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Category: Legal

  • CPJ: Georgia must free Mzia Amaghlobeli after 53 days in jail for a slap

    New York, March 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Georgian court decision to proceed with the trial of media manager Mzia Amaghlobeli and keep her in detention, following an altercation with a local police chief. 

    In a March 4 pretrial hearing, Georgia’s western Batumi City Court rejected motions to release Amaghlobeli, director of independent news outlets Netgazeti and Batumelebi, and to dismiss the charge against her of assaulting a police officer. If convicted, Amaghlobeli faces a minimum four-year prison sentence, in a case that is widely seen as disproportionate and in retaliation for her journalism.

    “Georgian authorities’ prosecution of media manager Mzia Amaghlobeli is clearly punitive and is all the more jarring given rampant impunity for brutal police attacks on journalists,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should release Amaghlobeli immediately.”

    The trial is due to begin on March 18, local journalist Irma Dimitradze told CPJ.

    Amaghlobeli has been behind bars since her January 11 arrest, when she began a hunger strike that lasted 38 days.

    Amaghlobeli was not covering the protests when she was arrested, but human rights groups calling for her release believe she is being punished for her outlets’ reporting on alleged abuses by authorities, including the police. 

    The journalist’s lawyer Juba Katamadze told CPJ that Amaghlobeli had been unlawfully detained earlier that evening for putting up a poster on a police station wall to protest her friend’s detention, and that her slapping of Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze did not warrant prosecution under the serious charge of assaulting an officer. 

    Amaghlobeli’s case comes amid a sharp decline in press freedom in Georgia. Dozens of journalists covering anti-government protests have been violently obstructed or beaten by police. Last week, the government proposed to introduce prison terms for non-compliance with an amended “foreign agent” law and to tighten control over broadcasters.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • First assessment of Human Rights under the Trump Administration by HRW

    Amy Braunschweiger speaks with Human Rights Watch’s US Program Director Tanya Greene, who leads research within the United States, as well as Washington Director Sarah Yager, who advocates with the US government on global issues, about the slew of executive orders President Trump has issued, the damage to human rights his administration’s policies have already done, and where we go from here.The text – reproduced in full below, was published on 3 March 2025.

    See also: https://youtu.be/N_hCOCVuJsA?si=t2lUEb3Fw8XWH7Vo where UN human rights chief Volker Türk has voiced deep concerns for hostilities happening across the globe, including a “fundamental shift in direction” of the US. He expressed concern over a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war that did not involve Kyiv.

    President Trump has been governing by executive orders. Could you give us some quick background on executive orders and what they do?

    TG: An executive order is a presidential directive regarding federal government operations and policies. Their reach and power can be extraordinary, including because they often impact federally funded non-governmental entities, like universities and housing providers. Executive orders should be based on existing law, and are often operationalized through agency action, such as the departments of labor, homeland security, or education.

    Many of Trump’s executive orders are facing court challenges arguing that they are unconstitutional or otherwise illegal. For example, his executive order denying citizenship to children of undocumented people born in the United States has been stayed by the courts pending a legal challenge. It is widely seen as a clear violation of the 14th amendment to the Constitution.

    Although the implementation of executive orders is not always automatic, widespread responses have been preemptive, anticipatory, and fearful, which is likely what Trump intended in this blitz of actions.

    SY: These executive orders show how split the United States is. In 2016, Trump’s executive orders reversed former President Barack Obama’s. Then Joe Biden reversed Trump’s orders. And today, Trump reverses Biden’s. But this isn’t typical. It shows the divisive nature of US politics.

    It’s also not typical that so many of these current orders are harmful to human rights.

    Many of Trump’s executive orders harm human rights, both in the United States and around the world. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, is laying off masses of federal employees at various agencies. What are we most concerned about inside the US?

    TG:  Whatever its supposed intentions, DOGE is slashing and burning to the point that a growing number of federal agencies are crippled by lack of resources, staff, and competent leadership. DOGE is also taking down websites and data that we rely on, both as human rights defenders and as the general public seeks information. For instance, hospitals across the country can no longer obtain important public health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Human Rights Watch is investigating the treatment of immigrant children, racial justice impacts, environmental concerns, healthcare access, rights of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender people, and reproductive freedoms. You have a president that says diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” but offers no ways to fight racial injustice, and yet one of his executive orders allows for resettling certain supposedly-persecuted white South Africans in the US, just after an earlier order closed the refugee admissions door on all other refugees worldwide.

    Immigration enforcement raids and other enforcement activities in the last month have targeted all immigrant communities, disproportionately those of color. Enforcement has targeted immigrants regardless of how long they have been in the United States and without considering their contributions to their communities, as well as people in the process of an immigration proceeding, where a judge decides if they can stay in the US.  As a result, there are communities in which many people are terrified and some avoid going to church or the hospital, and many children don’t go to school.

    There is also an order now in place defunding reproductive justice and abortion access both in the US and around the world.

    The stock value of GEO Group, a company the US government has long contracted with to run private immigration detention facilities, went up immediately after Trump’s election, presumably in anticipation of ramped-up immigration detention in private facilities. Human Rights Watch has long called for investment in community-based public safety solutions rather than more prisons.

    What are we worried about in terms of US foreign policy?

    SY: The foreign aid freeze and termination of thousands of State Department grants is a key focus for us right now, though of course there are new concerns that rise up every day. The aid being stopped has had awful consequences around the world. People will die needlessly because of this one policy decision.

    There is also an impact on civil and political rights abroad. Russian independent media outlets, which have been doing an amazing job exposing the Kremlin’s repression and debunking the official propaganda, received significant US-funding. Terminating aid will severely undercut that work. The same thing with Belarusian independent media.

    Many human rights defenders targeted by their governments lived in US-funded safe houses, which are now closed.

    Small human rights groups, some the only ones in their country, are on the verge of closing. We’re going to see the ripple effects and deaths in populations unable to stand up for their freedoms without this funding and the political support the United States gave.

