, a judge at Benin’s Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) upheld Sossoukpè’s detention in the southern city of Ouidah, pending a judicial investigation on charges of inciting rebellion, inciting hatred and violence, harassing through electronic communication, and apology for terrorism, according to a copy of the decision seen by CPJ.

Sossoukpè was in Côte d’Ivoire to cover a government conference when he was arrested. He has been living in Togo since 2019 and has held refugee status there since receiving threats in Benin, where he is from, related to his work.

Sossoukpè told Maximin Pognon, his lawyer, who spoke to CPJ, that four people identifying themselves as Ivorian law enforcement officers and a fifth as a “colonel of the gendarmerie” asked him to respond to a summons. But Sossoukpè recognized two of them as Beninese police officers, Pognon said.

Sossoukpè said he demanded that they bring him before a judge, which they agreed to, but did not. Instead, they seized his phone and computer, took him briefly to an Ivorian law enforcement headquarters, and then escorted him aboard a plane that took him to Benin.

Two people close to the case who asked not to be named for privacy reasons said that during the days before his arrest, Sossoukpè had alerted his friends that there were kidnapping plans against him.

CPJ’s calls and WhatsApp messages to Andy Kouassi, public relations director of the Ivorian ministry of communication, and to Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, spokesperson for the Beninese government, as well as CPJ’s email to the Ivorian gendarmerie, went unanswered.

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

“The arrest, abuse, and intimidation of journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region are deeply concerning and reflect a broader pattern of hostility toward press freedom,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Authorities must investigate these incidents transparently and ensure that journalists can report safely and without fear of retaliation or violence.”

In the early hours of July 9, Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, arrested three journalists in Rovia, a subdistrict of the northern city of Duhok’s Bardarash area. The journalists — Taif Goran, a reporter for opposition-linked NRT TV; his camera operator, Rayan Sidqi; and Rizgar Kamil, a reporter for Westga News — had traveled to Erbil’s Khabat district to cover clashes between security forces and tribal fighters. After all journalists were blocked from entering the area, they returned to Rovia to broadcast live and were detained. They were released the afternoon of July 10, after more than 25 hours in custody.

Taif Goran told CPJ that at around midnight, during a live broadcast, five Asayish vehicles arrived and officers beat and blindfolded the journalists. “We were tortured and beaten as much as they could and pressured to quit journalism,” he said. “Later, we were moved to Bardarash and held in solitary cells that had been used as toilets, in 35-degree (95 F) heat with no ventilation or water for hours.”

Goran said they were forced to unlock their phones, which were returned on July 15 with all their data erased.

Kamil told CPJ that officers beat the men during the arrest and again at the Asayish office in the city of Rovia. “They called us traitors and chaotic,” he said. “My phone was reformatted, and my back still hurts from the beating.”

On July 14, three security personnel assaulted Hersh Qadir, head of NRT’s Erbil office, while he was covering a protest in Erbil’s Ainkawa district. He told CPJ that a man in plainclothes identifying himself as an Asayish officer ordered him not to broadcast.

CPJ contacted the Bardarash Asayish by phone, where officials confirmed the arrests but denied any assault or torture, offering no further explanation.

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

A CPJ investigation found Bassène could never have committed the crime, yet Senegal’s Supreme Court dismissed Bassène’s final appeal of a life sentence on May 3, 2025. Bassène was finalizing a fourth book on the separatist conflict in southern Senegal at the time of his arrest.

“As a son of Casamance, I wrote out of duty, for posterity so that the history of this conflict would not disappear from the collective memory and that it would never happen again,” said Bassène from the Aristide Le Dantec hospital in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, where he underwent a June 4 to repair an eardrum perforated during his arrest. He added, “I thank from the bottom of my heart all the signatories who believe in my innocence and are fighting for my release.”

Read the full letter in English here and in French here.

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

Senegal’s special cybersecurity division (DSC) arrested Gadiaga over his remarks during a July 4, 2025, broadcast about Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. On July 14, 2025, a judge opened a judicial investigation and charged Gadiaga with spreading false news, immoral speech, insulting a person exercising the prerogatives of the head of state, and receiving or soliciting donations in order to engage in propaganda likely to disturb public order, his lawyer, El Hadji Omar Youm, told news outlets.

During the broadcast on private television channel Télé Futurs Médias (TFM), Gadiaga responded to criticism from a ruling party official by saying that the party should not give lessons in ethics because its leader, Sonko, had been “convicted of sexual abuse.” Sonko was sentenced in absentia in June 2023 to two years in prison for the “corruption of youth.” 

In April, Sonko said his opponents were using journalists and “so-called news commentators” to spread false news and defame authorities.

“These charges represent an escalation in the government’s punitive attitude toward the media and promote a dangerous conflation between the press and the political opposition,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Senegalese authorities must release news commentators Badara Gadiaga, Abdou Nguer, and Bachir Fofana, and refrain from reprisals against the media for their criticism. Alleged press offenses should not be criminalized.”

On July 10, Sonko alluded to the TV debate during a meeting with his party’s leadership and recommended that party members “stop going to television stations that fight [the party]. …I fight those who fight me, and let those who use their tools to fight me know that I will go to the end.” He also called for a boycott of “television stations that fight him.”

L’Observateur, a newspaper owned by the same parent company as TFM, Groupe Futurs Médias, responded to Sonko’s comments with an editorial saying: “We are not a media affiliate of a party, nor a propaganda battalion, nor an instrument of validation. We are a newsroom.”

Separately, deliberation of the trial of commentator Bachir Fofana, detained for allegedly spreading false news, has been postponed to July 16, and another commentator, Abdou Nguer, has remained in prison since April on various charges.

CPJ’s calls to Sonko’s office and the justice ministry went unanswered.

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

Frey is a journalist known for his reporting on the Israeli occupation in the West Bank for several outlets, including Haaretz and YNET, according to CPJ’s review of his work.

“Israeli authorities’ arrest of journalist Israel Frey underscores authorities’ growing intolerance of freedom of expression since the start of the war on October 7, 2023,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately release Frey and all detained Palestinian journalists, and end their ongoing crackdown on the press and dissenting voices.”

After the news that five Israeli soldiers were killed by an explosive device in northern Gaza, Frey tweeted that “The world is a better place this morning without five young men who participated in one of the most horrific crimes against humanity.” 

Frey’s attorneys, Riham Nassra and Michal Pomeranz, told CPJ that the tweet does not legally constitute support for terrorism, describing the incident as a “political arrest.”

The State Attorney’s office responded to CPJ’s emailed request for comment with a copy of the court document about the case. The police and the Ministry of National Security issued a joint statement saying they would “deal firmly with anyone who incites or expresses support for the enemy.”

This is the third time Frey has been investigated, he told CPJ on Tuesday, before his arrest, adding that “In previous instances, it was alleged that my posts contained incitement, but the files were closed.” 

On October 16, 2023, Frey went into hiding after his home was attacked the previous day by a mob of far-right Israelis after he expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

CPJ has documented Israeli authorities’ arrests of 85 Palestinian journalists since October 7, 2023, the start of the Israel-Gaza war. In that same time period, this is the first time Israeli authorities have arrested and opened an investigation against an Israeli journalist for expressing an opinion.

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

On June 25, the Senegalese special cybersecurity division took Fofana into custody, according to his lawyer, Aboubacry Barro, and news reports. Barro told local media that Fofana is being prosecuted over allegations the journalist made on TV news programs about the allocation of the National Assembly contract. Fofana said the beneficiary of the contract was a businessman involved in a corruption case related to a former minister. During the trial, which began on July 2, the prosecutor requested a three-month prison sentence and a fine of 200,000 CFA francs (US$359).

The offense of spreading false news is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine of 1,500,000 CFA francs (US$2,680). 

“It is alarming that the Senegalese state is once again resorting to the criminalization of journalism,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. Fofana is the second commentator to have been detained in the past three months on false news charges, with Abdou Nguer having been taken into custody in April. “Senegalese authorities must release both journalists immediately and ensure that media professionals do not have to fear reprisals for their work.”

CPJ has previously called for the release and the dropping of charges against Nguer, who has been held since April 14, pending a judicial investigation into whether he spread false news about the death of a local official. New charges of causing offense to the head of state and undermining the functioning of public institutions were added on May 20.

CPJ’s calls to Senegal’s ministry of justice and to Malick Ndiaye, president of the National Assembly, went unanswered. 

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

Guevara arrived legally in the United States from El Salvador in April 2004, and applied for asylum in 2005 due to the dangers he faced as a journalist in El Salvador. Over the next twenty years, Guevara developed a large following in the Atlanta area, as well as national recognition, for his reporting on immigration issues.

Below is a timeline of events in Guevara’s case.  

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

For Ahmad Primo, who was arrested by the government for reporting that the 2011 protests were a revolution and then jailed by Islamic State, the idea was tantalizing.

“If I were single, I would go back and join those fighting for the future of Syria,” said Primo, who lives in Norway with his wife and children. “But I have a family and I cannot gamble with their future.”

Primo said his Norwegian passport bars him from returning to Syria, so he will continue working as a researcher for a Norwegian news platform, in addition to running his own Arabic fact-checking platform Verify-Sy.

“It’s not about where we are, it’s about what we’re doing,” he said.

After 54 years of al-Assad family rule, renewed energy has emerged among exiled Syrian journalists to use their skills to support media development and truth-telling back home.

Complex legal and family obligations, security concerns, and sectarian tensions mean permanent return is rarely an option. Some make irregular trips to report and train other journalists, but risk burning their ticket back to Europe without European citizenship.

A few have taken the plunge.

In a Facebook video, Syrian reporter Besher Kanakri stood in front of an airport arrivals sign in Damascus and announced, “I am returning to my homeland after seven years of forced absence.”

After years working for Istanbul-based Syria TV from Germany, he was pleased to be transferred to the Syrian capital.  

“Our country needs us and we must go back to contribute to rebuilding it,” Kanakri told CPJ. “The risks are significant but I still want to return.”

Syria has long been among the world’s deadliest countries for journalists with at least 145 killed since 2011, when al-Assad began to crack down on protesters. CPJ is investigating the cases of hundreds of other missing and killed journalists.

Syria topped CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index, which measures where murderers of journalists are most likely to go free.

Tired of being a refugee reporter

Others are staying put, for now.

Journalist Yahya Alaous, 52, arrived in the German capital Berlin, a renowned hub for Arab intelligentsia, a decade ago and found work reporting on refugee life for German outlets.

But he soon got tired of being stereotyped, particularly after 2017, when the anti-immigrant and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) rose to prominence as the third-largest party in parliament.

“Every time there was a terrorist attack, I felt I had to defend myself – to explain that we’re not all the same, since many assumed that refugees were the ones coming to Europe and carrying out these attacks,” said Alaous.

“You start to lose patience. I didn’t want to spend my life constantly defending myself for something I had nothing to do with,” he said.

Despite his disillusionment with Berlin, Alaous has prioritized his children’s future and chosen to stay. He mainly writes for Arabic-language media, using contacts back home to report on Syria.

‘Afraid of what might come next’

Security concerns make relocation difficult for many journalists, especially minorities. About 70% of Syrians in the country are Sunni and the remainder are mostly Shia and Ismaili Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Alawites — the community of the al-Assad family.

The new government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a Sunni Islamist group with roots in al-Qaeda. HTS has said it supports “Syria for all Syrians” and pledged not to prosecute journalists, but some have reported arrests, assaults, and intimidation in areas like northwest Syria, where the rebels-turned-rulers have been in power since 2017.

Minorities, like Amloud Alamir, are cautious.

“It was an astonishing moment when I woke up and realized the Assad regime had fallen,” said Alamir, who fled to Germany from Syria with her husband after he was imprisoned for his political views.

“I was also afraid of what might come next. I thought there would be chaos, or that radical Islamist militias might take over,” Alamir told CPJ. “We were scared. But we also knew it was a moment to be acknowledged, even if it was too early to celebrate.” 

In April, Alamir visited Syria for the first time in 14 years, on a reporting trip. She found a deeply divided country.

“No one sees me as Amloud,” she said, explaining how she was labeled according to her sectarian identity, even though she doesn’t practice the faith. “It’s not easy.”

Despite her deep longing to return, Alamir believes some painful truths cannot be ignored.

“Stay in Damascus if you want to be happy,” she said. “But if you want to see the reality, you have to go elsewhere, like Latakia,” she said, referring to the coastal province where some 1,300 people were massacred in March.

In Latakia’s al-Sanawbar village, where Alawite civilians were executed in revenge killings against al-Assad’s community and buried in mass graves, she found devastation.

“All the women were in black,” she said. “Everyone had lost someone.”

She visited a church where the faithful said they regarded themselves as Syrians first, rather than Christians. While hoping the new government would treat all citizens equally, they also felt hopeless and were quietly looking for ways to leave, Alamir said.

´We didn’t choose to leave´

Divisions between exiles and those who stayed in Syria add further complications.

“We are no longer seen as Syrian journalists by those inside the country,” said Alaous in Berlin. “They believe we didn’t suffer like they did … Some even see us as traitors because we live abroad, while they endured the hardships.”

“But leaving wasn’t our choice, we were forced to flee,” he insisted.

Carola Richter, a communications professor at the Free University of Berlin, believes the development of domestic Syrian media is critical.

“People want transparency about who’s behind the information to decide whether they can trust it,” she said. “Exiled media targeting Syrians is not the ideal solution.”

The fractured nature of exiled media reflects mistrust among Syrians, divided by social and ideological backgrounds, she said, describing a mix of “hope, enthusiasm, fear, and fatigue” among those considering return.

“Many feel disillusioned with journalism in exile, yet unsure if going back would allow them to truly serve their community or put them at risk. This mix of emotions and conflicting thoughts is intense and still needs to be channeled into a clear direction,” she said.

Summer school in Syria

The online outlet Amal Berlin, staffed by a dozen Syrian exiles, plans to harness some of that energy to train young journalists in reporting and fact-checking at a summer school in Syria.

“The fall of the Assad regime created a necessity for Syrians in exile to do something in Syria,” said Julia Gerlach, a German journalist who set up the Arabic-language platform in 2016 to provide practical information to help Syrians settle in Germany.

Another Syrian journalist, who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisals, told CPJ that he went to Damascus in December to work as a fixer for international media and to run free training workshops, hosted by visiting exiles, for “a new generation of journalists.”

“The lucky Syrians were able to flee and have better life and education, and now it’s time for them to give back,” he said, describing it as his duty to improve journalism standards in Syria.

“We have been struggling with propaganda and disinformation during war and it’s always been hard to get verified news … I’m trying to transfer what I’ve learned from the last decade working with international media outlets to my people,” he said.

“I would love to travel around Syria and give workshops nonstop. It means a lot to me to give to anyone, so imagine how it feels when it’s my people who are receiving.”

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

Guevara’s immigration attorney, Giovanni Diaz, told CPJ that ICE has not allowed Guevara’s family to post bond and has not been given a clear explanation as to why.  

The Spanish-language reporter is currently the only journalist in custody in the U.S. whose arrest was in relation to their work. 

“We are outraged that immigration authorities refused to free journalist Mario Guevara on bond after a judge ordered that he could be released yesterday,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “By continuing to hold Guevara, officials are effectively silencing a reporter who was in the United States legally and had covered immigration stories in his Atlanta metro community for nearly 20 years. He must be released.” 

A federal immigration judge ruled on July 1 that Guevara could be released on $7,500 bond, though stated that, if he were to face additional charges or be convicted, the court could reconsider his release. 

At the bail hearing, the government argued that livestreaming, a reporting method favored by Guevara, presented a danger to the public by compromising the integrity and safety of law enforcement activities. “This should alarm all journalists working in the United States,” said Jacobsen. 

Guevara faces three misdemeanor charges related to traffic violations. The charges were filed after an ICE detainer was issued and nearly one month after the violations allegedly occurred.  

The journalist was initially arrested on June 14 while covering a protest in the Atlanta metro area. He was denied bond and transferred to ICE custody. At the time of publication, he was in custody at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in southeastern Georgia. 

CPJ did not receive an immediate reply to a request for comment from the regional ICE office in Atlanta or ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C.

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

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.

Despite the court order for Guevara’s release, CPJ is concerned by the government lawyer’s argument that livestreaming presented a danger to the public by compromising the integrity and safety of law enforcement activities.

Guevara, an Emmy-winning, Spanish-language journalist, born in El Salvador, who has lawfully resided in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, was placed in ICE custody on June 18, according to public records and Guevara’s lawyer. 

On Tuesday, the journalist was ordered released on $7,500 bond. 

