The Turkish government has been interfering in a series of prosecutions in 2009 against Dogan Holding, a conglomerate that owns many leading news media. Telephone recordings leaked on March 3 show that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then justice minister Sadullah Ergin intervened directly in these proceedings, which resulted in Dogan being ordered to pay an astronomical fine of more than...
Crimean authorities should immediately restore broadcasting in the region by the independent Ukraine television stations Channel 5 and Channel 1+1, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. According to local journalists in Crimea and news reports, regional authorities in the administrative center Simferopol stopped transmitting the two privately owned broadcasters' analogue signals to the...
The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed recent decisions by the Sudanese judiciary supporting press freedom and called on the government to stop confiscating independent newspapers. On Wednesday, Sudan's Constitutional Court reversed an order by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to shut down the independent daily Al-Tayar, according to news reports. Al-Tayar's...
Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was sentenced to prison today for online posts critical of the country's Communist Party-led government, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ruling and urges Vietnamese authorities to stop persecuting independent bloggers. A court in the central city of Danang ruled that entries on Nhat's personal blog, Nhat Mot Goc Nhin...
The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from jail of one reporter in Egypt and calls on authorities to release all other journalists held behind bars. While the release of a second journalist is pending, a trial begins on Wednesday for three imprisoned journalists affiliated with the Qatari-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, according to news reports. "By halting the persecution of...
A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted six defendants for their roles in the murder of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV journalist who was shot dead in Karachi in January 2011, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the convictions—the first in the murder of a Pakistani journalist--but calls on authorities to ensure the masterminds are brought to justice. "These...
Authorities in the autonomous republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine should ensure that media outlets and independent journalists are allowed to report on the political crisis in the region without being censored or harassed, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Tension in the predominantly Russian-speaking southern and eastern Ukraine has increased since Ukrainian President Viktor...
Marc Marginedas, a veteran war reporter for the Barcelona-based El Periódico newspaper, was released on March 2 in Syria after six months in captivity and is now back in Spain, where he has been reunited with his family. “We are delighted by Marginedas’ release and we hope that all the other journalists – both foreign and Syrian – currently held by rebels or the government in Syria will...
Reporters Without Borders has called for an investigation into the death of Hussein Ali Madan Al-Faraj, a photographer and cameraman known as the “Revolution’s Journalistâ€, in the eastern governorate of Al-Qatif on February 20. Police killed Hussein Al-Faraj during a raid on the town of Al-Awamiyah with the aim of locating participants in a long series of anti-government protests in the...
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's attack on a journalist in Hong Kong and calls on authorities to conduct a thorough and efficient investigation and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice. Kevin Lau Chun-to is now in critical condition, according to news reports. Lau was attacked as he got out of his car in a residential neighborhood at around 10:30 a.m., according to...