    Aside from the aid freeze, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired the military’s top lawyers. Military lawyers are supposed to ensure US military operations abide by international law, the laws of war.  This could mean far more harm to civilians, who are supposed to be protected, when the US military is in an armed conflict. In fact, Trump also just lifted limits on US commanders authorizing airstrikes and special operations raids outside of war zones, which rolls back 20 years of work to ensure only combatants are targeted and only in recognized armed conflicts.

    These kinds of actions will have long-term ramifications on how people around the world view the United States.

    When there’s so much happening in a short period of time, how does Human Rights Watch approach its work?

    TG: We remember our priorities and how we can make a difference. There’s a lot of noise and distraction so we have to be thoughtful about putting limited resources into efforts that have impact. Our research on immigration raids or deportation flights might be used in partner litigation; our interviews with witnesses to abuses help support policymakers advocating in support of human rights.

    As an organization with colleagues who deal with repressive states and authoritarian regimes globally, those of us working in the US are informed of effective strategies and lessons learned as we encounter them here. And we can share this information with partners on the ground and policymakers, too.

    SY: We were not caught off guard by this. We were able to plan. I do think the speed, the apparent vindictiveness, and the level of chaos of Trump’s first month in office shocked many people. But we planned for this. We had a strategy that we are now implementing. We are going to engage with every policymaker that we can. We know for a fact many on both sides of the aisle don’t agree with what is happening. We are going to document the Trump administration’s impact on human rights around the world, and we’re going to try and block or end those policies. We are working together with our partners, some of whom focus on strategic litigation – litigation designed to advance respect for and protection of rights.

    How is Human Rights Watch responding to this? What is our work inside the US focusing on?

    TG: All the areas of work I mentioned are under attack by the new administration.

    The immigration space is fraught with misinformation that stokes fears and prejudices, but we counter that with fact-finding and with the stories of the real people who are harmed by dehumanizing rhetoric and policies.  We will build on our track record of careful research on problematic immigration policies from previous administrations, including the first Trump administration, exposing harmful policies such as inhuman and degrading immigration detention and the separation of migrant children from their parents. We are continuing this work, documenting what’s happening to people and using it to advocate for change.

    We’ve seen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deporting Iranian families with children to Panama with an agreement that the US will pay for Panama to deport them to Iran. A country cannot lawfully send Iranian asylum seekers to Panama without hearing their claims and just be done with it – sending them back to a country to face persecution violates international refugee law. The administration is also preparing to deport unaccompanied immigrant children – not just cruel and terrifyingly dangerous, but a human rights violation.

    In the democracy space, some US voters seem ready to trade freedoms away for supposed gains that are ultimately long-term losses, like increased surveillance, that will embolden and enable bad actors in government.

    In the racial equality space, we’ve been working on education, and that is a battle zone. We are doing research to expose state-level policies that censor and distort school curricula in ways that are inconsistent with human rights norms—measures that target the histories and experiences of Black, Indigenous and LGBT people in particular. If those efforts succeed they will be exported to other states.

    How is our work responding to changes in the foreign policy space?

    SY: The Trump executive order putting in place a sanctions program targeting the International Criminal Court has already done damage. We are working to convince the Senate not to legislate more sanctions, and to make sure other governments step up to defend the court from US pressure.

    We continue to focus on some of the conflicts where we think the Trump administration could play a valuable role. When it comes to Sudan, where the US government itself said a genocide took place, the US could pressure allies like the United Arab Emirates to stop supplying weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, one of the abusive warring parties there.

    President Trump says he wants to be a peacemaker. There are ways he could do that, but so far we are seeing very worrying foreign policy proposals. For example, Ukraine’s future is being discussed by the United States and Russia without Ukraine, and in Gaza, Trump has proposed permanently and forcibly displacing the Palestinian population, which would amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

    Some people would say there is no way to engage with this administration on human rights.

    SY: Engaging is certainly more challenging. But we don’t want to just walk away from our advocacy with US officials. Then you give up the power of the human rights movement, and any opportunity to change the minds of policymakers. There are still people in this administration who care about human rights. They may talk about it differently, they may be focused on particular places or issues. We’ll start there and make our case for the US role in lessening suffering and protecting rights around the world, not only because it’s good but because it’s smart and it’s in the US interest.

    And there’s Congress, which needs to step up as a check on the power of the White House. We will continue to work with House representatives and Senators on both sides of the aisle.

    TG:  The fear that the administration is cultivating among the public is dangerous, and information is so critical in response. That’s why we respond with research, arming people with facts. We know there are members of congress and state leadership like governors that support human rights. They are also empowered by our work.

    What can people in the US do in this situation?

    SY: If we want to see rights on the agenda, we need to see people in the United States reaching out to their representatives in Congress. They were elected to bring to Washington the needs and desires of their people.

    Also, if you see a person acting with courage in these difficult times, thank them. We’re going so fast, and we push and yell and scream, and then when a policymaker, a celebrity, or the head of a local food bank steps out and does the right thing, we move on. Stop for a minute and recognize the people doing the right thing. Make the space for them to keep doing that important work of holding the line.

    TG: Also, you too can be that person. Share the information. Have the conversations with your friends and family, provide what you know, encourage exchange of real information. It’s about building community. One of the strongest weapons we have is our unity, and we can each do something to build that.

    Religious communities and school groups and community centers, there are many places we can plug in to make a difference. Support your local homeless shelter or food pantry. Sponsor or reach out to refugees and immigrants living in your localities. I think the big risk is feeling powerless and unplugging. I know the temptation is great. We each don’t have to do everything. But if we all do something, that’s more than nothing. And don’t be afraid to hear “no” or lose on your first try. No is the first step to yes.

    And remember that there have been people in this country who have been targeted for abuse and destruction by the government their entire time in this country. Us as Black people, Indigenous people. And we’ve not only survived but thrived, and there are lessons to be learned from those struggles. And for the rest of the US population, we are a nation of mostly immigrants who came here to escape ills like human rights abuses or poverty. So gain strength from that.

    We’re doing this work for the next generation as well as the present. Not only are we trying to protect rights for them, we are also modeling what to do when you have problems and face difficulties.