“We are heartened to see that Mario Guevara was ordered to be released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at his bond hearing, though we remain concerned about the arguments the prosecution made that Guevara’s work as a reporter presented a danger to the community,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program CoordinatorKatherine Jacobsen. “The fact that Guevara was arrested while exercising his First Amendment rights as a journalist and was subsequently held for over two weeks by various law enforcement bodies sends an alarming message to the media and has effectively silenced Guevara’s coverage of his community. We urge law enforcement to thoroughly investigate why Guevara was arrested in the first place.”

The judge said that there was a gray area between constitutionally protected speech and obstructive behavior. He noted that it was not for an immigration court to rule on that matter, but that if Guevara were to face additional charges or be convicted the court could reconsider his release.  

Guevara, who has authorization to work in the United States was wearing a vest marked “Press” at the time of his arrest. He covers immigration on his “MGNews” Facebook page, which has 112,000 followers, and other digital platforms. 

Guevara was arrested on three misdemeanor charges related to his First Amendment rights, guaranteeing freedom of the press. Those charges were dropped on June 25 due to insufficient evidence.

During the hearing, prosecutors relied on a 2015 Facebook post in which Guevara posed with a firearm to argue that he was a danger to the public and should remain in detention. Guevara’s lawyer objected to the claimed post, as it was not presented as evidence. 

Guevara appeared virtually at the hearing from the Folkston ICE Processing Center in southeast Georgia.

CPJ wrote to Gwinnett County Solicitor-General Lisamarie N. Bristol to express concerns about the misdemeanor charges levied against Guevara approximately one month after the alleged incidents occurred, and after ICE had issued a detainer.

“At this time, this matter does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Solicitor-General’s Office,” the solicitor-general told CPJ in an emailed response.

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

“The secret detention of journalist Hassan Zaza, without any explanation from Syrian officials, reflects a nationwide pattern of press intimidation,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Syrian authorities must immediately disclose Zaza’s whereabouts, ensure his safety, and drop any charges related to his journalistic activities.”

Mohammad Al-Saleh, Director of Press Relations at Syria’s Ministry of Information, confirmed Zaza’s arrest in the capital Damascus. He told CPJ that it was “related to security concerns and not connected to his journalistic work,” but he was not authorized to share further details as the matter was under investigation.

 “If nothing is found, he will likely be released this week,” Al-Saleh said via messaging app.

Zaza is the owner and editor-in-chief of Noos Social news site, a senior member of Syria’s Free Media Union, and the Syrian representative of the International Federation of Arab Journalists.

After December’s overthrow of long-ruling President Bashar al-Assad, Zaza returned to Damascus from northeast Syria, which is under the control of Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. The group has since agreed to integrate with Syria’s new government. 

Zaza also worked with the Ronahi TV, which supports the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), outlawed by Turkey as a terrorist organization.

“We still have no information about his whereabouts or the reason for his arrest,” Avin Ibrahim, co-chair of the Free Media Union in northeast Syria, told CPJ. “The Syrian government bears full responsibility for the safety of our detained colleague Hassan Zaza, as well as any journalist who may be at risk in the future. These ongoing violations against journalists must end.”

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

It was the first time that Cumpio’s words have been heard outside her prison cell in Tacloban City in the eastern Philippines. Cumpio was arrested in February 2020 and later charged over illegal possession of firearms and terrorism financing.

She faces up to 40 years in prison if found guilty.

“How do we even combat a well-orchestrated lie? A story that’s so absurd that if this was a class debate, you wouldn’t even try to rebut,” Cumpio said in her letter, which Khan read on Tuesday at a U.N. Human Rights Council side event about freedom of expression in the Philippines, co-hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Cumpio’s letter was hand-carried to Khan in Geneva from the Philippines by CPJ’s Asia-Pacific
director Beh Lih Yi. Ronalyn Olea, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) was also present when the letter was handed over.

Khan, the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion, called for Cumpio’s release at the U.N. on Tuesday and in her report to the UNHRC last week.

In 2024, the U.N. expert made an official visit to Cumpio and her co-accused Marielle Domequil, a church lay worker, in prison.

“She has been languishing in prison for five years, waiting for a trial for five years — that to me is a travesty of justice,” Khan said on Tuesday. “We need to stand with the Frenchies of this world.”

CPJ and the NUJP are part of the international #FreeFrenchieMaeCumpio coalition which includes the media rights groups AlterMidya, Reporters Without Borders, and Free Press Unlimited. The coalition was denied a joint prison visit to Cumpio in Tacloban City on June 16, with authorities citing documentary requirements.

Below is the extract from Cumpio’s letter read out by Khan:

“A lot has happened over a year [since Khan met Cumpio]. Marielle and I have already testified in court. I was presented three times. I am pleased to tell you that our lawyers have really exerted all of their efforts for our testimony.

Despite that I have to admit that nothing can really prepare you for your own trial.

At first, it felt like I didn’t really have anything to say. How do we even combat a well-orchestrated lie? A story that’s so absurd that if this was a class debate, you wouldn’t even try to rebut.

But after my testimony, I realised I still had a lot to say. That this more than five years of detention is robbing us of so many things — time, family, dreams, plans, future.

People call us brave for holding on, although I would have to admit I sometimes feel otherwise.

The truth is that what happened to us still happens to several others. The fact that they are capable of charging us through mere lies. The fear that we still won’t be safe even when we’re out of this facility.

I am never an ‘in between’ person. I am usually sure where I stand. But today, now that we’re almost near the end, I feel uncertain. And uncertainty bothers you in bed.

Nonetheless, we hold on.

Your visit last year has made a huge impact on how people perceive our case.

Thank you for amplifying our woes. Nothing is braver than fighting for those who are uncertain – the economically challenged, those who continue to suffer from discrimination, or people like us who are locked behind bars.”

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

“Authorities in the DRC must not legitimize the detention of journalist Serge Sindani under the pretext of the ongoing war in the east of the country,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal, from New York. “Authorities must release Sindani without delay so that he can continue informing the local population about important public issues, including conflict in the region.”

The photo, taken from a distance, showed military planes at Bangoka International Airport in Kisangani, a city in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the caption: “RDC-Instant Kisangani — the city is calm and under control with our Sukhoi fighter jets. Happy Sunday,” according to a statement by the outlet, reviewed by CPJ and Kis24.info journalist Steves Paluku Mbusa, who spoke with CPJ.

According to the same sources, Sindani is detained in a military intelligence cell in Kisangani, a city in the northern central Tshopo province, and was questioned by Colonel Mwambi, who accused him of having bad intentions for showing military planes in the context of the current war in the region.

“Sindani is one of ours,” Mwambi told CPJ by phone. “He easily covers military activities in the Tshopo province. We are in an operational war province; he took the liberty of filming our war planes without any authorization from the military hierarchy. We do not know his intentions. Was it to inform our enemies? We are investigating his case.”

The DRC and Rwanda are set to sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal in Washington D.C. on June 27, aimed at ending decades of conflict in the eastern DRC.

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

Independent photojournalist John Rudoff was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Rudoff told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting protests throughout the night of June 9. The protests were centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, Rudoff said he followed as 50 to 100 demonstrators were pushed back by “a wall of cops” on South Alameda Street, a major thoroughfare. He added that the officers were heavily armed, carrying 40 mm crowd-control munitions, pepper balls and shields.

Officers herded the crowd and by approximately 8:30 p.m. had surrounded them using a technique called kettling.

“The usual tactic is to have a wall of cops — mostly armored with helmets and face shields and batons — advancing toward a group of protesters,” Rudoff said. “They would advance 10 or 20 feet and stop and form up their line again and then yell ‘Move!’ or ‘Move back!’ and push forward another distance.”

Rudoff told the Tracker he was among the journalists and demonstrators caught in the kettle and told they were under arrest for failure to disperse.

“I basically sat down and made a few pictures and twiddled my thumbs for an hour as several of the protesters, one by one, were lined up and taken away by the cops,” he said. “About 45 minutes to an hour later, a sergeant pointed his finger at me and beckoned me toward him.”

The photojournalist said he complied and was told to put his hands behind his back. The officer asked Rudoff if he was with the press and noticed the National Press Photographers Association credential around his neck.

“He said, ‘Let me take a look at that,’ and I think he photographed it with a cellphone, but I’m not sure,” Rudoff said. “And then he said, ‘I’m going to walk you out of here with your hands behind your back. I don’t want the activists to see that we’re letting you go.’”

Rudoff told the Tracker he was able to then reconnect with a colleague who had avoided the kettle and leave.

“I was not physically injured and I’ve got psychological skin like an alligator,” he said. “But I was out of business for an hour, and I know perfectly well that the California Penal Code says that police are not allowed to disperse, detain, beat or arrest journalists doing their jobs, and that is precisely what they did.”

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Russia freed Yesypenko on June 20 after he served a five-year prison sentence on charges of possessing and transporting explosives, which he denied. Karnei, detained for nearly 2 years, was released along with 13 political prisoners, including opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski. The 14 were freed by Belarus on June 21 following a visit to Minsk by senior U.S. official Keith Kellogg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general.

“CPJ celebrates that Vladislav Yesypenko and Ihar Karnei are now free and reunited with their families,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “The efforts and pressure of the international community must not stop here, as Russia and Belarus continue to hold dozens of journalists in connection with their work. They all should be released immediately.” 

Russian Federal Security Service officers detained Yesypenko, a freelance correspondent for Krym.Realii, a Crimea-focused outlet run by U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), in March 2021 in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea. He was initially sentenced to six years in prison, but the term was reduced by a year on appeal in August 2022.

Karnei, a former freelancer with RFE/RL, was detained in July 2023 and sentenced to three years in March 2024 on charges of participating in an extremist group — the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which had been the largest independent media association in the country until it was dissolved in 2021 and later labeled an extremist group. His sentence was extended by eight months in December 2024.

“RFE/RL extends its deepest gratitude to the U.S. and Ukrainian governments for working with us to ensure that Vlad’s unjust detention was not prolonged,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.

Karnei and Yesypenko’s releases come after sustained international pressure, including from CPJ, and after Andrey Kuznechyk, another RFE/RL journalist, was freed from a Belarusian prison in February.

Belarus is Europe’s worst jailer of journalists, with at least 31 behind bars as of December 1, 2024. Thirteen of the 30 journalists still detained by Russia are Ukrainian. 

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

Russia freed Yesypenko on June 20 after he served a five-year prison sentence on charges of possessing and transporting explosives, which he denied. Karnei, detained for nearly 2 years, was released along with 13 political prisoners, including opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski. The 14 were freed by Belarus on June 21 following a visit to Minsk by senior U.S. official Keith Kellogg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general.

“CPJ celebrates that Vladislav Yesypenko and Ihar Karnei are now free and reunited with their families,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “The efforts and pressure of the international community must not stop here, as Russia and Belarus continue to hold dozens of journalists in connection with their work. They all should be released immediately.” 

Russian Federal Security Service officers detained Yesypenko, a freelance correspondent for Krym.Realii, a Crimea-focused outlet run by U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), in March 2021 in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea. He was initially sentenced to six years in prison, but the term was reduced by a year on appeal in August 2022.

Karnei, a former freelancer with RFE/RL, was detained in July 2023 and sentenced to three years in March 2024 on charges of participating in an extremist group — the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which had been the largest independent media association in the country until it was dissolved in 2021 and later labeled an extremist group. His sentence was extended by eight months in December 2024.

“RFE/RL extends its deepest gratitude to the U.S. and Ukrainian governments for working with us to ensure that Vlad’s unjust detention was not prolonged,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.

Karnei and Yesypenko’s releases come after sustained international pressure, including from CPJ, and after Andrey Kuznechyk, another RFE/RL journalist, was freed from a Belarusian prison in February.

Belarus is Europe’s worst jailer of journalists, with at least 31 behind bars as of December 1, 2024. Thirteen of the 30 journalists still detained by Russia are Ukrainian. 

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

Guevara, an Emmy-winning, Spanish-language reporter who covers immigration on his “MGnews” Facebook page and other social media platforms, was arrested on June 14 while livestreaming a “No Kings” protest against the actions of the Trump administration in an Atlanta, Georgia suburb. According to video footage of his arrest, Guevara was wearing a press pass and clearly identified himself as a journalist to law enforcement.

Guevara was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after the immigration authority issued a detainer against the journalist, who has authorization to work in the United States. At the time of the letter’s publication, Guevara was being held in the Folkston ICE Processing Center.

Read the full letter here.

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

A Columbia University graduate has been denied entry into the United States and deported following 12 hours of detention at the Los Angeles International Airport. Australian writer Alistair Kitchen says agents questioned him about his views on Israel and Palestine and downloaded the contents of his phone. “They were waiting for me when I got off the plane. I didn’t even make it into the queue for passport processing,” says Kitchen. “Customs and Border Protection are using the immense power and discretion that they have to search and then to deny entry… because they disagree with some people’s speech.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Freelance photojournalist Alex Brittenham was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Brittenham told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been documenting the protests since June 8, noting that the protests the following day centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center were in her observation nonviolent.

“There was singing and dancing in the street,” she said. “I personally was unaware that an unlawful assembly was declared or that dispersal orders were given.”

Officers began herding the crowd, Brittenham said, and by approximately 8:30 p.m. had surrounded them using a technique called kettling, which she had never experienced before.

“I had asked, ‘I am media, I blatantly have my camera in my hand and all my gear on my back. Can I please leave? I’m just here to capture images, I’m not here to do any harm. I just want to leave,’” she told the Tracker. “I was told ‘no’ by multiple officers and that everyone in the area was under arrest.”

Brittenham and other journalists caught in the kettle told the Tracker that police were removing journalists and demonstrators one by one, and did not make it clear whether members of the press would be charged. So, Brittenham said, she voluntarily approached the officers and identified herself as a member of the press.

“I just wanted to state my case and get out,” she said.

When each of the journalists was removed from the kettle, officers directed them to place their hands behind their back and then held their arms in place while walking them out of the area. Once members of the press provided their names and basic information, officers allowed them to leave with a warning that, if they returned, they would be subject to arrest.

Brittenham told the Tracker that she was particularly nervous as a freelancer without media credentials to present.

“It’s kind of scary because you don’t have a badge to protect you,” she said. “I worried: If I don’t have those credentials, does it mean I’m under arrest even though I am covering this for freelance purposes?”

When reached for comment, the Los Angeles Police Department directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Reporter Cam Higby was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Higby told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly. They then began herding the crowd, pushing demonstrators down Alameda Street, a major thoroughfare.

He said officers ultimately surrounded them using a technique called kettling. Higby, who is a journalist and personality for digital news media and commentary site Today Is America, reported live from the kettle on Fox News.

Officers gave them conflicting information, Higby said, adding that they said “somebody would be around to kind of collect media in a little while, but that person didn’t come.”

Higby and other journalists caught in the kettle told the Tracker that police were removing journalists and demonstrators one by one, and did not make it clear whether members of the press were under arrest.

When each of the journalists was removed from the kettle, officers directed them to place their hands behind their back and then held their arms in place while walking them out of the area. Once members of the press provided their names and basic information, officers allowed them to leave with a warning that, if they returned, they would be subject to arrest.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

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.

Independent journalist Anthony Cabassa was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Cabassa first posted his coverage of the June 9 protests, centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, on the social platform X starting at around 5 p.m.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, officers began herding the crowd and by approximately 8:30 p.m. had surrounded them using a technique called kettling.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Freelance documentary photographer Philip Cheung was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Cheung was on assignment for The New York Times, documenting protests centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, officers began herding the crowd and ultimately surrounded them using a technique called kettling.

Multiple journalists caught in the kettle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police were removing journalists and demonstrators one by one, and did not make it clear whether members of the press were under arrest.

When each of the journalists was removed from the kettle, officers directed them to place their hands behind their back and then held their arms in place while walking them out of the area. Once the members of the press provided their names and basic information, officers allowed them to leave with a warning that, if they returned, they would be subject to arrest.

Cheung confirmed that he was among the media members kettled, detained and escorted out of the protest area, but declined to comment further.

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

An unidentified CNN photographer was detained in a police kettle while broadcasting from anti-deportation demonstrations in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025. A correspondent and another team member for the outlet were escorted out while still on air, before the photographer was also removed.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll and his reporting team were covering demonstrations in downtown LA on June 9, and had just concluded a live report for the news program “Laura Coates Live” when they were approached by police.

The unidentified photographer recorded as Los Angeles Police Department officers told Carroll that he needed to leave the area, directing him to place his arms behind his back as two officers escorted him outside the perimeter by the elbow.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Ben Camacho, freelance reporter for LA nonprofit The Southlander

You were injured while covering protests on June 7 at the Paramount Home Depot, the site where one of the initial immigration raids that spurred the protests occurred. What happened in the lead-up to your injury?