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/03/interview-snapshot-rights-under-trump-administration

  • Abby Martin explains Palestinians have a LEGAL right to armed resistance


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bosnian Serbs adopt ‘foreign agent’ law targeting independent media

    Berlin, March 4, 2025–-The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-majority territory Republika Srpska to revoke a “foreign agent” law that poses a significant threat to media freedom and civil society.

    “Republika Srpska authorities should immediately suspend any plans to enforce this ‘foreign agent’ legislation, which mirrors restrictive measures used by authoritarian regimes to silence critics,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Such laws are incompatible with democratic values, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s aspirations for European integration.”

    On February 27, the National Assembly of the Serb-dominated half of Bosnia and Herzegovina called Republika Srpska passed the Law on the Special Registry and Transparency of the Work of Nonprofit Organizations, requiring foreign-funded groups to register with the justice ministry as “foreign agents” and comply with strict financial oversight and reporting rules. Russia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan have used similar legislation to criminalize critical voices and the media.

    The bill was among several passed by Serb lawmakers in response to the February 26 one-year sentence given to Republika Srpska’s President Milorad Dodik on charges that he disobeyed the top international envoy overseeing peace in ethnically-divided Bosnia. The court in the national capital, Sarajevo also barred pro-Russian Dodik from politics for six years.

    Dodik has long advocated for Republika Srpska to separate from Bosnia and Herzegovina and join Serbia. The Bosnian Serb mini-state is one of two autonomous entities — the other is the Bosniak-Croat Federation — created under the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war.

    In a statement, 41 local non-governmental organizations described the foreign agent law as “a revenge attack on all critical voices.”

    CPJ emailed Dodik’s press office to request comment but received no reply.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Azerbaijan arrests 2 more journalists in Meydan TV case

    New York, March 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijan’s February 20 arrest of Nurlan Gahramanli and February 28 arrest of Fatima Mövlamli — both freelance reporters for Germany-based outlet Meydan TV — on currency smuggling charges.

    “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.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • In Turkey, 5 Halk TV journalists face trial for influencing judiciary with broadcast

    Istanbul, March 3, 2025— Turkish authorities should free Halk TV editor-in-chief Suat Toktaş and drop the charges against him and four colleagues, whose trial is due to open on March 4, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

    An Istanbul court arrested Toktas on January 26 after pro-opposition Halk TV broadcast a conversation between its journalist Barış Pehlivan and an expert financial witness. The court said Halk TV had secretly recorded the two men’s telephone conversation and it had publicly named the witness to put pressure on him. Four other Halk TV staff were placed under judicial control and banned from foreign travel.

    “Suat Toktaş and his four Halk TV colleagues must not be jailed for airing an interview that the government disagreed with. The public deserve to hear all sides of this story, which is of national importance and involves a top Turkish politician,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should immediately halt their prosecution of Halk TV and instead take a positive step towards improving Turkey’s dismal press freedom record.”

    Pehlivan’s interview took place after Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu hosted a news conference where he named the witness, who he alleged had filed biased reports in numerous politically motivated lawsuits against opposition-controlled municipalities. The witness told Pehlivan that the mayor’s allegations were false.

    The interview was aired on a program hosted by Seda Selek, with Serhan Asker as director and Kürşad Oğuz as program coordinator.

    All five journalists were charged with violating the privacy of communication through the press and influencing those performing judicial duties, a crime for which the prosecution has requested up to nine years in prison. Pehlivan and Oğuz face an additional charge of recording non-public conversations between individuals and could be jailed for up to 14 years, according to the indictment, reviewed by CPJ.

    CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor requesting comment did not receive a response.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnam’s legal system ‘arbitrary,’ ignores international agreements, UN group says

    Read a version of this story in Vietnamese

    A United Nations group has accused Vietnam of unfairly arresting and trying a blogger and activist, who is serving a six-year prison term. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the trial took place under a state judicial practice that could amount to a violation of international law.

    Nguyen Lan Thang was jailed for six years in 2023 for “conducting propaganda against the State” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal code.

    The U.N. group said in its report, Opinion No. 51/2024, which it released on Wednesday, that Article 117 is so loosely worded that it serves as a trap to catch government critics.

    “The language used is overly broad and fails to define key terms, which prevents individuals from regulating their behaviour and ensuring that it is in accordance with the law,” the opinion letter said.

    “The Working Group has previously considered that article 117 of the Criminal Code is so vague that it is impossible to invoke a legal basis for detention thereunder and expressly noted that the provision does not meet the standards of the principle of legality due to its vague and overly broad language.”

    The group submitted its report to Vietnam on Dec. 10 and said Vietnam had not responded.

    Thang, who was a Radio Free Asia blogger, reported on human rights issues since 2011. He was also active in protests over China’s territorial clashes with Vietnam in the South China Sea.

    He was arrested on July 5, 2022, kept in solitary confinement for more than seven months and refused visits from his family and lawyer. In February 2023 he was finally allowed to meet his lawyer to prepare for a closed trial in July of that year.

    The working group’s document said Thang’s arrest was arbitrary because he was only peacefully exercising his fundamental rights as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam has agreed to follow.

    The group also said Thang’s trial was unfair since he was denied legal advice for so long.

    The U.N. group, made up of five independent international experts, called on Vietnam to release and compensate Thang.

    It said Thang’s case was one of many in Vietnam recently where activists had been locked up following arbitrary arrests that didn’t meet international standards. Campaigners were detained for long periods before their trials with limited or no access to lawyers and often held in solitary confinement, the U.N. body added.

    The group said Vietnam prosecuted human rights defenders at show trials on vaguely worded criminal charges for peacefully exercising their human rights. Courts gave them disproportionately long prison sentences and prisons denied them access to the outside world.

    “This pattern indicates a systemic problem with arbitrary detention in Viet Nam,” the group said, adding that if such cases continued, “this practice, which is embedded in the security and judicial culture of Viet Nam, might amount to a serious violation of international law.”

    “The constant and systematic targeting of journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders, such as Mr. Nguyễn in the present case, amounts to a crime against humanity. Mr. Nguyễn has been the victim of serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against bloggers, journalists and others in Viet Nam.”

    Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to RFA’s emails seeking a response to the group’s statement.

    What do lawyers say?

    A lawyer who defended Thang at his trial, but who didn’t want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the subject, said Vietnam’s judiciary and legal system are not fair or transparent.

    “Such substantive and procedural law-based adjudication has the effect of challenging the sustainability and core values ​​of justice, which require strict detail and precision for all its application conditions,” he told RFA on Friday.

    He said legal regulations should not “unduly restrict citizens’ political rights, especially with regard to freedom of speech or assembly, and of the press.”

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    Another lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, who has defended many political cases and was forced to flee to the United States, said that although Vietnam has been a member of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights since 1982, it still uses Article 117 “propaganda against the State” and Article 331 “abusing democratic freedoms” to silence dissidents.

    “It is unjust because the investigation process, prosecution and trial of those accused under Article 117 or Article 331 are full of violations of criminal procedures, as well as violations of the standard principles of criminal procedures that many civilized countries in the world are applying,” he said, calling the U.N. groups comments completely legitimate.

    “The Vietnamese government needs to promptly and fully implement the contents of this document. At the same time, apply similar treatment to all other political prisoners who are being detained, whether they have been tried or not.”

    Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russia puts journalist under house arrest for ‘fake’ news about Ukraine war

    New York, February 27, 2025—CPJ calls on Russian authorities to drop legal proceedings against 64-year-old Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash, who is under house arrest and could be jailed for up to 10 years for criticizing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    On February 25, Ukrainian-born Barabash, a film critic for the independent outlet Republic, was detained and charged with spreading “fake” news. The following day, a Moscow court placed her under two months’ house arrest ahead of her trial. Barabash’s reporting frequently has a political and anti-war stance.

    Also on February 26, a court in the Far East city of Khabarovsk fined Sergey Mingazov, a news editor with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, 700,000 rubles (US$8,062) for publishing false information about the Russian army.

    “The criminal cases against Ekaterina Barabash and Sergey Mingazov demonstrate how Russian authorities are weaponizing ‘fake’ news legislation to silence those who dare to contradict Kremlin-approved narratives on the Ukraine war,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna.

    The charges against Barabash stem from four Facebook posts in 2022 and 2023, three of which have since been removed. In the fourth, she condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — a recurring theme in her commentary.

    “While under house arrest, she is not allowed to publish anything or communicate via social media or a phone,” her son Yury Barabash told CPJ, adding that he believed the charges were “politically motivated” and linked to “her social media or/and her professional activities.”

    Mingazov was put under house arrest in April for three reposts on his Telegram channel of news about the 2022 massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. 

    Russia was the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 30 reporters behind bars on December 1, 2024, in CPJ’s latest annual global prison census. Of these, six were jailed for “fake” news.

    CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment sent to the Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee, a federal body in charge of investigating crimes, via its website.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Belarusian journalist Palina Pitkevich’s extremism trial set to open

    New York, February 27, 2025— Belarusian authorities should immediately release Belarusian journalist Palina Pitkevich, whose trial on charges of participating in an extremist organization is set to start on March 7, and stop jailing the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

    “Palina Pitkevich’s detention is yet another grim reminder that President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government is the worst jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Belarusian authorities must drop all charges against Pitkevich and repeal the country’s extremism legislation instead of using it to silence dissent.”

    Pitkevich was arrested in June, shortly after authorities designated the Press Club Belarus’ media literacy project Media IQ as an extremist group and listed her among its members, a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an exiled advocacy and trade group, told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

    If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to six years, according to the Criminal Code, which was amended to comply with a package of extremism legislation in 2021. Since then, the law to combat extremism has been used to ban more than 35 media outlets, according to BAJ.

    CPJ is also investigating the case of freelance journalist Aleh Supruniuk, who has been missing since late January, and the detention of seven former journalists with the shuttered independent outlet Intex-Press, including reporter Ruslan Raviaka, on extremism charges in late 2024.

    The BAJ representative confirmed to CPJ that Supruniuk was in detention. In 2021, Supruniuk was also briefly detained and his home was searched.

    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 annual prison census. Pitkevich was not included at the time due to a lack of publicly available information on her detention.

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Belarusian journalist Palina Pitkevich’s extremism trial set to open

    New York, February 27, 2025— Belarusian authorities should immediately release Belarusian journalist Palina Pitkevich, whose trial on charges of participating in an extremist organization is set to start on March 7, and stop jailing the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

    “Palina Pitkevich’s detention is yet another grim reminder that President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government is the worst jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Belarusian authorities must drop all charges against Pitkevich and repeal the country’s extremism legislation instead of using it to silence dissent.”

    Pitkevich was arrested in June, shortly after authorities designated the Press Club Belarus’ media literacy project Media IQ as an extremist group and listed her among its members, a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an exiled advocacy and trade group, told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

    If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to six years, according to the Criminal Code, which was amended to comply with a package of extremism legislation in 2021. Since then, the law to combat extremism has been used to ban more than 35 media outlets, according to BAJ.

    CPJ is also investigating the case of freelance journalist Aleh Supruniuk, who has been missing since late January, and the detention of seven former journalists with the shuttered independent outlet Intex-Press, including reporter Ruslan Raviaka, on extremism charges in late 2024.

    The BAJ representative confirmed to CPJ that Supruniuk was in detention. In 2021, Supruniuk was also briefly detained and his home was searched.

    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 annual prison census. Pitkevich was not included at the time due to a lack of publicly available information on her detention.

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San sentenced to 30 months in prison

    Bangkok, February 27, 2025—Hanoi’s People’s Court sentenced Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San to 30 months in prison on Thursday under a criminal provision that bars “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State.”

    San, a well-known political commentator and author also known by his pen names Huy Duc and Osin, was convicted under Article 331 of the penal code for 13 articles posted to his personal Facebook page between 2015 and 2024 and for independently collecting information, according to news reports.

    “Journalist Truong Huy San was convicted and sentenced for gathering and publishing independent news, which Vietnam treats as a criminal offense,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “San and all independent journalists wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam should be freed immediately and unconditionally.”  