Pretty much the whole day, pepper balls were being shot by the sheriffs towards the protesters. I was keeping an eye out for those all day. But they were also throwing stingers, which is like a flashbang. They were definitely being thrown directly at people at some point, which is extremely dangerous. And rubber bullets, of course, were kind of flying as well. Some protesters were throwing their plastic water bottles or maybe fist-sized pieces of concrete. It seemed like most of them just kind of fell short of their target.

I had on a gas mask and half-face, ballistic-rated goggles, and a press pass. Mind you, the National Guard, like the military, had not been deployed yet.

Before I was shot, I was in an area where people were peacefully protesting. I was keeping an eye on my co-reporter, who was getting video. That’s when I saw a projectile go straight into the area where he was, and that’s when I saw Nick Stern [a British photojournalist] get shot.

I ended up going over and helping him get away. As I went back toward the protest area, pain hit me in the kneecap. I started screaming. I had never felt that type of pain before. I started to turn around to try to walk away, and the pain got worse.

Someone came up to me and helped me walk away. Then I was shot again, this time in my right elbow. It was excruciating at this point. I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I was in such a weird, shocked state of mind.

The next day, I went to Urgent Care to get checked out. Thankfully, my injuries are just serious, nasty bruises and a nasty cut. I’ve been home since, making sure these minor injuries don’t become worse.

Could you have imagined this happening in Los Angeles?

The police violence this time around feels much, much higher than any protests in the past few years. I also covered the 2020 uprising [the Black Lives Matter protests] and, yes, there was extreme police violence back then too.

This time, police action feels a lot more indiscriminate and a lot stronger, and that’s just from [what I experienced with] the Los Angeles authorities.

How has being a person of color shaped your reporting experience?

I am from these communities that people are being taken from. My hometown, just outside of LA, is also rising up against this. And I have a significant audience on my reporting platforms. And because I’m not out there, that’s a voice lost. 

Abraham Márquez, investigative journalist for The Southlander

While covering protests, you were hit by less lethal munitions fired by law enforcement on June 6, and then by what seemed to have been the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on June 7. Could you have expected this in your hometown?

You know, it’s not my first rodeo. I’ve never seen them [law enforcement in Los Angeles] be careful with the press in the years that I’ve been documenting protests here.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced them telling the press, “Hey, go on this side, you’ll be safe here,” or them holding back from not attacking.

I think at this point, Los Angeles’ law enforcement feels somewhat empowered because their actions will be backed up by the federal government, if they do something wrong.LA is heavily policed right now — we’ve got sheriffs out; we’ve got CHP [California Highway Patrol] out; cops from other cities are here; we’re going to have the Marines and the National Guard. It feels like they can do whatever they want and get away with it.

What’s at stake when journalists are attacked?

Reporters are on the front lines trying to document the reality of what it is to live in this country. We’re trying to document that people are being arrested and deported without due process. Police officers are brutalizing people who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest and to assemble peacefully.

What has it been like emotionally covering this?

I haven’t had a chance to really sit back, zoom out, and really let this process. My phone’s been blowing up this whole week with alerts of potential ICE raids, or information about where people are, where they’re getting arrested. I’m just trying to prepare and get ready, and make sure that I’m ready for the next day.

Mekahlo Medina, anchor and reporter for NBC4 News

What has surprised you most about the nature of the recent protests and the response from law enforcement?  

LA is the epicenter of immigration. We have the most undocumented people in the entire country — I think just under a million in LA County, a population of 10 million. Immigration is a national issue, and I think we fully expected some sort of reaction once it came to our doorstep. We just didn’t know what that was going to be.

What has surprised me the most has been the federal response. I thought, maybe, we would see them as part of ICE operations, but not at the protests in the way that we have.

You and your news crew were fired on with pellet projectiles by federal agents while covering June 7 protests. Did you ever think this would happen in Los Angeles? 

I’ve covered many protests in the 20 years I’ve been here, and we have a very good relationship with LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] around our coverage of the protests, and what we’re supposed to do and not supposed to do.

I felt going into protest situations last weekend [June 6- 8] that we would be fine. And then when we got shot by federal agents, I think we were all taken aback. I can’t say it was targeted toward me. But what I can say is, most of the protesters had already left. We had large cameras; I had “Press” on my vest. We were all clearly identified.

What worries you about the situation in Los Angeles going forward?

I’m concerned that the non-lethal munitions might actually hurt somebody to a degree where they could lose an eye or something else along those lines. That worries me a lot.

Television crews have had some of our equipment and trucks attacked or destroyed — without anyone in them — by protesters, but I would say most journalists are concerned about all the agents and what they’re firing.

In this country, for the most part, journalism and journalists have been respected. It’s part of our constitution — freedom of press. It’s embedded in who we are every day from day one. The government is trying to keep us [journalists] from doing our job. I think it should be a red flag for a lot of people.

Ryanne Mena, crime and public safety reporter for the Southern California News Group

You were hit twice with less-lethal munitions on June 6 and then again on June 7, resulting in a concussion. Could you have imagined this happening in your home community? 

After Trump was elected, I was really nervous for what would come in Los Angeles, because I know Los Angeles, and people show up for protests. But I didn’t think that I would be doing a job that would involve federal agents shooting at me.

Do you plan to continue covering this story?

Yes. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I have a very deep connection to the city and immigrant rights. I think it is so important to document why people are taking to the streets, and also to document the community that has been forming with all this anger.

It is an honor to be one of the reporters out there recording the first draft of history. This is history that we’re living through.

What do you want people outside of Los Angeles to understand about what’s happening now?

Seemingly, journalists are being targeted. There have been many of us who have been injured in the last several days, at least once on live TV with an Australian reporter. There are so many of us who have been injured by federal agents, by local law enforcement, and it’s all unacceptable. Every single agency that has been involved in harming journalists should be condemned and should be investigated, I believe.

Other journalists should get ready to get ready because I feel like Los Angeles is just the first place where this kind of violence against journalists, or similar things, might happen. This is only the beginning.

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

“DRC authorities should have never detained Willy-Albert Kande or questioned Marcelin Mwananteba, Don Kubutana, and Laurent Ngala, and must end their efforts to intimidate the press over coverage of matters of public interest,” said CPJ’s Africa Regional Director Angela Quintal.

Local media reported that stadium manager Dadou Ethambe lodged a complaint against RTNC after the state-run outlet’s June 8 broadcast of the complex littered with trash and Kande raised concerns on air about the stadium’s conditions ahead of hosting a 2026 World Cup qualifying match. 

Police officers summoned and detained Kande and Mwananteba at a Kinshasa station on June 9 and questioned them about their reporting before releasing Mwananteba the same day and transferring Kande to the office of the National Cyberdefense Council (CNC), an intelligence service of the presidency, according to media reports and an RTNC journalist with knowledge of the case who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity.

According to those sources, Kande was accused of denigrating the stadium in a way that promoted Kamalondo Stadium in the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi, which is owned by Tout Puissant Mazembe, the local football team managed by opposition politician Moïse Katumbi.

On Thursday, June 11, authorities additionally arrested RTNC cameraperson Kubutana and reporter Ngala, who filmed the conditions at the stadium and took them to the CNC offices, according to the same RTNC journalist and a post on X by a local reporter. Kande, Ngala, and Kubutana were released later that day evening following the intervention of minister of sports and leisure Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga and the chief of staff for the minister of communication and media, Nicolas Liyanza.

CPJ’s calls to Budimbu and Ethambe received no responses. A WhatsApp message to Ethambe also went unanswered.

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

Rebecca Ellis, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was detained in a kettle by police while documenting an anti-deportation protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Ellis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and her colleague, photojournalist Jason Armond, had been documenting protests throughout the night of June 9. The protests were centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, Ellis said she and Armond were following the remaining demonstrators when officers began herding the crowd.

“They’d been pushing protesters from downtown into Little Tokyo and then through the streets,” Ellis said. “Then at one point, we saw that they were also coming from behind and we were in a kettle.”

Ellis told the Tracker that many journalists were caught in the kettle alongside a few dozen protesters. She was one of the first journalists escorted out, but noted that it wasn’t clear what was happening to them.

“I was confused, and Jason, who was there and was my photographer, was confused,” Ellis said. “I would say there was one minute of concern and fear, but then it was pretty clear that we were going to be let out.

“They were having everyone come one by one to detain them and cite them for failure to disperse. They would include press and would have you put your hands behind your back. They’d hold your hands back, walk you over to a different location and then get your name and walk you away from the kettle, about a block down, and then just had us leave.”

She estimated that she was held in the kettle for 20 to 25 minutes before she was escorted out. Armond was also released without charges.

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Jason Armond, a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times, was detained in a kettle by police while documenting an anti-deportation protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Armond told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his colleague, reporter Rebecca Ellis, had been documenting protests throughout the night of June 9. The protests were centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, Armond said he and Ellis were following the remaining demonstrators when officers began herding the crowd.

“We got to a point where the police were able to surround the area and kind of kettle us in,” he said. “Once they surrounded us, they started picking people out one by one to then arrest.”

While officers started with the demonstrators, Armond said, one then called Ellis over.

“She was talking to them for a minute and then all of a sudden they had her turn around,” he said. “She was just panicking.” Ellis later confirmed to the Tracker that she was not cuffed, just had her hands held behind her back.

“I thought that they were going to let press out, because The New York Times was there — basically all the press was there — and we were in talks with them,” Armond said. “But one side wasn’t communicating with the other.”

He said that the lack of communication left them no choice but to assume they were also under arrest.

“It was stressful,” Armond said. “When you’re in the kettle and then you’re initially talking with them, and then they have you put your hands behind your back: It’s like, what? Am I being arrested or am I being let out?”

Armond told the Tracker he was in the kettle for around 90 minutes, as he wanted to continue photographing the arrests of demonstrators. When he left the kettle, officers directed him to place his arms behind his back. Two officers escorted him out, each holding him by the wrist. After they confirmed his press credentials, Armond said he was released.

“My only gripe is that they could have just been up front and been like, ‘Hey, for our safety, we need to have you put your hands behind your back. We want to make sure you don’t have anything in your hands as we walk you back, and then we’ll let you out,’” Armond said. “They didn’t say any of that until they basically scared us in the process.”

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

“The arrest of Flore Monteau continues a pattern of censorship through detention by Togolese law enforcement,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Togolese authorities must put an end to such abuses and ensure safe reporting conditions for journalists during public events.” 

Monteau, a correspondent with the French public broadcaster TV5 Monde, told CPJ that gendarmes snatched her camera as she filmed their response to anti-government protests that had started the day before in Lomé, the Togolese capital. They then took her to a nearby gendarmerie station, where they deleted her footage and forced her to unlock her phone to check for images of the protest, she said.

After holding her for several hours, the gendarmes released Monteau without charge and returned her camera and phone.

The June 5-6 protests followed the arrest at the end of May of Togolese rapper Essowe Tchalla, who goes by the stage name Aamron. Tchalla had called for public demonstrations on the June 6 birthday of President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé. Gnassingbé has ruled Togo since the death of his father, the previous president, in 2005.

In April, the police censored another journalist’s images in the same way. Officers in Lomé arrested Albert Agbeko, editor of the private online newspaper Togo Scoop, brought him to their office, and forced him to delete images from his phone taken during an operation to revise the country’s official list of people entitled to vote, according to Agbeko and news reports. Agbeko was also one of at least six journalists physically attacked in September 2024 as they covered an opposition party meeting.

CPJ emailed the Armed Forces Ministry for comment on the arrest and the forced deletion of images, but it has not yet received a response. CPJ’s calls to the Togolese police went unanswered.

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

“The detention of Tesfalem Waldyes, even after a court-ordered his release, underscores the Ethiopian government’s disregard for judicial processes and press freedom,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities must immediately release Tesfalem unconditionally.”

According to a statement by Haq Media and Communication, which manages Ethiopia Insider, and news reports, plainclothes security officers arrested Tesfalem on June 8 at the Ghion Hotel in the capital, Addis Ababa. He was initially held at a police department in the city’s Estifanos neighborhood and on June 9 he was transferred to a police station in another area of the city. 

Today he appeared before Addis Ababa City First Instance Kirkos Division Court, where police accused him of “spreading false information,” according to CPJ’s review of a court document and his lawyer, Betemariam Alemayehu, who spoke to CPJ by phone. The court granted him bail of 15,000 birr (US$109) and subsequently issued a release order, which CPJ reviewed, following payment of the amount. Even though police indicated their intention to appeal the release order, they had not formally done so by Tuesday evening, and they continued to detain Tesfalem, according to the Haq Media and Communication statement and Betemariam. 

CPJ previously called for an investigation into the July 2023 burglary of Ethiopia Insider’s office, in which video production equipment was stolen. In 2014, Tesfalem was detained for 439 days on charges of inciting violence and terrorism.

CPJ’s phone calls and queries sent via messaging app to Addis Ababa police spokesperson Markos Tadesse and to Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu were not immediately answered on Tuesday evening.

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

Jason Carroll, a national correspondent for CNN, was detained live on air and escorted out of a protest zone by police officers while documenting anti-deportation demonstrations in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with Los Angeles law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Carroll and his reporting team were covering demonstrations that continued in downtown LA June 9, and had just concluded a live report for “Laura Coates Live” when they were approached by police.

CNN cameras recorded as Los Angeles Police Department officers told Carroll that he needed to leave the area, directing him to place his arms behind his back and having two officers escort him by the elbow to the end of the road.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The security directorate in eastern Hadramout Governorate issued the three arrest warrants against Sabri bin Mukhshen, Abduljabar Bajabeer, and Muzahim Bajaber based on an April order by the Specialized Criminal Prosecution, which prosecutes high-level cases, including those against journalists. The order did not specify the alleged offense.

The arrest warrants violate Article 13 of Yemen’s Press and Publications Law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions unless these break the law. 

On May 23, journalists Abdulrahman Al-Humaidi and Najm Al-Din Al-Subari were detained in Marib over Al-Humaidi’s Facebook post that criticized an armed assault on Al-Subari by a militia member affiliated with the state security forces in the western city of Marib. The journalists said in an official complaint to the Media Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom group, that they were threatened, had their phones confiscated, and were held without legal justification, and that Al-Humaidi was forced to delete the post and sign a pledge not to report on Marib Governorate without prior approval from its security forces. 

“The arrest warrants against journalists Sabri bin Mukhshen, Abduljabar Bajabeer, and Muzahim Bajaber, and the detention and intimidation of Abdulrahman Al-Humaidi and Najm Al-Din Al-Subari, are further evidence of the alarming decline in press freedom in areas controlled by Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “We call on the government to immediately drop the arrest warrants, hold those responsible for the illegal detention accountable, and allow all journalists to report freely.”

Yemen has been mired in civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels ousted the government from the capital Sanaa. In 2015, a Saudi-backed coalition intervened to try and restore the government to power.

Journalists face grave threats in areas controlled by both groups. Violations — ranging from arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance to unfair trials — are carried out with near-total impunity.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Human Rights for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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

Initial protests demanding accountability for the tragedy have turned into a widespread movement against corruption and President Aleksandar Vučić’s increasingly authoritarian rule, and as a result, journalists have faced a surge in physical attacks, threats, online harassment, smear campaigns, and even spyware — often driven by Vučić’s supporters, government officials, and pro-government media.

Since the beginning of November, the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (IJAS) has recorded 23 physical assaults. There have been 18 assaults so far this year, already surpassing the 17 in all of 2024. The IJAS has tallied a total of 128 of various types of attacks and threats so far this year, suggesting the overall number may soon exceed last year’s 166 cases.

“In the political crisis Serbia is going through since November, we are witnessing a sort of open warfare against independent media,” Jelena L. Petković, a freelance journalist specializing in covering media safety in the Western Balkans, told CPJ. “2025 might turn out to be the worst year on record for journalist safety in the country.”

Petković said U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection, the rise of populist leaders like Viktor Orbán in neighboring EU states, and the crisis the USAID funding freeze has caused for Serbia’s independent media have emboldened Vučić to intensify his pressure on the press — frequently accusing journalists and civil society groups of being foreign agents and traitors. She noted that none of the attacks on journalists since last November have led to prosecutions, underscoring a broader pattern of impunity.

“This surge of attacks on independent journalists who hold the power to account in Serbia reflects a broader attempt to silence critical reporting amid a deepening political crisis,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Serbian authorities must end the impunity for these attacks, take urgent steps to protect journalists, and put a stop to the hostile climate that emboldens those who seek to intimidate journalists.”