    CPJ was unable to immediately determine whether San intends to appeal his conviction. San has been in detention since his arrest in the capital Hanoi on June 1, 2024.

    Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which manages the nation’s prisons and authorizes police to make political arrests, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

    Vietnam tied with Iran and Eritrea as the seventh worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 16 reporters behind bars on December 1, 2024, in CPJ’s latest annual global prison census.  


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Zimbabwean journalist Blessed Mhlanga jailed over interviews with war veteran

    Lusaka, February 26, 2025—CPJ calls on Zimbabwean authorities to free broadcast journalist Blessed Mhlanga, who has been in detention since February 24 on charges of incitement in connection to his critical interviews with a war veteran. 

    “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.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court upholds lengthy prison terms for Temirov Live journalists

    New York, February 25, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by the Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court’s February 25 decision confirming sentences against three Temirov Live journalists on charges of calling for mass unrest, including a six-year prison term for Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, director of the anti-corruption investigative outlet, a five-year prison term for presenter Azamat Ishenbekov, and a five-year suspended sentence for reporter Aike Beishekeyeva.

    “Today’s Supreme Court ruling in the case of prominent investigative outlet Temirov Live was a chance for Kyrgyzstan to right the most egregious press freedom violation in the country’s modern history. Instead it serves to underline the apparently irreversible course towards authoritarianism under President Sadyr Japarov,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Kyrgyz authorities should immediately release Temirov Live journalists Makhabat Tajibek kyzy and Azamat Ishenbekov, withdraw all charges against them and Aike Beishekeyeva and Aktilek Kaparov, and end their attacks on the country’s once-free press.”

    Kyrgyz police arrested 11 current and former staff of Temirov Live, a local partner of the global Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), in January 2024. In October, a court convicted Tajibek kyzy, Ishenbekov, Beishekeyeva, and former reporter Aktilek Kaparov and acquitted the remaining seven. Kaparov, who like Beishekeyeva was given a five-year suspended sentence with a three-year probation period, has yet to file a Supreme Court appeal. The four convicted journalists remained in detention pending the October verdict; the seven who were acquitted were previously moved into house arrest or released under travel bans in March and August.

    A review of the case by TrialWatch, a global initiative of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, concluded that the convictions suggest “improperly that negative statements [in Temirov Live videos] about the government can serve as a basis for inciting mass unrest” under Kyrgyz law, and said the journalists’ right to a fair trial was violated, “as the court apparently relied almost exclusively on prosecution experts’ conclusions” and failed to address major gaps and inconsistencies in their testimony.

    Temirov Live founder Bolot Temirov, who works from exile after being deported from Kyrgyzstan in retaliation for his reporting in 2022, told CPJ that Tajibek kyzy, Ishenbekov, and Beishekeyeva plan to file complaints against their convictions with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

    In November 2024, CPJ submitted a report on Kyrgyz authorities’ unprecedented crackdown on independent reporting under Japarov to the Human Rights Council ahead of its 2025 Universal Periodic Review of the country’s human rights record in May.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Journalist ordered to turn over notes, communications around murder trial

    Boston magazine contributing editor Gretchen Voss was subpoenaed on Nov. 21, 2024, for confidential newsgathering materials in connection with a murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts. After initially upholding the motion in December, the judge partially reversed the order almost two months later.

    In June and July 2023, Voss interviewed Karen Read, who stands accused of the murder of her boyfriend in a case that has captured national attention.

    Prosecutors first attempted in January 2024 to compel the disclosure of the journalist’s notes and recordings of the interviews. Massachusetts does not have a formally recognized reporter’s shield law protecting journalists from being forced to disclose newsgathering materials.

    Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone denied the prosecutor’s request for the off-the-record portions of the interviews and notes handwritten by Voss, but ordered her to produce copies of Read’s recorded on-the-record comments. Voss provided the redacted recordings.

    The case against Read ended in a mistrial in July and was scheduled for a retrial in early 2025.

    The state renewed its request for the notes and unredacted interview recordings in November 2024, ahead of the second trial. Prosecutors also requested copies of any texts, emails or voicemail communications Voss had with Read.

    “The defendant made a tactical decision to be interviewed. There is no legal justification enabling a defendant to pick and choose what statements can and should be disseminated to the public,” the motion said. “The ‘off the record’ promise has no legal import, and this Commonwealth does not recognize the private agreement between the defendant and the news sources.”

    Cannone granted the government’s request on Dec. 5 and ordered Voss to produce the documents by Jan. 2, 2025. Voss filed a motion for reconsideration regarding her notes, writing in an affidavit that forcing her to turn them over would jeopardize her credibility with sources in the future and her ability to work as an investigative journalist.

    “Obtaining information from sources ‘off the record’ is a normal—and critical—part of my work,” Voss wrote. “Keeping my word on this is critical to maintaining credibility and trust, and thus maintaining source relationships while not intervening with the flow of important information to the public.”

    Robert Bertsche, an attorney representing Voss and Boston magazine, argued in the motion that courts have cautioned against making journalists “discovery agents for the government.”

    “What is the Commonwealth seeking now from the taped interviews? Exactly what it forswore earlier: the statements made by Karen Read’s attorneys during those interviews,” Bertsche wrote. “The Commonwealth is commandeering a journalist merely in the hopes that the journalist’s records will prove useful to its case.”

    Cannone ordered Voss to provide the notes for “in camera review” — where the judge privately views disputed materials to determine relevance — by Jan. 13, and Voss complied.

    During a Jan. 31 hearing, Cannone partially reversed her decision and ruled that Voss would not be compelled to turn over her off-the-record notes, the Boston Herald reported. “Voss has articulated a compelling argument that requiring disclosure of the notes poses a greater risk to the free flow of information than the other materials produced,” Cannone wrote.

    The judge ruled, however, that the unredacted copies of her on-the-record interviews with Read — which had excluded off-the-record comments from both Read and her attorneys — must be turned over to prosecutors.