CPJ emailed questions to the press office of the presidency and to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the police, but did not receive any replies.

Below is a breakdown of the most serious attacks since November 1, 2024, based on CPJ’s review of cases documented by local press freedom groups:

Physical attacks

CPJ’s review of 15 physical attacks, affecting at least 23 journalists, found that the incidents mostly occurred during protests and ranged from attempts to snatch journalists’ phones to assaults that caused injuries. Some attackers were politicians or public officials, and several journalists reported that police failed to protect them.

• On May 17, 2025, an unidentified individual attempted to knock the phone of Južne Vesti journalist Tamara Radovanović from her hand while she was documenting a rally by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the southern city of Niš. Instead of protecting her, police removed her from the scene to “reduce tension,” without taking action against her attacker, according to the journalist.

• On May 16, while filming an SNS event attended by party officials in the eastern village of Makovište, N1 TV camera operator Marjan Vučetić was attacked from behind by unknown individuals, who struck his back and neck, causing light injuries. Others insulted him, calling him a “traitor” and “foreign mercenary.”

• On April 12,  during an SNS rally in the capital Belgrade, pro-government supporters attacked a five-member KTV crew. Milorad Malešev, a technician, had three teeth knocked out, while others sustained scrapes and bruises. Police intervened only after camera operator Siniša Nikšić was assaulted, at which point they surrounded the journalists and told them to stop reporting, saying they couldn’t guarantee their safety.

• On March 23, Saša Dragojlo, a journalist for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), was beaten while covering a protest by a man later identified by Serbian media as a former boxer and SNS activist in Belgrade. Despite Dragojlo identifying himself as press and requesting help, police intervened only to prevent further escalation, but failed to take action against the attacker. 

• On November 27, 2024, during a pro-government demonstration in Belgrade, supporters insulted an N1 news crew and attacked journalist Jelena Mirković, hitting her shoulder and knocking the microphone from her hand. Reporter Aleksandar Cvrkutić’s camera was also struck as he filmed the scene.

• On November 22, Nova TV reporter Ana Marković was lightly injured when demonstrators struck her phone from her hand while she was reporting in Belgrade.

• On November 6, while live streaming a municipal assembly session in the northerntown of Kovin, journalist Miloš Ljiljanić of Kovinske Info was physically attacked by an SNS councilor, who shoved him, tried to grab his phone, and twisted his arm.

• On November 5, in the northern city of Novi Sad, a group of masked individuals insulted an N1 TV crew and struck cameraperson Nikola Popović’s hand, causing him to drop and damage his camera. They also assaulted Euronews camera operator Mirko Todorović, knocking him to the ground. Police at the scene did not intervene.

Police violence, obstruction, detention

• On May 17, 2025, police in Niš detained Nikola Doderović, a correspondent for Australian radio broadcaster SBS, as well as a journalism student accompanying him, for over an hour during a pro-government rally. After demanding their IDs, officers questioned them about their presence and activities, which Doderović said was unnecessary and arbitrary. Local press freedom groups called the detention a “clear form of intimidation.”

• On May 16, police in Novi Sad briefly detained freelance photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić for “identification,” even though his helmet was marked as “press.” Earlier, officers had beaten him along with some protesters while he was documenting a blockade of the court and prosecutor’s office.

• On April 28, police pepper-sprayed and beat journalist Žarko Bogosavljević of Razglas News while he was covering a protest, despite his wearing a press vest.

• On April 10, prosecutors in Belgrade detained Dejan Ilić, a columnist for news site Peščanik, for a day on criminal charges of “causing panic and disorder.” The charges stem from comments he made during a March 29 Nova TV talk show, where he discussed political alternatives for Serbia, including a transitional government.

• On March 14, several journalist crews traveling from neighboring Croatia and Slovenia to cover anti-corruption protests in Belgrade were briefly detained at the border and denied entry, before being sent back.

• On February 25, police raided the premises of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, an NGO operating the fact-checking platform Istinomer, for 28 hours as part of a corruption probe tied to USAID funding — allegations that local press freedom groups have denounced as politically motivated.

• On January 17, police forcibly removed five journalists — with N1 TV, Nova TV, Radio 021, and the daily newspaper Danas — from Novi Sad City Hall, preventing them from covering an opposition-led protest.

Surveillance, spyware

• On March 27, BIRN reported that two of its journalists had been targeted with Pegasus spyware in February. The attempted “one-click” attack failed, as the journalists did not open the malicious link.

Other threats, smears

• In April 2025, a 60-minute video, produced by a pro-government NGO, aired on six national channels and circulated on social media, portraying journalists from N1 TV, Nova TV, and other outlets of publishing house United Group as foreign agents, extremists, and enemies of the state allegedly operating illegally in Serbia.

• In February and March 2025, National Assembly President Ana Brnabić accused N1, Nova S, and Danas of spreading hatred and lies. Facing critical questions, Vučić asked a reporter from investigative outlet KRiK how much money he had received from USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy. The president also blamed N1 TV and its Brussels correspondent Nikola Radišić of contributing to a “color revolution,” a reference to pro-democracy movements that have emerged in various Eastern European countries, which Vučić has portrayed as a Western attempt to undermine Serbia’s sovereignty. Radišić was excluded from a press conference in Brussels as well.

• Since November 2024, journalists working for independent media outlets N1 TV, Nova TV, and online platform Magločistač, as well as press freedom advocates, have received threats of physical violence and death.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Attila Mong/CPJ Europe Representative.

“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.

“The abduction-like arrest of blogger and veteran journalist Abduljalil Mohamed Abduljalil over his reporting on alleged corruption on his Facebook page is a clear example of how journalists are targeted in Sudan,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s chief of programs. “Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Abduljalil, guarantee his safety, and stop targeting journalists for their work.”

On May 25, SAF security forces stormed Abduljalil’s home in the eastern city of Kassala, arrested him, without a warrant, and barred him from notifying his family, changing his clothes, and packing medicine for his many health conditions, according to a statement by the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate and news reports. He was held incommunicado for hours before his family received confirmation of his arrest later that night.

Abduljalil was arrested in connection to his posts critical of the government, especially those alleging corruption in the pilgrimage authority, a government body that oversees and organizes travel, logistics, and permits for Muslims traveling to Saudi Arabia to perform the pilgrimage, according to those sources, and a local journalist who is following the case and spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. Abduljalil’s Facebook posts regarding the pilgrimage authority has since been removed.

The journalists’ union condemned Abduljalil’s arrest as an act of enforced disappearance and a dangerous escalation in targeting Sudanese journalists, and it called for an immediate investigation into the incident. 

Abduljalil, a blogger with 29,000 followers on his Facebook page and a former sports correspondent for Sudan Radio, is considered one of Kassala’s most prominent journalists. He regularly provides political commentary to local newspapers. His arrest comes amid rising public anger in Kassala over electricity and water cuts.

In a separate incident on May 10, SAF security forces arrested freelance journalist Mounir Al-Taraiki from his home in the Northern Sudan state and detained him for two days without charge. 

Ever since the ongoing war between the SAF and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces broke out in Sudan in April 2023, CPJ has documented dozens of violations against the press, including arbitrary arrests, assaults, and the killing of at least fourteen journalists and media workers.

CPJ’s email to SAF about Abduljalil and Al-Taraiki’s arrests received no reply.

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 charges against Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé over a publication in his newspaper sends a chilling signal across the media sector in the Central African Republic,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Central African Republic authorities must secure his immediate release and ensure journalism is not criminalized.”

Ngokpélé’s was arrested by a man in civilian clothes, who pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot if the journalist refused to cooperate, according to his lawyer, Roger Junior Loutomo, who spoke with CPJ.

On May 14, an investigating judge ordered Ngokpélé’s transfer to Ngaragba prison in Bangui from a gendarmerie office, where he had been held since his arrest.

On May 19, the judge charged Ngokpélé with complicity in rebellion, spreading information likely to disturb public order, inciting hatred andrevolt, and subversion against the constitution and the state, according to Loutomo and copies of the charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed.

Loutomo told CPJ the case was related to a report published in the paper’s April 22 edition, which said that the former president, who has been living in exile in Guinea Bissau, had returned to the capital.

Bozizé, who is sought by the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity, seized power in 2003 and was toppled in 2013. In 2020, he set up a rebel group seeking to overthrow the government, for which Central African authorities sentenced him in absentia in 2023 to life in prison.

The charge sheet cites sections 11, 12, 292, 295, 381, and 382 of the penal code, so Ngokpélé would face time in prison if found guilty. However, the country’s press law holds that offenses involving journalism should fall under that law, which would only carry fines.

Ngokpélé was previously detained for more than two months in 2021.

Government spokesperson Maxime Balalou told CPJ via messaging app that he was “closely” following Ngokpélé’s case. Balalou asked to be sent questions via email, but when CPJ requested his email address, he did not respond.  

CPJ’s calls to the gendarmerie and the Bangui court went unanswered.

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

Plainclothes officers, who did not produce an arrest warrant, handcuffed Mao on Friday at his home in northeastern Stung Treng province and took him to the provincial prison, where he is being held on unclear charges,  media reports said.

“Ouk Mao’s seizure and detention, without any explanation, is just the latest assault in Cambodia on journalists who report on environmental issues and crimes,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Cambodia should stop treating environmental reporters as criminals and protect, not harass, journalists like Mao.”

Before his May 16 detention, Mao faced physical attacks, threats and legal intimidation, including criminal incitement and defamation charges, in retaliation for his reporting on environmental crimes, Mongabay reported.

On March 24, four men tried to force Mao to delete video footage and photos he took of them while documenting illegal logging in the extensive Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary — some of which is in Stung Treng province — a confrontation he posted on Intriplus News’ Facebook page.

Police refused to act against the assailants seen in the clip, among them an ex-police officer, tried to seize his phone, and demanded that Mao take down the video, which he refused to do, Mongabay reported.

Cambodia is an increasingly dangerous place for environmental reporters.

In January, authorities denied re-entry to British Mongabay reporter Gerald Flynn after he appeared in a France 24 documentary critical of the United Nations-backed global carbon offsetting scheme REDD+. Flynn had previously worked with Mao in reporting on allegations of land grabbing associated with the military.

In December, environmental reporter Chhoueng Chheng died after being shot while reporting on illegal logging in the northwestern Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Mao’s arrest and legal status.

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

Later Thursday, an Istanbul court arrested Karabay, pending trial, on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism” and “insulting” Turkish President Recep Tayyip. The arrest order, which CPJ reviewed, cites the journalist’s social media posts in April about the prosecution of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the arrested opposition mayor of Istanbul, according to the arrest order.

Karabay’s posts on X after March 21 have been deleted. CPJ couldn’t confirm when these posts were deleted or by whom. On May 16, his account on X was blocked in Turkey “in response to a legal demand.”

“Courts in Turkey keep arresting reporter Furkan Karabay on similar suspicions year after year, which points to a pattern of making him an example of due to his reporting,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should free Karabay without delay and end the chokehold they have on the flow of the news in the country.” 

In a separate trial last month, Karabay was found guilty of defamation and “insulting” Erdoğan. He received a delayed prison sentence of 25 months in total due to reporting on the main opposition party’s claims of corruption against the president’s family.

On November 9, 2024, an Istanbul court arrested Karabay, pending trial, on a similar charge of suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism,” “insulting a public servant,” and “knowingly distributing misleading information to the public,” due to reporting on the arrest of an opposition mayor. He was released on the next day, and that trial is yet to begin.

On December 28, 2023, another Istanbul court arrested Karabay on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism,” as well as defamation, due to his reporting on allegations of corruption in the judiciary. He was released pending trial in January 2024, and acquitted from both charges in October.

Journalists in Turkey who report on members of the judiciary or judicial developments are frequently charged with “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism.”

CPJ’s email to the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office did not receive a reply.

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

After his April 23 arrest in eastern Somali Region, Ahmed, the founder of Jigjiga Television Network, appeared in court on incitement charges on April 25, and was remanded in custody pending investigations, the journalist’s relative, who declined to be named, citing fear of retribution, told CPJ.

In the interview, Abdikarim Ali Ahmed demanded justice for his son’s death, saying that an officer kicked the teenage boy’s head, while wearing boots, after which he was hospitalized and died from his injuries. Regional police commander Abdi Ali Siyad told the BBC’s Somali service, “The boy simply died. There is no one to be held accountable.”

Meanwhile, on April 17, parliament passed a widely criticized amendment to the 2021 media law, increasing government control over the regulatory Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA), which is responsible for issuing sanctions against news outlets that violate press ethics, including by revoking their licenses. Press and human rights groups have warned that this shift in power “opens the door to undue influence” from politicians. 

“Ethiopia’s hostility to the press has been evident in the frequent arrests of critical journalists, and now the country is well on its way to reversing the gains it made in passing its 2021 media law, once considered progressive,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should release journalists detained for their work and amend or repeal laws that can be used to undermine press freedom.”

More April arrests

In the month of April, in addition to Ahmed’s detention and the brief arrest of three Addis Standard employees as part of a raid on their newsroom, CPJ also confirmed:

• On April 5, police arrested Muhyidin Abdullahi Omar, an editor at the state-owned Harari Mass Media Agency and founder of the YouTube channel Biyyoo Production, in eastern Harari Region, his wife Helen Jemal and a person with knowledge of the case, who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisal, told CPJ.

On April 28, Omar was charged with defamation and disseminating disinformation in connection with two Facebook posts, according to the charge sheet, reviewed by CPJ, in which he alleged mismanagement at a local mosque and corruption at the regional attorney general’s office.

He could face up to three years imprisonment for defamation under a 2016 law and another three years for incitement under an anti-hate speech law, which broadly defines the crime.

Muyhidin had been on administrative leave from Harari Mass Media Agency since 2022, following an arrest over his social media activity, but on April 7, 2025 — two days after his latest arrest — his employer suspended his salary pending a disciplinary meeting, according to Helen and documents reviewed by CPJ.

• On April 10, Fanuel Kinfu, founder of the online outlet Fentale Media, was taken from his home in the capital Addis Ababa. The journalist told CPJ that police questioned him over alleged defamation in relation to commentary videos, published between April 2023 and June 2024. On April 13, he was released on bail of 15,000 birr (US$113).

• On April 23, Abebe Fikir, a reporter with the weekly newspaper The Reporter, was arrested. Abebe told CPJ that he was seeking comment from city officials about a housing dispute but the police accused him of filming without permission — an allegation he denied. On April 25, he was released on bail of 10,000 birr (US$75), without charge.

Increased government power over the press

Ethiopia’s 2021 media law won praise for progressive provisions, including for reclassifying defamation as a civil rather than criminal offence. But the amended law, passed with only one dissenting vote, increases the government’s power over the press. Sections that allowed the public to nominate candidates to the media authority’s board and four slots reserved for media and civil society representatives have been repealed, with board members instead being chosen from “relevant” bodies.

It also removed a ban on board members being members of a political party — a rule that the government had been criticized for breaking in parliament and transferred power to nominate the authority’s director general from the board to the prime minister.

Ethiopia is sub-Saharan Africa’s second worst jailer of journalists, after Eritrea, according to CPJ’s latest annual prison census, with six behind bars on December 1, 2024. One of these, Yeshihasab Abere, was released in January.

In March, seven journalists from the privately owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Service were detained. All have since been freed. Two are awaiting trial on charges of dissemination of hateful disinformation.

CPJ did not receive any responses to queries sent via email and messaging app to federal, Harari and Somali regional police and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu.

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

“The repeated arrests of Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou, and Mahaman Sani deepens a pattern of censorship on security-related subjects,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Nigerien authorities must stop criminalizing journalism, immediately release all three of the Sahara FM journalists, and allow them to return to their newsroom.”

On May 7, police officers in the northern city of Agadez initially arrested and questioned the journalists about their reporting that day on an alleged breakdown in cooperation between Niger and Russia, according to a person close to the case, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, and a statement by Aïr Info Agadez, the online news site owned by Sahara FM’s parent company. An investigating judge released them without charge on May 9, but they were re-arrested the next day.

The journalists’ reporting was based on a May 5 report by the privately owned, France-based news outlet LSi Africa. “They were questioned on who asked them to relay this information,” the person close to the case said.

On May 14, Agadez gendarmerie transferred the three journalists to the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Niamey, Niger’s capital.

Following a coup in 2023, CPJ and other rights groups raised concerns about press freedom in the country. In April 2024, Idrissa Soumana Maïga, editor of the private newspaper L’Enquêteur, was detained for more than two months for reporting on allegations that Russian agents had placed listening devices in public buildings. Military authorities have also temporarily suspended or banned several international media outlets, including for coverage of the long-running jihadist insurgency in the country.

CPJ’s calls for comment to the police in Agadez and the gendarmerie’s public number went unanswered.

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

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.

Zhang was first detained on May 14, 2020, while reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Zhang completed a four-year prison sentence for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, but was arrested again in August 2024 on the same charges, three months after her release. Prior to her latest arrest, Zhang continued to report on the harassment of Chinese activists on her social media. If convicted, she could face up to five more years in prison.

Zhang has been hospitalized twice in detention due to intermittent hunger strikes. In January 2025, detention center authorities subjected her to forced nasogastric feeding after she began another hunger strike to protest her second arrest. The date of her trial is still unknown.

Read the joint statement here.

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

“Sulaiman Rahil is the latest of many Afghan journalists to be swept up by the notorious General Directorate of Intelligence without explanation or charge,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban continue to show zero tolerance for independent journalists who report anything other than the group’s strictly censored narratives. The Taliban’s intelligence agency is attempting to control the media through fear and to prevent any honest reporting about the difficulties of life in Afghanistan today.”

Rahil, director of the local, independent Radio Khushal, was detained in Ghazni city after publishing a video on Facebook highlighting the plight of two impoverished women, according to the exiled Afghanistan Journalists Center watchdog group. CPJ was unable to locate the video.

Two days prior to his arrest, Rahil had also published a video on Facebook alleging that the provincial head of the Taliban-run National Radio and Television of Afghanistan had insulted him, according to the independent Afghanistan Women’s Voice website.

Rahil has a following of 49,000 on Facebook, where he regularly shares updates about daily events in the city.

Radio Khushal is an FM station that covers religious, cultural, and political issues across the province and regularly shares news on its Facebook page, with 72,000 followers.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told CPJ via messaging app that he was not aware of Sulaiman Rahil’s detention.

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

Orlova, a reporter with the independent news outlet SOTAvision, was in Moscow to cover a Supreme Court hearing and was walking near Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge when she began filming a rescue boat where activist Grigory Saksonov was earlier detained after jumping into the river with a sign that read “Putin–Hitler.” The police detained her 15 minutes later. 

“Russian authorities must drop all charges against Veronika Orlova and release her immediately,” said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Senior Researcher Anna Brakha. “Detaining a journalist for simply filming in a public space is a blatant violation of press freedom.”

Orlova was sentenced to 13 days of administrative detention on charges of “disobeying a police officer,” that she denied. Her outlet and lawyer said that she had no connection to Saksonov’s protest.

Two SOTAvision journalists, Artyom Krieger and Antonina Favorskaya, are currently serving a 5.5-year prison term after being sentenced in April 2025 on extremism charges that they denied. 

CPJ filled out a Russia’s Ministry of Interior online form requesting comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

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

The arrests bring the total number of journalists jailed in Azerbaijan since late 2023 to at least 25, with several others facing major criminal charges. Most are from some of Azerbaijan’s last remaining independent outlets and have been detained over alleged funding from Western donors amid a decline in relations with the West and surge in Azerbaijani authoritarianism following the country’s military recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023.

“The latest arrests of journalists Ulviyya Ali and Ahmad Mammadli underline how intent Azerbaijani authorities are on wiping out any trace of independent reporting,” said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Senior Researcher Anna Brakha. “Azerbaijani authorities should release Ali and Mammadli and swiftly investigate disturbing allegations of police mistreatment against them.”

Exiled media advocate Emin Huseynov told CPJ that after the crackdown forced the exile of outlets like Toplum TV and Abzas Media and the closure of the Turan news agency, journalists like Ali and Mammadli have become the only sources of independent in-country reporting.

Police arrested Ali, whose legal name is Ulviyya Guliyeva, as part of a criminal case against independent Germany-based outlet Meydan TV, nine of whose journalists have previously been jailed on allegations of bringing Western funding into the country illegally.

Ali, considered one of the most prominent independent journalists continuing to work in Azerbaijan amid the crackdown, worked as a freelance reporter for U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) prior to Azerbaijan’s cancellation of the broadcaster’s accreditation in February and the Trump administration’s funding cuts, after which she continued publishing on her personal social media accounts.

Huseynov told CPJ that journalists affiliated with international media were usually afforded a certain measure of protection in Azerbaijan, but that VOA’s effective closure “100% made Ulviyya more vulnerable” to arrest.

Law enforcement officers in the capital, Baku, arrested Ali overnight on May 6-7 and searched her apartment, where they claimed to find more than 6000 euros (US$6800). Gulnara Mehdiyeva, a friend of Ali’s, told CPJ that police severely damaged the journalist’s apartment and repeatedly struck Ali on the head, pulled her by the hair, and threatened to sexually assault her to force her to give them her phone password.

Later on May 7, a court ordered Ali to be held in pretrial detention for two months on currency smuggling charges, punishable by up to eight years in prison.

In a Facebook post written in anticipation of her arrest and posted by colleagues on May 7, Ali denied any affiliation with Meydan TV or bringing any funds into the country illegally, writing, “If you are reading this post, it means that I have been defamed and illegally arrested for my journalistic activity.” Ali was previously interrogated in connection with the Meydan TV case in January and banned from travel.

On the evening of May 6, Baku police arrested Mammadli, founder of independent social media-based outlet Yoldash Media, over an alleged stabbing, according to pro-government media reports.

Exile-based independent journalist Elmaddin Shamilzade told CPJ that at least two plainclothes police officers shared a taxi with Mammadli and began beating him. They then took him to an unmarked car, beat him, and shocked him with an unknown weapon when he refused to provide his phone’s password, Shamilzade said.

On May 8, a court ordered Mammadli to be held in pretrial detention for four months on charges of hooliganism and causing serious bodily harm, subject to a prison term of up to 11 years. He has denied the charges and linked them to his journalism.

Shamilzade told CPJ that the charges were false and that Mammadli, a former activist who recently switched to journalism, had been arrested as “one of the few individuals left in Azerbaijan with the audacity to cover sensitive topics,” such as political trials.

CPJ’s email requesting comment to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply.

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

“These systematic attacks are clear examples of censorship, media repression, and obstruction of the free flow of information,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “We condemn the Iranian authorities’ ongoing persecution of journalists and media outlets, which creates an environment of fear and intimidation.”

Between April 14 and April 21, six media directors and founders were convicted by political-press courts in Iran, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The convictions involved both private and state-affiliated outlets, including:

• Mehdi Rahmanian, director of the private reformist Shargh Daily on unknown charges
• A director of the state-run Fars News Agency, on charges of disclosing confidential information
• The director of the reformist newspaper Ebtekar, on charges of spreading rumors
• The director of the official state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), on charges of insult, slander, and dissemination of falsehoods
• The director of the independent Eslahat News platform, on charges of publishing false content
• The director of the economic news website Nabze Bazaar, on charges of disseminating fabricated material

The campaign of intimidation by Iranian authorities has continued to escalate. On April 22, security forces in Tehran threatened Kerman-based photojournalist Hassan Abbasi with arrest. Abbasi, the director of the banned news website Ashkan News, was summoned on charges of spreading false information.

On April 27, Karaj-based freelancejournalist and media activist Omid Faraghat, who focuses on political affairs, was also summoned.

That same day, security forces raided the home of journalist Mohammad Parsi, editor-in-chief of Kandoo magazine and director of two other media outlets, and seized his electronic devices. He was charged with offenses that include “propaganda against the state” and “spreading false information.”

In the wake of the April 26 explosion at a port near Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, authorities have aggressively sought to suppress independent reporting, with an aim to control public discourse through the intimidation and censorship of media professionals.

Meanwhile, Nasrin Hassani, a journalist being held at Bojnourd Prison in Iran’s eastern Khorasan province, is enduring inhumane and degrading conditions, according to the recent report by press freedom group Defending Free Flow of Information in Iran (DeFFI). Hassani, a reporter for the state-run local newspaper Etefaghyeh and editor-in-chief of the social media-based outlet East Adventure Press, is serving the 15th month of her 19-month sentence in the general crimes ward, with inadequate access to medical care, poor sanitation, and denial of regular visits with her teenage son.

CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment on the suppression and detention of journalists but did not receive a response.

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

Since then, several Pakistani X handles and media houses are claiming that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar has been detained because he publicly blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam terror incident.

Pakistani journalist Maleeha Hashme posted a report from a Pakistani news channel claiming that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar had been sacked and summoned to Delhi. Sharing this news, Maleeha claimed that the Indian Army officer had accepted responsibility for the Pahalgam incident and was subsequently sacked. (Archive link)

An X user named ‘Pakistan Strategic Prism’ also tweeted that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar had been detained for violating military protocol because he blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam attack. (Archive link)

A user named Taimur Malik tweeted that the Modi government sacked and detained India’s Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar because he had refused to attack Pakistan after the Pahalgam incident. Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma will be appointed in his place on May 1, this user claimed. (Archive link)

Pakistani media outlets Times of Karachi, Dunya News, Geo News Urdu and other Pakistani social media users also made similar claims.

Fact Check

When we searched for keywords related to Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar, we found a report from Indian news agency United News of India dated April 20, 2025. This report clearly states that Lieutenant General Suchindra Kumar is retiring on April 30 and Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma would take over as the new Commander of the Northern Command headquartered in Udhampur.

It is clear from this that the news that Lieutenant General Suchindra Kumar is retiring at his pre-determined time was published even before the terrorist incident in Pahalgam on 22 April. Therefore, his retirement has no connection with the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

The fact-check unit of the Union government, too, denied the news of the detention of Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar amplified by Pakistani users and media, and said that Lieutenant General Kumar was to retire on April 30. Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma would succeed him.

Several pro-Pakistan social media accounts falsely claim that Northern Commander Lt Gen Suchindra Kumar has been removed from his post after the Pahalgam incident#PIBFactCheck

The claims being made in these posts are #fake

Lt. Gen MV Suchindra Kumar is attaining… pic.twitter.com/MogYJABl1Z

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 30, 2025

To sum up, several Pakistani media outlets and social media users falsely claimed that Lt. Gen M V Suchindra Kumar had publicly blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam terror incident and was sacked and/or detained.

The post Pahalgam: Pak media falsely claims Indian Army Lt Gen M V Suchindra Kumar sacked, detained, following attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

“There has been a systematic erosion of press freedom in Macao, with the denial of entry to journalists and restricted access to public events. The detention of two reporters simply for attempting to cover a legislative session marks a disturbing escalation in the suppression of independent journalism,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Authorities must drop any potential charges against All About Macau’s reporters and allow journalists to work without interference.”

Macao, or Macau, is a former Portuguese colony, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1999 under a “One Country, Two Systems” framework that promised a high degree of autonomy and wider civil liberties than the Chinese mainland.

On April 17, All About Macau’s editor-in-chief Ian Sio Tou and another reporter were barred from entering the Legislative Assembly chamber to cover a debate on the government’s annual Policy Address. Ian is also president of the Macau Journalists Association.

Police said the case would be transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office for investigation as the journalists were suspected of violating Article 304 of the Penal Code relating to “disrupting the operation” of government institutions, for which the penalty is up to three years in prison.

All About Macau is recognized for its critical and in-depth reporting on political and social issues.

Two days earlier, three All About Macau reporters were barred from entering the chamber to hear Macao Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai’s Policy Address, outlining government proposals for the year.

In a video posted by All About Macau, which quickly went viral online, Ian Sio Tou displayed her Legislative Assembly-issued press card to numerous officials who physically blocked the journalists from the hall.

Police did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

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

The men were among more than 300 Uyghurs who fled China in 2014, where the ethnic minority faces sustained persecution, only to be apprehended by authorities in Thailand, setting off a prolonged tug-of-war over their fate.

As recently as February, Thailand deported 40 Uyghur men to China, triggering international condemnation.

“The trio who held Kyrgyzstani passports went to Canada after the Thai new year,” Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the People’s Empowerment Foundation, told Radio Free Asia.

“Unlike others, they were allowed to meet UNHCR officials and receive refugee status, so they were finally released,” Chalida said, referring to the U.N. refugee agency.

The foundation has advocated for the Uyghur detainees since their 2014 arrests.

Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from the northwestern region of China known as Xinjiang in Chinese. The Uyghurs refer to their region as East Turkestan – a name that reflects shared linguistic and cultural roots with other central Asian peoples along the historic Silk Road, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.

Uyghurs in Xinjiang have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps, according to foreign governments including the U.S. and human rights groups. Beijing has described the camps as vocational training centers and denied any abuses.

Thailand has strong ties with China, the region’s dominant economic player. China is among the top trading partners and foreign investors in Thailand, and its leading source of foreign tourists.

In 2015, Thailand allowed about 170 Uyghurs to be resettled in Turkey but also deported 109 Uyghurs to China, which triggered a deadly reprisal bomb attack in Bangkok in August of the same year.

The Canadian embassy in Bangkok did not respond to RFA’s questions about the resettlement of the three men.

A Thai government spokesman said he had no knowledge of the arrangement.

The Bangkok Post newspaper, citing unnamed diplomatic and Thai government sources, said the men were not deported to China because they held Kyrgyzstan passports.

Chalida said another five Uyghur men are serving prison terms for a jailbreak and could be released in a year or two.

The Thai government has previously said it would deport the five Uyghurs detained in Klong Prem Prison to China once they complete their sentences.

“I am still concerned with the other five Uyghurs who are serving jail terms at Klong Prem Prison. They might be released next year or a year later but are prone to deportation to China,” Chalida said.

“If any countries show clear intention to receive them, Thai authorities may consider that.”

Chalida also said two suspected perpetrators of the August 2015 bombing, who are in a military prison – Adem Karadag and Yusufu Meiraili – will have another hearing on May 15.

Of the original detained group, three died during their imprisonment in Thailand.

Edited by Stephen Wright and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.

“The detention and travel ban imposed on Emtithal Abdel Fadil by the Sudanese Armed Forces are clear acts of harassment meant to intimidate reporters covering the war,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Sudanese authorities must cease all restrictions on journalists’ movement so that they can report freely and without fear.”

On April 19, the SAF arrested Abdel Fadil in the eastern city of Kassala at 5 a.m. as she was traveling to Port Sudan, according to the trade union Sudanese Journalists Syndicate and a journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. The soldiers blindfolded the journalist, searched her phone and social media accounts, and questioned her for three days before releasing her without charge, those sources said.

The SAF banned Abdel Fadil from traveling outside Kassala on the grounds that she could be summoned for further questioning at any time, the unnamed journalist told CPJ.

The journalists’ union condemned Abdel Fadil’s arrest as “arbitrary” and the travel ban as “a flagrant violation of press freedom.”

Sudan has been at war since April 2023. The power struggle between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has displaced nearly 13 million people, causing famine and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

CPJ has since documented dozens of abuses of the media, including arrests, threats, torture, and the killing of at least six journalists and two media workers.

CPJ’s email to the SAF requesting comment on Abdel Fadil’s arrest did not receive any replies.

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

“The Addis Standard raids are the latest moves in the Ethiopian government’s campaign to silence independent media. The confiscation of the outlet’s equipment raises grave concerns about potential misuse of sensitive data,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should drop their investigations into Addis Standard and return its equipment.”

Six plainclothes officers, who identified themselves as police, raided the Addis Standard office on April 17 and took a newsroom manager and HR manager to the capital’s Federal Police Crime Investigation Unit for interrogation, according to the outlet’s publisher and its founder Tsedale Lemma, who spoke to CPJ. 

The police, who said they had warrants but did not produce copies, told staff that they were under investigation on suspicion of preparing to produce a documentary that might incite violence, Tsedale said, adding that the allegation was untrue and outlet does not have the capacity to make documentaries.

Earlier that morning, police raided the home of an Addis Standard IT manager, who was assaulted in front of family members and taken to a police station in the capital’s Woreda 13, Lemi Kura Subcity, Tsedale said. All three employees were released later that day, without charges, she said.

Police confiscated laptops, computers, cell phones, data storage devices, and external processing units, for which they demanded and were given passwords, and told staff not to speak publicly about the raids, Tsedale said.

Addis Standard’s publisher, JAKENN Publishing PLC, expressed concern about how the seized devices might be used in custody. “We cannot guarantee the integrity of any messages or emails sent from the compromised devices,” it said.

On April 22, the police said the devices might be released the following week, Tsedale said.

Federal police spokesperson Jeylan Abdi told CPJ via messaging app that he could not answer queries on a matter “currently pending in court.” Jeylan did not answer CPJ’s follow-up calls or a message requesting clarification on the specific court proceedings, including the charges or when the police referred the matter to court. Tsedale told CPJ that an Addis Standard staffer and the outlet’s legal counsel visited the federal police earlier Tuesday and were not informed of any pending court proceedings.