    Neither Voss nor Bertsche responded to requests for comment.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San indicted for ‘abusing democratic freedoms’

    Bangkok, February 18, 2025—Vietnam must drop all charges against jailed prominent journalist Truong Huy San over his personal Facebook posts and stop using legal threats to intimidate the independent media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

    The government is prosecuting San under Article 331 of the penal code, which outlaws “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State,” according to multiple news reports. He could face up to seven years in jail if found guilty.

    “Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San was exercising, not abusing, his democratic freedoms in his independent reporting on Vietnam’s Communist Party-dominated politics, and he should not be punished for doing so,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “These wrongheaded criminal charges should be scrapped and San should be freed unconditionally now.”

    San, a well-known political commentator and author also known by his pen names Huy Duc and Osin, was arrested by police on June 1, 2024, in the capital, Hanoi, while traveling to an event where he was scheduled to speak. He has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest. CPJ could not confirm if a date has been set for the case to be heard in Hanoi People’s Court.

    Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which manages the nation’s prisons and authorizes police to make political arrests, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

    Vietnam was tied with Iran and Eritrea as the seventh worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 16 reporters behind bars on December 1, 2024, in CPJ’s latest annual global prison census.  


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bangladesh journalists face threats from attacks, investigations, and looming cyber laws

    New York, February 14, 2025— Six months after a mass uprising ousted the increasingly autocratic administration of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi journalists continue to be threatened and attacked for their work, along with facing new fears that planned legislation could undermine press freedom

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

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

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

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

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

    Attacks

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Threats

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

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

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

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

    Criminal cases

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

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

    * Kamrul Islam, assignment editor for The Weekly Agrajatra.

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

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

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

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bangladesh journalists face threats from attacks, investigations, and looming cyber laws

    New York, February 14, 2025— Six months after a mass uprising ousted the increasingly autocratic administration of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi journalists continue to be threatened and attacked for their work, along with facing new fears that planned legislation could undermine press freedom

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

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

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

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

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

    Attacks

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Threats

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

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

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

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

    Criminal cases

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

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

    * Kamrul Islam, assignment editor for The Weekly Agrajatra.

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

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

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

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CPJ denounces Trump administration’s actions against AP, other retaliation against media

    Washington, D.C., February 14, 2025–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the White House decision to block The Associated Press (AP) from covering official events after AP’s decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally known name, calling the action the latest in an alarming pattern of retaliation against a free press in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s administration. 

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

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

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

    Other specific areas of concern include: 

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

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

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

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Turkish court issues 9 life sentences for journalist Hrant Dink’s murder

    Istanbul, February 14, 2025–Turkish authorities must continue searching for those who masterminded the 2007 murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday, after a retrial in which an Istanbul court issued nine defendants with life sentences.

    Lawyers representing the Dink family said they would appeal the February 7 verdict due to an “incomplete investigation and prosecution.”

    Dink, founding editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot in Istanbul in 2007 after receiving multiple death threats regarding his work.

    “After almost 20 years of trials and retrials of those who allegedly murdered Hrant Dink, the latest verdict has once again failed to satisfy the journalist’s family, who desperately need closure,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities must stop ignoring the Dink family lawyers’ demands for a deeper investigation if they are to achieve full justice for Dink and expose those behind the conspiracy to murder him.”

    The court handed down the following sentences:

    • Muharrem Demirkale, life for “premeditated murder”
    • Bekir Yokuş, life for “violating the constitution” and 10 years for “assisting in a premeditated murder”
    • Yavuz Karakaya, 12 ½ years for “assisting in a premeditated murder”
    • Ali Öz, Gazi Günay, and Okan Şimşek, life for “violating the constitution” and 25 years for “premeditated murder”
    • Mehmet Ayhan, Hasan Durmuşoğlu, and Onur Karakaya, life for “violating the constitution” and 12 ½  years for “premeditated murder”
    • Osman Gülbel, life for “violating the constitution” and 16 years and eight months for “premeditated murder”
    • Veysel Şahin, 15 years for “manslaughter due to neglect”

    The court also acquitted three defendants — Volkan Şahin, Şükrü Yıldız, and Mehmet Ali Özkılınç — in its retrial of 26 people who were found guilty of criminal conspiracy in 2021. 

    The court ordered the arrests of Yokuş, Ayhan, and Onur Karakaya, who were free pending trial.

    On January 9, the same court reached a verdict in a parallel trial regarding the murder conspiracy. In that trial, prosecutors had accused defendants with alleged ties to a recently deceased preacher, whom the Turkish government claims had run a terrorist organization, of playing a role in Dink’s murder. Two defendants in that trial received life sentences for “attempting to eliminate the constitutional order,” while lesser charges against some of them were dropped.

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CPJ urges Zambian government to withdraw cyber bills from parliament

    The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter calling on the Zambian government to withdraw the Cyber Security Bill 2024 and Cyber Crimes Bill 2024 from the country’s National Assembly for a comprehensive review to ensure they align with constitutional protections of freedom of the press as well as regional and international standards on freedom of expression. 

    CPJ raised concerns that the two bills would pose a significant threat to journalism in Zambia if enacted into law in current form, including numerous provisions that could undermine freedom of expression. In particular, the cybercrimes bill contains provisions that would amount to criminalization of defamation and could potentially undermine investigative journalism by prohibiting “unauthorized disclosure” of “critical information” in broad terms, without public interest safeguards. The bills would also give the state broad digital surveillance, search and seizure powers.

    The bills, which would replace the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act of 2021, were tabled at the National Assembly in November 2024 but decision-making was deferred, following concerns that the draft laws lacked adequate human rights safeguards. In December, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, who has previously promised to positively reform Zambia’s existing cyber crime legislation, said he was open to further dialogue with civil society on the two bills.

    Read CPJ’s letter here.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Honduran military chief files defamation complaints against 12 news outlets

    Mexico City, February 12, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Honduran Armed Forces to end its intimidation campaign against journalists following defamation complaints against 12 media outlets in connection with reports on alleged government corruption.

    “Armed forces should not weaponize the judicial system to silence the press,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, based in São Paulo. “Targeting journalists with defamation charges and coercing media to reveal sources threaten press freedom and undermine democracy. Honduran authorities must immediately end these intimidation tactics.”