CPJ did not receive any response to its requests for comment via emails to the justice ministry or via calls to government spokesperson Legesse Tulu.

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

“Taliban intelligence must release journalist Sayed Rashed Kashefi immediately and unconditionally,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The continued detention of journalists like Kashefi is part of a ruthless campaign to silence independent reporting and intimidate the media into submission. This blatant assault on press freedom must end now.”

Taliban intelligence agents detained Kashefi after he was summoned to the GDI’s Directorate of Media and Public Affairs under the pretext of retrieving his mobile phone, video recording camera, and voice recorder, which had been confiscated in mid-March by agents who suspected him of working with Afghan exiled media, according to a journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisal.

Kashefi, who was previously a journalist for the state-owned English-language newspaper, The Kabul Times, has been working as an independent reporter covering current affairs in Kabul.

He has been detained by the Taliban before. In December 2021, a senior official and his bodyguards held Kashefi for six hours during his reporting in Kabul and beat him.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

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

“We are deeply concerned about the arrest of Awad Kashmeem in Yemen. His latest detention is a stark reminder of the alarming decline in press freedom in Hadramout and the systematic targeting of journalists by local authorities,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa regional director. “We urge the internationally recognized Yemeni government to immediately release Kashmeem, hold to account those responsible for this arbitrary detention, and guarantee his safety from any further retaliation.”

A security force affiliated with the Security Administration of Huraidha District arrested Kashmeem on the street after days of surveillance, a raid on his home, and the intimidation of his family—acts which appear to be in retaliation for his journalistic work and opinions he expressed on social media.

This is not the first time Kashmeem has been targeted. In February 2018, he was detained by Yemen’s elite security forces on the orders of Faraj al-Bahsani, then the governor of Hadramout. At the time, these forces operated under the influence of the United Arab Emirates. He was released after one month of detention.

Hadramout, Yemen’s largest governorate, is increasingly fragmented politically. While the coastal areas are effectively controlled by the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC), the current governor, Mabkhout bin Madhi, maintains ties to the internationally recognized government. His predecessor, Faraj al-Bahsani, who still wields significant influence, officially joined the STC after being replaced in July 2022. The growing divergence between Saudi and Emirati interests in Hadramout has further deepened the region’s political divisions.

CPJ reached out to the Ministry of Human Rights of the internationally recognized government for comment but did not immediately receive any response.

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

The court also ordered the confiscation of Yensebek’s phone and laptop as “material evidence,” required him to cover the costs of expert examinations, and ordered him to pay 78,000 tenge ($150 USD) into the victims’ compensation fund.

“Yensebek’s conviction is a clear example of how Kazakh authorities use such measures to intimidate and silence critical journalists,” said CPJ Chief of Programs Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “We call on the authorities in Kazakhstan not to contest any potential appeal of his conviction and to ensure that journalists in the country can carry out their work without fear of criminal prosecution.”

CPJ was unable to determine whether Yensebek intends to appeal his conviction.

Yensebek has been in pretrial detention since Almaty authorities arrested him on January 17, 2025, and charged him in connection with a since-removed January 2024 Qaznews24 post featuring a two-decade-old song containing offensive lyrics about Russians, Kazakhstan’s largest ethnic minority.

In a country with few independent media outlets, Yensebek has succeeded in using satire to comment on current affairs on social media, regularly publishing spoof news stories critical of authorities.

CPJ emailed Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment but did not receive a response.

Separately, police detained and questioned Kazakh journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov inthe capital, Astana, on April 10. He was held at a police station for several hours, before being released around 10 p.m. Before his detention, Akhmedyarov published a video report on Kazakh citizens in Russia allegedly coerced into signing contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense. He is now a witness in a criminal case involving charges of disseminating false information.

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

“Alfousseini Togo’s arrest and detention for criticizing the judiciary sends a chilling signal to the entire Malian press, which is already suffering under the threat of government censorship,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa Representative. “Malian authorities should immediately release Alfousseini Togo and refrain from criminalizing media for doing their jobs.”

On the day of Togo’s arrest, a judge with the cybercrime unit in Bamako, the Malian capital, charged the journalist, who is the publishing director of the privately-owned weekly newspaper Le Canard de la Venise, with undermining the credit of the judiciary, disturbing public order and defamation over his April 8 report critiquing the justice system, according to news reports and Chiaka Doumbia, president of the Malian investigative journalists network, who spoke to CPJ. 

Togo is being held in Bamako prison awaiting his trial, set to begin June 12, 2025, Doumbia told CPJ. The journalist faces up to two years in prison under articles 37 and 38 of the Press Code, which relate to false news, disturbing public order, and defamation, and article 242-74 of the Criminal Code of Mali, relating to undermining the state’s reputation.

In his report, Togo questioned the credibility of a poll quoted by Justice Minister Mahamadou Kassogué that claimed public confidence in Mali’s justice index increased “from 30% to 72% in 2024.” Togo also said that the justice sector was ranked by the poll “second most corrupt after the police,” adding that the “current transitional regime is taking advantage of the ‘weakness’ of the justice system to order arrests, intimidation, kidnappings and even extrajudicial detentions, in violation of the law.” 

Several foreign media outlets have been suspended and journalists arrested in Mali since military officers seized power in a coup in 2020.

CPJ’s calls to the publicly listed Ministry of Justice’s numbers went unanswered.

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

“Alfousseini Togo’s arrest and detention for criticizing the judiciary sends a chilling signal to the entire Malian press, which is already suffering under the threat of government censorship,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa Representative. “Malian authorities should immediately release Alfousseini Togo and refrain from criminalizing media for doing their jobs.”

On the day of Togo’s arrest, a judge with the cybercrime unit in Bamako, the Malian capital, charged the journalist, who is the publishing director of the privately-owned weekly newspaper Le Canard de la Venise, with undermining the credit of the judiciary, disturbing public order and defamation over his April 8 report critiquing the justice system, according to news reports and Chiaka Doumbia, president of the Malian investigative journalists network, who spoke to CPJ. 

Togo is being held in Bamako prison awaiting his trial, set to begin June 12, 2025, Doumbia told CPJ. The journalist faces up to two years in prison under articles 37 and 38 of the Press Code, which relate to false news, disturbing public order, and defamation, and article 242-74 of the Criminal Code of Mali, relating to undermining the state’s reputation.

In his report, Togo questioned the credibility of a poll quoted by Justice Minister Mahamadou Kassogué that claimed public confidence in Mali’s justice index increased “from 30% to 72% in 2024.” Togo also said that the justice sector was ranked by the poll “second most corrupt after the police,” adding that the “current transitional regime is taking advantage of the ‘weakness’ of the justice system to order arrests, intimidation, kidnappings and even extrajudicial detentions, in violation of the law.” 

Several foreign media outlets have been suspended and journalists arrested in Mali since military officers seized power in a coup in 2020.

CPJ’s calls to the publicly listed Ministry of Justice’s numbers went unanswered.

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

“The Venezuelan government’s crackdown on the press has persisted for months, intensifying following the July 28 disputed reelection of President Nicolás Maduro,” said CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “Public scrutiny is a crucial component of democratic accountability and a free press, and Nakary Mena Ramos and Gianni González must be freed without condition.”

A criminal court on April 10 ordered Mena, a reporter with the independent news site Impacto Venezuela, to remain in detention at a women’s prison on the outskirts of the capital city of Caracas on preliminary charges of “hate crimes” and “publishing fake news,” according to the National Press Workers Union (SNTP).  

Impacto Venezuela posted that Mena, 28, and González, who is being held at El Rodeo II prison near Caracas, were denied access to private lawyers but assigned public defenders.

A pro-government journalist criticized Mena’s report on rising crime in Caracas – a sensitive issue for the government –a day before she and González went missing on April 8 near a public square in downtown Caracas. Minister Diosdado Cabello has also criticized the report, calling it “a campaign to instill fear in people.” 

Impacto Venezuela defended Mena’s report as based on interviews with average citizens and supported with government information.

The arrests of Mena and González come amid a sharp rise in oppression against Venezuelan journalists by Maduro’s authoritarian government, which has created a heightened environment of fear, stigmatization, and criminalization of independent voices. 

CPJ’s calls to the attorney general’s office in Caracas did not receive any reply.

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

“The Venezuelan government’s crackdown on the press has persisted for months, intensifying following the July 28 disputed reelection of President Nicolás Maduro,” said CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “Public scrutiny is a crucial component of democratic accountability and a free press, and Nakary Mena Ramos and Gianni González must be freed without condition.”

A criminal court on April 10 ordered Mena, a reporter with the independent news site Impacto Venezuela, to remain in detention at a women’s prison on the outskirts of the capital city of Caracas on preliminary charges of “hate crimes” and “publishing fake news,” according to the National Press Workers Union (SNTP).  

Impacto Venezuela posted that Mena, 28, and González, who is being held at El Rodeo II prison near Caracas, were denied access to private lawyers but assigned public defenders.

A pro-government journalist criticized Mena’s report on rising crime in Caracas – a sensitive issue for the government –a day before she and González went missing on April 8 near a public square in downtown Caracas. Minister Diosdado Cabello has also criticized the report, calling it “a campaign to instill fear in people.” 

Impacto Venezuela defended Mena’s report as based on interviews with average citizens and supported with government information.

The arrests of Mena and González come amid a sharp rise in oppression against Venezuelan journalists by Maduro’s authoritarian government, which has created a heightened environment of fear, stigmatization, and criminalization of independent voices. 

CPJ’s calls to the attorney general’s office in Caracas did not receive any reply.

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

A lawyer who represents a pro-Palestinian student protester in Michigan was detained Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a family vacation. Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was separated from his wife and children and asked to surrender his cellphone by Border Patrol agents. “This wasn’t something that was random,” says Makled. “They had a whole profile about me.” He was eventually released after 90 minutes of questioning and refusing to provide sensitive client information to the agents. Makled believes he was targeted due to his involvement in cases that challenge the current administration of President Donald Trump.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Police arrested the journalists over a March 23 episode of “Addis Meiraf,” which has since been taken down, in which Birtukan Temesgen said she was abducted and raped by men in military uniforms when she was a student in 2020.

Birtukan recanted her claims on state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation on March 27 and EBS founder Amman Fissehazion apologized on March 28, saying the station discovered the allegations were fabricated after the program aired. 

On April 1, the regulatory Ethiopian Media Authority said it had suspended “Addis Meiraf”pending “corrective actions.” Birtukan and the journalists were remanded for 14 days while police investigate.

“Arresting journalists on terrorism allegations is a disproportionate response to concerns over lapses in journalistic ethics, particularly as EBS has already faced regulatory sanction,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo.

Police said the journalists sought to incite conflict, threaten the constitutional order, and overthrow the government in coordination with “extremist” groups in Amhara region, according to court documents, reviewed by CPJ.

Nebiyu Tiumelissan, Tariku Haile, Hilina Tarekegn, and Niter Dereje were arrested on March 26, when police raided EBS and forced it off air for several hours, while Girma Tefera, Henok Abate, and Habtamu Alemayehu, were arrested on March 27 and March 28.

Birtukan did not name her university but observers suggested it was Dambi Dollo University in western Oromia state, where ethnic Amhara students were abducted in 2019. The university said Birtukan was never their student.

In restive Oromia, rebels are fighting the government and other groups and civilians have been massacred. In Amhara region, the government is fighting Fano militias, who it says have also carried out attacks in Oromia.

The journalists’ lawyers argue editorial lapses should be addressed under Ethiopia’s media law, which stipulates administrative and civil remedies, and a proclamation against hate speech, not antiterrorism legislation.

CPJ’s emails requesting comment from Ethiopia’s federal ministry of justice were unanswered.

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

Mhlanga, a journalist for privately owned Heart and Soul Television, has been detained since February 24 on incitement charges for interviewing a war veteran who called for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s resignation. 

“The repeated denial of bail is yet another example of the injustice that Blessed Mhlanga has been forced to endure for simply doing his job as an independent journalist covering all sides of Zimbabwe’s political story,” said CPJ Africa Regional Director Angela Quintal in New York. “Zimbabwean authorities should stop hounding Blessed Mhlanga and withdraw the charges against him, so that he can be free to report the news.” 

The journalist has been behind bars over offenses allegedly committed in his interview in November 2024 and further coverage in January 2025 of Blessed Geza, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s war for independence from white minority rule, who also accused Mnangagwa of nepotism, corruption, and failing to address economic issues.

On February 28, the Harare Magistrates Court denied Mhlanga bail. After several delays, the High Court dismissed an appeal of the bail ruling on March 21. Mhlanga’s lawyer, Chris Mhike, renewed the bail application in the magistrates court on April 4, but Magistrate Donald Ndirowei dismissed the appeal on Monday. Mhike told CPJ they will appeal the latest ruling.

If found guilty, Mhlanga could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to US$700 under the 2021 Cyber and Data Protection Act.

Zimbabwe’s government, in an effort to silence the press, has been jailing independent journalists and introducing laws to restrict freedom of expression, according to a recent CPJ report.

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

The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. legal resident who was “mistakenly” sent to El Salvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison. The Trump administration claims it’s powerless to bring him back to his family in Maryland. “They have dug in their heels at every step of the way,” says Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, about the government’s defense. “It’s ridiculous that this case is at the Supreme Court at all.”

Behind Abrego Garcia’s ICE arrest and removal is Trump’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last deployed during World War II. In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court has approved of the Trump administration’s removals of Venezuelan immigrants, but said that those targeted must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal. So far, immigrants expelled to El Salvador have been largely denied their legal rights and detained without clear evidence. They are then incarcerated in the country’s “mega-prisons,” where rights abuses have flourished under El Salvador’s “state of exception.” “These conditions constitute, under international law, forced disappearances,” says Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization in Central America.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“The video showing detained Burkinabe journalists Guézouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem wearing military uniforms reinforces fears about the fate of the seven journalists kidnapped since June 2024, six of whom are now certain to have been forcibly conscripted into the army,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Authorities must stop their efforts to censor the press by forcing journalists into military service and allow them to return to their homes and work.”

In the two-minute video, published by several Burkinabe Facebook accounts since at least Wednesday, Ouoba, Sanogo, and Pagbelguem appear in military uniform in an undisclosed location. Armed men, some in Burkinabe army uniform, stand behind them. A representative of the Association of Burkinabe Journalists (AJB), who requested anonymity for safety reasons, confirmed to CPJ that they are the three journalists who have been missing since they were arrested on March 24 in the capital Ouagadougou.

Sanogo is president of the AJB, and Ouoba is the vice president, while Pagbelguem is a reporter with privately owned TV station BF1.

In the video, Pagbelguem says “the real information on the ground” has “nothing to do with what we hear and often what we see,” while Ouoba adds, “No one can report on the security situation while being in Ouagadougou.” It was unclear if the statements were made under duress.

On March 24, two National Security Council intelligence agents arrested Pagbelguem at his media outlet to “be questioned” about his March 22 report on an AJB meeting where Sanogo criticized the kidnappings of journalists by the authorities. Earlier that day, intelligence agents had arrested Sanogo and Ouoba.

Three other journalists — Serge Atiana Oulon, Adama Bayala, and Kalifara Séré — have been forcibly conscripted after going missing in June 2024. Another journalist, Alain Traoré, was seized by men in masks in July, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

CPJ’s calls to Prime Minister Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, government spokesperson Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouedraogo, and the Ministry of Defense for comment were not answered.

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

Longtime immigrant farmworker and organizer Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino was pulled over last week by a plainclothes agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an unmarked car who broke his car window and forcibly detained him. “Within not even a minute of interaction, of getting pulled over, he was already in handcuffs,” says Edgar Franks, the political director of independent farmworkers union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, which he co-founded with Lelo. “The reason of his detainment was because of how politically active he was.” Lelo is currently jailed at the privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where hundreds have rallied in support of his release.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The government, controlled by Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), launched a crackdown against CHP-controlled Istanbul municipalities, including two district municipality mayors and dozens of other politicians and municipality personnel, citing accusations of corruption. But authorities have since arrested thousands of protesters and have moved aggressively to tamp down media coverage of the demonstrations.

Authorities have raided the homes of at least nine journalists, detaining them along with at least four other journalists arrested while covering the protests, while hurting numerous others. Media regulators have also imposed suspensions and fines on pro-opposition broadcasters and threatened to cancel the licenses of TV channels covering the protests.

While many of the journalists arrested in the initial sweep have been released, press freedom advocates are concerned that authorities are deliberately targeting them to suppress coverage, as the government has done during times of civil unrest or protests in recent decades.

Since March 19, CPJ has documented the following press freedom violations:

Detentions

• On March 19, police detained freelance reporter and TV commentator İsmail Saymaz at his house in Istanbul. Saymaz, who has worked for pro-opposition outlets such as Halk TV and Sözcü, was put under house arrest pending investigation on March 21 for “assisting an attempt to overthrow the government” based on his interviews from years ago.
• On March 23, police detained Zişan Gür, a reporter for the leftist news website Sendika, from the field in Istanbul. He was released on March 27.
• On March 24, police detained five photojournalists who had covered the protests during raids on their homes in Istanbul: Yasin Akgül of Agence France-Presse (AFP), Ali Onur Tosun of NOW Haber, as well as freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç. An Istanbul court arrested the five for “violating the law on gatherings and demonstrations” on March 25, but they were released the following day. Prosecutors had argued that they were actually protesters, citing select police camera shots of them as evidence.
• On March 24, police detained freelance photojournalist Murat Kocabaş at his house in in the western city of Izmir. He was released on March 27.
• On March 25, police detained freelancer Yağız Barut as he was covering the protests in Izmir. He was released on March 27.
• On March 27, authorities arrested Kaj Joakim Medin, a Swedish reporter for newspaper Dagens ETC who was traveling to Istanbul to follow the protests, upon his arrival at the Istanbul airport. He was accused of insulting Erdoğan and of being a member of a terrorist organization, in relation to a 2023 investigation.
• On March 28, police detained Nisa Sude Demirel, a reporter with the leftist daily Evrensel, and Elif Bayburt, a reporter with leftist outlet ETHA, at their houses for covering the Istanbul protests. They were both released the following day.

Turkey has a history of imprisoning journalists, having been ranked among the top 10 worst jailers of journalists from 2012 to 2023, and the recent drop in number of journalists behind bars may be misleading as an indicator on its own.

Deportation

• On March 27, Istanbul police detained BBC correspondent Mark Lowen and deported him on a flight to London for covering the protests.

Injuries

• From March 21 to 23, at least 14 journalists were injured after being beaten or shot with rubber bullets by Istanbul police, while one reporter was assaulted by the protesters, according to the local media freedom group MLSA. Police also damaged journalists’ equipment.

Censorship

• Ebubekir Şahin, the government-appointed chair of the media regulator RTÜK, has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of Turkish TV channels covering the protests and opposition rallies.
• On March 27, RTÜK imposed heavy penalties on multiple pro-opposition TV channels, though the sanctions didn’t immediately go into effect since they can be challenged in court. Sözcü TV would have to stop broadcasting for 10 days if its appeal is rejected.

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.

Mhlanga, who works with the privately owned broadcaster Heart and Soul TV, was arrested on February 24 and charged with incitement for covering war veterans who called for the resignation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposed proposals to extend his term. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to US$700 under the 2021 Cyber and Data Protection Act.

Mhlanga remains in pretrial detention at the capital’s Harare Remand Prison, an overcrowded facility with harsh conditions considered “not fit for animals.”

Chris Mhike, the journalist’s lawyer, told CPJ that Mhlanga’s imprisonment has affected his health, with the journalist looking frail and suffering body aches. “There’s no running away from the fact that he has suffered terribly from this episode. His part-time studies are disrupted,” Mhike told CPJ, adding, “after these painful weeks in prison, his health has notably deteriorated.”

“What is happening is actually an attempt to try and make sure that we silence all journalists who are doing their work,” said Perfect Mswathi Hlongwane, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, in an interview about Mhlanga’s detention. “This is bad for the profession, this is bad for the country.”

Sanctions for people who ‘demonize’ the president

Zanu-PF, the ruling party since independence in 1980, is facing internal tensions. The party last year adopted a motion to try to amend the constitution to extend Mnangagwa’s time in office beyond the 2028 completion of his second, final term.

Amid the intraparty strife, government officials have sought to tamp down on rhetoric they view as insufficiently loyal to Mnangagwa, whether from politicians or the media. Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe recently threatened criminal sanctions against people who “insult and demonise the Office of the President,” while Information Minister Jenfan Muswere warned broadcasters against advocating for the government’s overthrow.

A war veteran that Mhlanga interviewed, Blessed Geza, was among Zanu-PF members who sharply opposed the extension. Geza was expelled from the party earlier in March and has been calling for protests. Mnangagwa says he will leave office at the end of his current term.

In its attempt to silence the press, the government is employing the tried and tested strategies of jailing independent journalists and introducing laws to restrict freedom of expression.

Prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono faced repeated harassment and was arrested several times in 2020 and 2021. He was initially denied bail during his latest detention, in January 2021, until Zimbabwe’s High Court freed him after three weeks in prison. Journalist Jeffrey Moyo, whose work has appeared in The New York Times and other foreign media, was also arrested and initially denied bail in 2021. After spending more than a year in prison, Moyo was convicted of breaking the country’s immigration laws and given a two-year suspended sentence.

On March 12, Muswere announced plans for new social media legislation, citing the need to regulate unethical journalism and govern “ghost accounts operated by individuals seeking to demonise their own country.”

Muswere has also sponsored the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, which the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, passed on March 4. The bill, awaiting Senate approval, would entrench Mnangagwa’s control over broadcasting by removing requirements that the president consider recommendations from a parliamentary committee in appointing Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe board members.

‘I feel unsafe’

Even when threats don’t come from the government, failure to address press freedom violations can leave journalists fearful.

Three days after journalist Dumisani Mawere published a February 9 report on his local WhatsApp group accusing a private security employee of sexual misconduct with a minor, two of the company’s staff threatened him by phone before seeking him out at his home in the northern town of Kariba. When Mawere complained to the police, they summoned the alleged offenders, who returned to threaten the journalist, he said.

“They charged at me, pointed fingers at me, clenched their fists, and issued direct death threats — explicitly reminding me that ‘Kariba is very small,’ implying that I could easily be killed,” Mawere, a journalist with Kasambabezi community radio station, told CPJ, adding that he was frustrated that the police let the suspects go. “Right now, I feel unsafe and vulnerable in my work as a journalist.”

CPJ’s phone calls and messages to national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Angelina Munyeriwa, and government spokesperson Nick Mangwana went unanswered.

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

Murad, who works as a reporter for Urdu News and runs the independent news site Pakistani24, later appeared  before the Judicial Magistrate Islamabad (West) court, where he was placed in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days under Pakistan’s cybercrime laws for allegedly posting “intimidating content” online, according to a copy of the court order, reviewed by CPJ.

“The shocking overnight raid on the home of seasoned journalist Waheed Murad is part of a disturbing trend of enforced disappearances and detentions of journalists by Pakistan’s security agencies,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must allow Murad to resume reporting without fear of detention, threats, or intimidation.”

Murad’s mother-in-law, Abida Nawaz, said that the unidentified men who abducted the journalist did not say where they were taking him. Before Murad appeared in court, she had filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court seeking his recovery. The petition states that the journalist had raised his voice about the disappearance of exiled journalist Ahmed Noorani’s two brothers in Islamabad.

Noorani’s brothers have been missing since March 18, when individuals identifying themselves as police forcibly entered their family home. In addition, journalist Asif Karim Khehtran disappeared from his home district of Barkhan on March 13, and Farhan Mallick, founder of the independent online media platform Raftar, continues to be held in FIA detention after being detained on March 20 in Karachi.

CPJ’s text messages requesting comment from Information Minister Attaullah Tarar received no response.

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

Ballal, who was freed on Tuesday, was one of four co-directors of “No Other Land” which won this year’s best documentary Academy Award for its portrayal of efforts by Palestinians to stop the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from demolishing their homes in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron.

“The brazen attack on Palestinian documentary filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and arrest by the IDF provides yet more evidence of Israeli authorities’ hostility to a free press,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Israel must end its attacks on journalists and filmmakers at once and hold perpetrators to account.”

At least 15 settlers, some in military uniforms, surrounded and attacked Ballal at his home, vandalized his car, and handed him over to IDF soldiers in Masafer Yatta’s Susya village.

The Israeli military told The Associated Press that it handed over three Palestinians, suspected of hurling rocks at forces, to the police for questioning, and that one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” was evacuated for medical treatment — a claim witnesses interviewed by the news agency disputed.

Co-director Basel Adra, who witnessed the March 24 attack, said the police did not intervene to stop the violence.

“While the soldiers were pointing their weapons at us, the settlers started attacking the houses of the Palestinians,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

In February 2024, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli co-director of “No Other Land” received death threats and his family were threatened following his acceptance speech at the Berlin International Film Festival. Adra was also attacked by masked Israeli settlers.

CPJ’s email to the IDF’s North America Desk inquiring about the reason for Hamdan’s arrest and when he was due to be released did not immediately receive a response.

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

Protests erupted and grew in multiple cities across Turkey following the government crackdown on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was due to be selected as an opposition party presidential nominee on March 23, alongside other politicians and municipal staff last week. Multiple journalists have been placed in police custody, while several have been hurt by the police in the field since March 21.

“Neither the police violence targeting journalists who are covering the street protests, nor the raiding of their homes, is acceptable under any conditions,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and allow the press to operate freely and safely.”

Police in Istanbul took at least five photojournalists into custody while raiding their homes on Monday morning: Yasin Akgül of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Ali Onur Tosun of NOW Haber, along with freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç. Another freelance photojournalist, Murat Kocabaş, was also detained by the police in Izmir on Monday.

Zişan Gür, a reporter for the leftist news website Sendika, was taken into custody by the police while in the field in Istanbul on Sunday evening.

Turkish police have also beaten or used rubber bullets on multiple field reporters since Friday, according to local press freedom advocacy groups, including: Akgül, Egemen İsar of the Nefes newspaper, Hakan Akgün of the state-owned Anadolu Agency, Dilara Şenkaya of Reuters, Ali Dinç of Bianet, Eylül Deniz Yaşar of İlke TV, Yusuf Çelik of Özgür Gelecek, and freelancers Kemal Aslan and Rojda Altıntaş. The journalists also had their equipment damaged by the police, according to those groups.

Meanwhile, Ebubekir Şahin, the government-appointed chair of the media regulator RTÜK, has threatened Turkish TV channels broadcasting the protests and opposition rallies with license cancellations. İlhan Taşçı, an opposition-appointed member of the RTÜK, argued that the regulator has no authority to suppress broadcasts before they air and can only review what has already run.

CPJ emailed RTÜK and the Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, for comment but didn’t receive any replies.

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

The groups said in a joint statement, led by CPJ, that the 26-year-old journalist’s case raises “serious concerns” over unjustifiably long pretrial detention and allegations that authorities had planted the weapons that led to Cumpio’s arrest in February 2020.

The journalist concluded her testimony on Monday at a local court, defending herself against charges of illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing, which she denies. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison. 

No verdict date has been set while a trial continues for those co-accused with Cumpio. CPJ has been monitoring the journalist’s trial.

Read the full statement here.

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.

“Mohamed Abukar Dabashe’s death is devastating. Unfortunately, he joins a long list of Somali journalists killed in Al-Shabaab attacks with impunity,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Somali authorities should investigate the killing of Mohamed Abukar Dabashe and desist from further intimidation and censorship of journalists who are already operating under difficult circumstances.”

Mohamed Abukar’s body was found in a collapsed building, where he is reported to have lived, near the attack site. He worked with Risaala Media Corporation until 2023, and had recently been publishing his journalism on Facebook and the YouTube news channel Sirta Waraka, Risaala’s director Mohamed Abduwahab Abdullahi told CPJ.

Armed police raided Risaala’s offices about 20 minutes after it broadcast footage of the explosion site, ordered its radio and television channels off air, and arrested reporters Ali Abdullahi Ibrahim and Hamda Hassan Ahmed; camera operators Mohamed Said Nur and Abdullahi Sharif Ali; and technician Liban Abdullahi Hassan, according to Mohamed Abduwahab, who is also secretary general of the Somali Media Association, and a statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate rights group.

The journalists were detained for about two hours at a police station, where they were warned not to broadcast such content, and released without charge. Risaala had resumed operations by the evening. 

Police also briefly detained at least 17 other journalists at the attack site and questioned them at a local station about their coverage, three journalists familiar with the incident, who are not being named due to safety concerns, told CPJ.

Police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told CPJ by phone that police were trying to verify the identities of journalists at the site but did not make any arrests and that Risaala staff were asked to leave their office for safety.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from information minister Daud Aweis were not answered.

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

Li Yanhe, more widely known by his pen-name Fucha, or Fuchsia, was detained some time in March 2023 after traveling to China to cancel his household registration as part of his naturalization as a citizen of democratic Taiwan.

Li, who is ethnically Manchu, founded the Eight Banners imprint under Taiwan’s Book Republic publishing group in 2009, using it to publish non-fiction works on China’s overseas infiltration and influence operations, the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and other work critical of Beijing.

He is among hundreds of Taiwanese nationals to disappear in China over the past 10 years, rights groups told the United Nations in December.

“The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court held a public trial and issued a verdict in the first instance on Feb. 17, 2025,” Taiwan’s Central News Agency quoted a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office as saying.

No verdict has yet been issued, according to reports in the United Daily News and Central News Agency.

“The court tried the case strictly in accordance with the law and fully protected the various litigation rights enjoyed by Li Yanhe and his defense counsel in accordance with the law,” spokesperson Chen Binhua told Central News Agency.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told the agency it was aware of all of the details of Li’s case, but wasn’t making them public in accordance with his family’s wishes.

(Eight Banners Publishing House via Facebook)

“The fundamental purpose of the Chinese Communist Party’s detention of Fu Cha is to create a chilling effect in Taiwan’s cultural and academic circles,” the Council was quoted as saying. “This case clearly shows the authoritarian nature of Chinese Communist Party rule.”

It said the case had once more demonstrated that Taiwanese nationals should be aware of the risks associated with travel to China.

Public trials are ‘meaningless’

Taiwanese rights activist and NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh, who served a five-year prison sentence in China after disappearing on a visit there himself, dismissed the claim that Li had had a “public trial.”

“Public trials in China are meaningless,” Lee told RFA Mandarin on March 17. “Who was it open to?”

“China did not proactively inform the outside world of Fu Cha’s verdict,” he said. “Today, it responded passively responding to a question about an allegedly secret trial.”

According to Lee, the charge of secession can be laid against anyone who doesn’t support Beijing’s territorial claim on the island.

“Anyone who doesn’t support their one country, two systems idea is basically an independence activist in the view of the Chinese government,” Lee said, adding that Li could wind up making a forced public statement in future.

Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang, or KMT, government as part of Tokyo’s post-war reparation deal.

The KMT made its capital there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists that led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

While the Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as an “inalienable” part of its territory, Taiwan has never been ruled by the current regime in Beijing, nor has it ever formed part of the People’s Republic of China.

Zeng Jianyuan, chairman of the overseas-based New School for Democracy, said the authorities have yet to make the verdict public.

“This case is attracting international attention, yet the media and human rights groups following the case have no way of finding out what the verdict was,” Zeng said. “The Taiwan Affairs Office is simply talking nonsense.”

According to Article 103, Section 2 of China’s Criminal Law, those who “incite secession and undermine national unity” can receive jail terms of “no less than five years” if their case is deemed serious.

There are also concerns that China will treat Li as a Chinese national and refuse to allow him to return home to Taiwan after his sentence has been served, Lee said.

Viewed as a ‘traitor’

Li had intended to renounce his Chinese household registration on his trip as part of his naturalization process as a citizen of Taiwan, but had been detained before he could get to it, he said.

“If the Chinese government treats him as a Chinese national, then he won’t be allowed back to Taiwan when his sentence is complete,” Lee said.

Zeng said Beijing regards Li as a “traitor” because he retains his Chinese nationality and his membership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

“That’s why the Chinese Communist Party wants to punish him severely,” Zeng said.

Li was born in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning to a Manchu family, and joined the Chinese Communist Party after graduating from university, before rising to become vice president of the Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House.

He married a Taiwanese woman in 1996, and settled in Taiwan in 2009. His last Facebook post was made on March 12, 2023.

The Republic of China has remained a sovereign and independent state since 1911, now ruling just four islands: Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.

The island began a transition to democracy following the death of KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek’s son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Huang Chun-mei for RFA Mandarin, RFA Cantonese.

The letter highlights the urgency of Abdelfattah’s case as he began a hunger strike in prison on March 1, 2025. His 69-year-old mother, Laila Soueif—a respected Egyptian professor—conducted a hunger strike for more than 150 days, which led to severe health deterioration and hospitalization. 

On March 4, CPJ led another joint letter, signed by 50 prominent human rights leaders, Nobel Prize laureates, writers, and public figures, calling on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to grant a presidential pardon to Abd El Fattah.