    Gen. Roosevelt Hernández ordered military lawyers to file criminal defamation complaints against the media outlets in November 2024, according to a report by Honduran newspaper La Prensa. 

    Hondudiario’s editorial team told Reportar sin Medio, a Honduran news site, that the request came following its Oct. 30, 2024 report on internal divisions within the Honduran Armed Forces, including allegations that Hernández’s received government-funded medical treatment abroad for a heart condition.

    The Honduras prosecutor’s office accepted the complaints, and law enforcement notified newsrooms that they were being investigated in late January 2025, La Prensa reported.

    According to news reports, outlets under investigation include newspapers El Heraldo, La Prensa, La Tribuna, Hondudiario, Criterio HN, radio stations Radio Cadena Voces, Radio América, Abriendo Brecha, and TV outlets CHTV, Hable Como Habla, Q’Hubo TV, and Noticias 24/7.

    Hernández confirmed that he had initiated the complaints but denied that they were meant to intimidate journalists, reported La Prensa.

    Honduras’ penal code criminalizes defamation with prison terms up to one year and fines ranging from 200 to 1,000 days of salary for alleged false accusations in “reckless disregard for the truth.” The law imposes harsher penalties for statements made through print, television, radio, or digital platforms, a category referred to as “defamation with publicity.”

    CPJ’s requests for comment from the Honduran Armed Forces, National Police, Public Ministry, and Security Ministry did not receive any reply.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russia’s repression record

    Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its media has experienced an unprecedented crackdown. Hundreds of journalists have been forced into exile, where they continue to face transnational legal persecution, and their families have been harassed back home. Meanwhile, reporting from inside Russia has become increasingly difficult, with journalists and media outlets often silenced by laws criminalizing independent coverage.

    Since February 24, 2022, CPJ has documented:

    • 247 journalists and media outlets branded “foreign agents.”

    • 21 media outlets banned as “undesirable.”

    • More than 18,500 websites blocked in connection with war reporting.

    INDEX

    ‘Foreign agent’ sanctions
    ‘Undesirable’ organizations
    Sentenced to jail in absentia

    International media
    Legal action
    Denied media accreditation

    • Charges against those jailed: 7 for “fake” news; 4 for extremism; 4 for terrorism; 1 for cooperation with a foreign agent organization; 1 for espionage; 1 for participating in an illegal armed group; 1 for illegally handling explosives; 3 undisclosed.

    Source: CPJ, OVD-Info

    (Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated periodically)

    ‘Foreign agent’ sanctions

    Since 2017, Russian authorities have designated hundreds of media outlets and journalists as foreign agents, requiring them to regularly submit detailed reports of their activities and expenses to authorities and to list their designation on published content. Failure to comply can result in fines, prosecution, and up to two years in jail.

    A police officer in Moscow in 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

    The Ministry of Internal Affairs regularly adds journalists with outstanding foreign agent fines to its wanted list for people sought on criminal charges, meaning they could be held in pretrial detention if they traveled to Russia or a country that might extradite them to Russia.

    December 2024

    • Exiled blogger Yury Dud fined 45,000 rubles (US$449) on December 27 for failing to list his designation.
    • Criminal foreign agent case opened against Sergey Smirnov, exiled editor-in-chief of independent news outlet Mediazona, for failing to comply with the law.   
    • Criminal foreign agent case opened against Dmitry Kolezev, exiled former editor-in-chief of independent media outlet Republic, already sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison in absentia on charges of spreading fake news about the army.
    • Seyran Ibrahimov, founder of Crimean Tatar newspaper Qirim, and editor-in-chief Bekir Mamutov fined a total of 44,000 rubles (US$438) on December 23 for failing to list the foreign agent designation of two outlets named in a report. Six fines were imposed on Ibrahimov and Mamutov over Qirim’s work in 2024, an anonymous representative with human rights group Crimean Solidarity told CPJ. 
    • Arrest warrant issued for Tatyana Felgenhauer, exiled producer and anchor for Mediazona YouTube channel, on December 20 for failing to list her designation.
    • Criminal foreign agent case opened against Alesya Marokhovskaya, exiled editor-in-chief of investigative site IStories, for failing to provide mandatory reports to the Ministry of Justice. Her parents’ home in the far eastern city of Magadan was searched on December 5.
    • Exiled journalists Maxim Trudolyubov, Andrey Malgin, and Ayder Muzhsabaev fined 45,000 rubles (US$449) each on December 4 for failing to list their designation.

    November 2024

    • Exiled journalist Ilya Davlyatchin, with the media project Mozhem Obyasnit, twice fined a total of 60,000 rubles (US$598) on November 29 for failing to submit information about a foreign agent to an authorized body. Under a Russia-Belarus treaty, Davlyatchin was also added to Russia’s wanted list on November 25 after Belarus charged him with “facilitating extremist activity” by appearing on independent Poland-based Belsat TV, for which the penalty is up to seven years in jail.
    • Exiled journalist Kirill Nabutov, who runs YouTube channel Nabutovy, fined 30,000 rubles (US$299) on November 28 for failing to register as a foreign agent. 
    • Exiled Mediazona journalist Alla Konstantinova fined 30,000 rubles (US$290) on November 23 for failing to submit a report on her activities.
    • Journalist Alena Sadovskaya removed on November 13 from reporting on a court hearing for the foreign agent media outlet Caucasian Knot on the grounds her work could “negatively affect” the case.
    • Exiled Mediazona editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov, fined 50,000 rubles (US$483) on November 12 for failing to list his designation. Smirnov was previously fined four times, totaling 230,000 rubles (US$ 2,220), for failing to include both his and Mediazona’s listing on their content.

    October 2024

    • Exiled blogger and journalist Natalia Sevets-Ermolina added to the wanted list on October 31 for failing to list her designation.
    • Exiled blogger and former journalist with exiled broadcaster Dozhd TV (TV Rain), Ilya Shepelin, fined 40,000 rubles (US$386) on October 15 for failing to list his designation.
    • Exiled journalist Mikhail Rubin of the investigative news outlet Proekt fined 40,000 rubles (US$386) on October 11 for violation of the procedure for the activities of a foreign agent.
    • Exiled foreign agent Natalya Baranova, who runs the Telegram channel “Experiencing activism,” learned she was added to the wanted list on or before September 24.