Read the full letter in here.

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.

“The latest arrests in Azerbaijan’s unprecedented media crackdown show more clearly than ever that authorities’ real goal is to entirely stifle the work of independent media inside the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release Nurlan Gahramanli and Fatima Mövlamli, along with nearly two dozen other journalists currently jailed on clearly retaliatory charges.”

In separate hearings, the Khatai District Court in the capital, Baku, ordered Gahramanli into pretrial detention for one month and 17 days on February 21 and set a pretrial detention period of one month and nine days for Mövlamli on March 1.

The arrests bring the total number of Meydan TV journalists jailed on currency smuggling charges to nine. Police detained six of the outlet’s staff in December and arrested journalist Shamshad Agha in February. Pro-government media claimed Agha was entrusted with the “management” of Meydan TV’s in-country operations following the December arrests and “recruited” several journalists, including Gahramanli and Mövlamli.

The Meydan TV journalists are among at least 24 journalists and media workers currently jailed in Azerbaijan, one of the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in 2024, according to CPJ’s annual prison census. Most of them hail from the country’s largest independent media and have been charged over allegations of bringing Western donor funds into the country illegally, amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.

On February 26, a Baku court moved another journalist charged on funding accusations, Toplum TV presenter Shahnaz Baylargizi, from pretrial detention into house arrest on health grounds.

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

We continue to look at Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees with Naji Abbas from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which has just released a new report detailing the mistreatment of medical workers from Gaza. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other essential medical staff were arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 and held under brutal conditions, with many describing physical, psychological and sexual abuse, starvation, medical neglect and more. “It’s a whole journey of torture and abuse,” says Abbas, director of PHRI’s Prisoners and Detainees Department.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The deportation was shrouded in secrecy and Thai officials declined to comment on it.

China’s state run CCTV confirmed it hours later.

“Today, 40 Chinese illegal immigrants were repatriated from Thailand. The repatriation was carried out in accordance with the laws of China and Thailand, international law and international practice,” CCTV reported.

It did not identify those deported as Uyghurs and it was not clear why the broadcaster reported 40 people were deported when Thailand has been holding 48 Uyghurs, most of them in a Bangkok immigration center.

China’s Ministry of Public Security did not give a number for how many people had been returned.

“The Chinese citizens repatriated this time were deceived by criminal organizations and illegally left the country and then stranded in Thailand,” the ministry said, adding that their legal rights were “fully protected.”

Earlier, human rights activists and a Thai media outlet reported that several trucks, some with windows blocked with sheets of black plastic, left Bangkok’s main immigration detention center after 2 a.m. and headed north towards the city’s Don Mueang airport.

An elevated highway to the airport was blocked off to other traffic as the trucks passed, said a human right activist.

Media later cited a flight tracker app as showing a chartered China Southern Airlines flight left Don Mueang at 4.48 a.m. The app did not give the flight’s destination but it later showed it had landed in the Xinjiang region.

“I think they are gone,” Chalida Tajaroensuk, director at People’s Empowerment Foundation, who had been assisting the Uyghurs, told Radio Free Asia.

The men from the mostly Muslim minority from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China have been held at Thailand’s Immigration Detention Center since 2014, after attempting to escape Beijing’s persecution through Thailand.

A rights group said in early January that reports from the detained men indicated that Thai authorities were preparing to deport them but Thailand dismissed the concerns and said there was no plan to send them to China.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that the U.S. was deeply concerned about reports the 48 were about to be deported and it called on Thailand to respect the principle of non-refoulement – or not deporting people to places where they risk torture and other abuse – and to uphold its international obligations.

Opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang said the government had questions to answer.

“What is the Thai government doing? The prime minister must answer to the people urgently,” Kannavee said in a post on Facebook after the rights activists reported the trucks leaving the Bangkok detention center.

“There must not be Uyghur deportation to face persecution. They were jailed for 11 years. We violated their human rights for too long. There must be a better way out.”

Government spokesman Jirayu Huangsap said the police had not informed the government of any deportation.

“I don’t know about this matter and cannot confirm it,” Jirayu told BenarNews. “The Royal Thai Police will have to report to the government. So far, there has been no report, so I don’t know if it is true or false.”

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was equally guarded when asked at parliament to confirm the repatriation.

“I haven’t talked about this in detail yet,” she said, adding, “Any countries’ actions have to be consistent with rule of law, international protocol and human rights.”

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‘No answers’

Human Rights Watch said the situation was “very concerning”.

“It has been 48 hours since we’ve been able to contact the Uyghurs in detention,” Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, told BenarNews.

“There are no answers from the Immigration Bureau to the government. The silence from the operational level officers all the way to the prime minister is unusually surprising.”

A Thai court has been considering a petition filed by a Thai lawyer for the men to be freed. It said last week it saw merit in the petition and had asked for more information from authorities and scheduled the next hearing for March 27.

“Thailand has laws preventing people from being sent back to face danger,” Sunai said, referring to a 2022 law on the prevention of torture that contained a provision on non-refoulment

“If they really send the Uyghurs back to China, it means the government is not only violating international law but also its own domestic laws,” he said.

(Natthaphon Meksophon/BenarNews)

The 48 were part of a cohort of more than 350 Uyghur men, women and children, who left China in the hope of finding resettlement abroad and were stopped in Thailand.

Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing denies that.

Turkey did accept 172 of them while Thailand sent 109 of them back to China in 2015, triggering a storm of international criticism for the decision.

Thailand had in recent weeks brushed off the concern of rights groups that the Uyghurs being held would also be deported. U.N. experts on Jan. 21 urged the kingdom not to repatriate them saying they would likely face torture in China.

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

Nontarat Phaicharoen and Jon Preechawong in Bangkok contributed to this report.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kunnawut Boonreak for BenarNews and Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.

“It is absolutely shameful that Blessed Mhlanga has been thrown behind bars simply because he gave voice to a war veteran’s criticism of Zimbabwe’s government,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Zimbabwean authorities should free Mhlanga unconditionally and respond to their citizens’ concerns, rather than punishing the messenger.”

Mhlanga, who works with the privately owned Heart and Soul TV, said on the social media platform X that three armed men came to his office searching for him on February 17, soon after which the police phoned him to ask him to come in for questioning. On February 21, the police issued a statement seeking information about Mhlanga’s whereabouts. 

Mhlanga responded to the police summons on February 24 and was arrested on two counts of transmission of data messages “inciting violence or damage to property,” according to the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights network, and Mhlanga’s lawyer Chris Mhike. 

On February 25, prosecutors opposed Mhlanga’s bail application, arguing that he was a flight risk, Mhike told CPJ. The court is due to decide on his application on February 27.

Authorities allege that the offenses were committed in Mhlanga’s November 2024 and January 2025 interviews with Blessed Geza, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s war for independence from white minority rule, who called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to resign, accusing him of nepotism, corruption, and failing to address economic issues.

If found guilty, Mhlanga could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to US$700 under the 2021 Cyber and Data Protection Act.

Mhlanga was previously assaulted and arrested in 2022 while covering the attempted arrest of an opposition politician.

CPJ’s phone calls and messages to Zimbabwe’s National Prosecution Authority communications officer Angelina Munyeriwa and police spokesperson Paul Nyathi went unanswered.

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

Police arrested Amaghlobeli, director of the independent media outlets Netgazeti and Batumelebi, on January 11 following an altercation with a local police chief. She was charged with attacking a police officer, which is widely seen as disproportionate and as retaliation for her journalism. If convicted, she faces a minimum four-year prison term.

Amaghlobeli went on a hunger strike following her arrest, but ended it on February 18, after 38 days, after doctors warned that her life was in danger.

Press freedom has sharply declined in Georgia in recent months under the ruling Georgian Dream party. Dozens of journalists covering mass anti-government protests have been violently obstructed or beaten by police, while authorities have enacted a “foreign agent” law targeting the press.

Read the full statement here.

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

On January 30, a judge charged Cello with spreading false news and undermining national security and placed him in pretrial detention in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo’s Antanimora prison, one of Cello’s relatives told CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.

“Fernand Cello should never have been arrested based on a warrant issued in October 2023 for a social media post that he apologized for soon after publication,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Rather than criminalizing journalists, Malagasy authorities should free Fernand Cello and drop all charges against him.”

Cello’s September 15, 2023, Facebook post inaccurately said that Rajoelina had left the country on a flight that included the High Constitutional Court president Florent Rakotoarisoa.

Days earlier, the court had dismissed opposition appeals to void Rajoelina’s candidacy on the grounds of his dual French-Malagasy nationality. Rajoelina won a third term in November 2023.

On September 16, 2023, Cello published a video “explaining and apologizing” for his mistake. In March 2024, he published another video apology and asked Rakotoarisoa to “end his persecution.”

Cello, who was arrested at home, had been in hiding since the warrant, the family member told CPJ. The journalist continued to work for the privately owned newspaper Basy Vava, a second relative said. He also posted daily news and comments on Facebook.

In 2017, Cello was detained for four months, before receiving a two-year suspended sentence for cheque theft, in a case that he said was in retribution for his work at the local station Radio Jupiter, which broadcast allegations of an electricity firm’s financial irregularities and illegal sapphire mining. He was acquitted on appeal in 2019.

CPJ’s calls to the communication and justice ministries to request comment were not answered.

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

Human rights groups fear the men could be deported to China where they would be at risk of torture. Lawyer Chuchart Kanpai submitted a petition on Jan. 29 arguing that the Uyghurs had spent enough time detained on immigration charges and they should be set free.

The court held its first hearing on the petition last Friday and convened again on Tuesday.

“After hearing the petitioner’s witnesses, the court finds merit in the petition and orders the Immigration Bureau Commissioner or representative to appear in court on March 27,” the court said.

Apart from the 43, being held at an immigration detention facility in Bangkok, there are five more, who have not been included in the petition, detained in prison after trying to escape.

The 48 Uyghurs remaining in Thai detention were part of a cohort of more than 350 Uyghur men, women and children, who left China in the hope of finding resettlement abroad and were stopped in Thailand.

Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing denies that.

Turkey did accept 172 of them while Thailand sent 109 of them back to China and faced a storm of international criticism for the decision.

Thailand has in recent weeks brushed off the concern of rights groups that the Uyghurs being held would also be deported. U.N. experts on Jan. 21 urged the kingdom not to repatriate them saying they would likely face torture in China.

RELATED STORIES

Thai court considers petition to free detained Uyghurs

Thai PM to visit China as groups fear Uyghur detainees may be sent back

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Attorney Chuchart said that he expected a final decision within two months.

“The court sees potential illegality in the detention and will question why these 43 Uyghurs remain detained after serving their sentences for illegal entry,” he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

“If the detention is found unlawful, the court may order their release or allow other agencies to guarantee their temporary stay while awaiting third-country resettlement,” he added.

None of the Uyghur detainees appeared in court.

The director of a Thai human rights group, the People’s Empowerment Foundation, welcomed the court’s decision but said she still feared pressure from China.

“While it’s positive that the court will hear from immigration officials, we hope the Uyghur detainees themselves will be called to testify for a comprehensive understanding,” Chalida Tajaroensuk told BenarNews.

“Our main concern is political interference, particularly Chinese influence over the case. If they can resettle in a third country, everything would end peacefully,” she said.

Chuchart also said if the court were to order the release of the men, the government would have to come up with a resettlement option that wouldn’t damage relations with China while ensuring the Uyghurs’ safety.

Edited by Taejun Kang.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews.

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 human rights groups Justice for All said early last month that reports from detained Uyghur asylum seekers indicated that Thai authorities were coercing them to fill out forms in preparation for their deportation to China.

Thailand has denied that but fears for their safety have persisted and lawyer Chuchart Kanpai submitted a petition on Jan. 29 arguing that the men had spent enough time locked up on immigration charges and should be freed.

“The 40-plus Uyghurs in detention have not committed crimes in China. They have already served their sentences for illegal entry into Thailand but have endured deteriorating conditions in detention for more than 11 years,” Chuchart told the court.

Representatives of several embassies and the United Nations observed the proceedings.

None of the detained Ughurs attended.

Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps.

China denies that but U.N. experts on Jan. 21 also urged Thailand not to deport the Uyghurs saying they would likely face torture.

The 43 are being held at an immigration detention facility in Bangkok. Another five, who have not been included in the petition being considered on Friday, are being held in prison.

The 48 were part of an originally larger cohort of more than 350 Uyghur men, women and children, 172 of whom were resettled in Turkey, 109 deported back to China, and five who died because of inadequate medical conditions.

In 2015, Thailand, Washington’s longest-standing treaty ally in Asia, faced stiff international criticism for those it did deport back to China. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, and therefore does not recognize refugees.

The petition calls for a review under the Criminal Procedure Code to assess whether the Immigration Bureau should release the 43 Uyghurs.

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Plea for freedom

Three witnesses spoke on Friday including Chuchart, who has worked closely with members of the Uyghur community. Bahtiyar Bora, a Uyghur who previously worked as an interpreter in cases involving Uyghurs and independent researcher Nirola Selima, also gave testimony.

“I was born in a small village in Xinjiang in 1948. During China’s Cultural Revolution, my father was arrested, and my mother was killed by the Red Guards. Those conditions forced me to flee, and I found a new life in Australia,” Bahtiyar testified in court.

“When I visited the Uyghurs in Thai detention, I saw myself as a child in their situation. I beg you to release these Uyghurs so they can have peaceful lives like you and me,” he added.

Selima spoke about the detainees’ deteriorating health.

“Many detainees face serious health issues with limited medical access,” she said.

“Those inside are in terrible condition, as if slowly awaiting death,” she told the court, citing members of a welfare group who visit the detainees.

Lawyar Chamroen Phanomphakakorn, representing the petitioners, said if the court found merit in the petition and testimony, it would order further investigations and summon police officials.

“If the detention is found illegal, the court must order the Uyghur detainees' release,” he told BenarNews.

The court will resume the hearing on Feb. 18.

Edited by RFA Staff.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews.

“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.

“Veteran journalist Shahnaz Baylargizi’s arrest underscores how Azerbaijani authorities are exploiting allegations of Western funding to silence leading independent voices,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Baylargizi suffers from acute health challenges, and each day she unjustly spends behind bars jeopardizes her life. Azerbaijani authorities must immediately release her along with all other unjustly jailed journalists.” 

Police arrested Baylargizi, whose legal name is Shahnaz Huseynova, on February 5 in the capital, Baku, and confiscated cells phones and a laptop from her home, according to reports.

The journalist’s lawyer, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, told media that she was charged with the same economic crimes—including currency smuggling, tax evasion, and money laundering—brought against four other Toplum TV journalists following a March 2024 raid on the outlet’s office over alleged funding from major donor organizations based in the West. 

If convicted, Baylargizi faces up to 12 years in prison. 

Police called an ambulance for Baylargizi, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, after her blood pressure spiked during arrest, her lawyer said. Reports stated that she has since been placed under medical observation in the detention center.

Baylargizi is among at least 23 journalists and media workers currently jailed in Azerbaijan in retaliation for their work. Most have been jailed over allegedly receiving Western funding amid a vast crackdown on dissenting voices since late 2023 and a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.

CPJ’s annual prison census found that Azerbaijan was among the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in 2024.

CPJ’s email requesting comment to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply.

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

“Veteran journalist Shahnaz Baylargizi’s arrest underscores how Azerbaijani authorities are exploiting allegations of Western funding to silence leading independent voices,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Baylargizi suffers from acute health challenges, and each day she unjustly spends behind bars jeopardizes her life. Azerbaijani authorities must immediately release her along with all other unjustly jailed journalists.” 

Police arrested Baylargizi, whose legal name is Shahnaz Huseynova, on February 5 in the capital, Baku, and confiscated cells phones and a laptop from her home, according to reports.

The journalist’s lawyer, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, told media that she was charged with the same economic crimes—including currency smuggling, tax evasion, and money laundering—brought against four other Toplum TV journalists following a March 2024 raid on the outlet’s office over alleged funding from major donor organizations based in the West. 

If convicted, Baylargizi faces up to 12 years in prison. 

Police called an ambulance for Baylargizi, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, after her blood pressure spiked during arrest, her lawyer said. Reports stated that she has since been placed under medical observation in the detention center.

Baylargizi is among at least 23 journalists and media workers currently jailed in Azerbaijan in retaliation for their work. Most have been jailed over allegedly receiving Western funding amid a vast crackdown on dissenting voices since late 2023 and a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.

CPJ’s annual prison census found that Azerbaijan was among the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in 2024.

CPJ’s email requesting comment to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply.

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