    ‘Undesirable’ organizations

    Since 2021, numerous media outlets have been labeled undesirable, which means they are banned from operating in Russia. Anyone who participates in or works to organize the activities of such outlets faces up to six years in prison. It is also a crime to distribute the organizations’ content or donate to them.

    Galina Timchenko in Meduza’s office in Riga, Latvia, in 2015. (Photo: Reuters/Ints Kalnins)

    A key target is the Latvia-based news site Meduza, which was blocked in Russia following its condemnation of the Ukraine war. The popular outlet is also listed as a foreign agent. Meduza’s CEO Galina Timchenko won CPJ’s 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

    December 2024

    • Exiled journalist Dmitry Kartsev fined 10,000 (US$98) rubles on December 26 for participating in a Meduza podcast.
    • Exiled Vladislav Gorin fined 10,000 rubles (US$98) on December 17 for hosting a Meduza podcast.

    November 2024

    • Exiled Meduza journalist Andrey Pertsev fined 5,000 rubles (US$49) on November 27 for participating in a 2023 talk show by German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
    • Meduza journalist Elizaveta Antonova fined 14,000 rubles (US$135) on November 25 for her April interview with the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America.
    • Exiled Meduza journalist Anton Khitrov fined 10,000 rubles (US$100) on November 20 for taking part in a Meduza live stream about censorship.
    • Maria Ivanova, editor-in-chief of local media outlet Yakutsk Vecherniy, fined 10,000 rubles (US$98) on November 19 for two posts with links to reports by an unspecified undesirable organization.

    Sentenced to jail in absentia

    Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow in 2020.
    Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot at Sheremetyevo International Airport in 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

    Exiled journalists sentenced to jail in absentia would immediately be arrested if they traveled to Russia or a country that could extradite them to Russia.

    2024

    • Russian-American journalist and writer Masha Gessen sentenced on July 15 to 8 years on fake news charges.
    • Former editor-in-chief of exiled Russian broadcaster Dozhd TV (TV Rain) Mikhail Zygar sentenced on July 23 to 8½ years on fake news charges.
    • Former editor-in-chief of the independent media outlet Republic Dmitry Kolezev sentenced on August 6 to 7½ years on fake news charges.

    2023

    • Founder of investigative project Conflict Intelligence Team Ruslan Leviev sentenced on August 29 to 11 years on fake news charges.
    • Video blogger Michael Nacke sentenced on August 29 to 11 years on fake news charges.
    Ukrainian military vehicles near Ukraine's border with Russia on August 13, 2024.
    Ukrainian military vehicles near the Russian border in August 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)

    Russian courts issued arrest warrants in absentia for at least seven foreign journalists, previously charged with crossing into Russia’s Kursk region without permission as Ukrainian troops advanced on August 6, 2024. The penalty for illegal border crossings is up to five years in jail.

    2025

    • Britain’s The Sun newspaper’s defense editor Jerome Starkey on January 29.

    2024

    • German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Nick Connolly on December 4.
    • Romanian journalist Mircea Barbu who was on assignment for the news site HotNews on October 24.

    The Federal Security Service (FSB) also filed criminal charges in 2024 against at least six other journalists for allegedly crossing into the Kursk region illegally:

    • Ukrainian broadcaster Hromadske’s reporters Olesya Borovyk and Diana Butsko on August 22.

    Denied international media accreditation

    Since Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, Russia has revoked or failed to renew the media accreditation of at least seven international journalists:

    2025

    • French newspaper Le Monde’s correspondent Benjamin Quénelle on February 6.

    2024

    • Spanish El Mundo newspaper’s correspondent  Xavier Colás on March 19.

    2023

    • Politico Europe Dutch journalist Eva Hartog on August 7.

    2022

    • Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat’s correspondent Arja Paananen in October.
    See also:

    Russia fines 11 journalists, restricts 2 outlets with anti-state laws — July to September 2024

    Russia seeks to arrest, prosecute, fine, and restrict 13 exiled journalists — June to July 2024


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russia preps to block income of ‘foreign agent’ journalists

    Berlin, February 11, 2025—After a year that saw Russia increase its pressure on independent media and journalists, authorities are seeking to tighten the squeeze on dissenting voices from March 1 by blocking those designated as “foreign agents’” from access to their earnings.

    The 2025 law requires those listed by the justice ministry as “persons under foreign influence” to open special ruble accounts into which all their income from creative or intellectual activities, as well as the sale or rental of real estate, vehicles, dividends, and interest on deposits, must be paid.

    So-called foreign agents will not be allowed to withdraw their earnings unless they are removed from the register. However, the government can withdraw money from agents’ accounts to pay fines imposed for failing to apply that label to their published material or to report on their activities and expenses to the government — a legal requirement since 2020.

    While the new law’s full impact remains to be seen, it looms as yet another threat for exiled media outlets already rattled by the prospect of losing funding after U.S. President Donald Trump’s freezing of U.S. foreign aid.

    “It is clear that the legal pressure on journalists who stay in Russia — and those who have relocated — will increase,” Mikhail Danilovich, director of The New Tab, an exiled online magazine founded in May 2022, which has been blocked inside Russia due to its coverage of the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, told CPJ.

    Digging in

    In addition to the new law, a parliamentary commission proposed on January 28 an increase in foreign agent fines and a ban on their teaching or taking part in educational activities, such as hosting lectures or seminars.

    These moves signal an ongoing determination to crack down on independent journalists already grappling with a plethora of sanctions, from fines to arrest warrants and jail terms.

    While hundreds have fled Russia due to authorities’ suppression of critical coverage of the Ukraine war, others continue to report from inside the country. Nadezhda Prusenkova, head of Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta’s press department, estimated that about half of the journalists designated foreign agents still live in Russia.

    “We saw a greater focus on pressure on independent media and journalists in 2024, including pressure related to the legislation on foreign agents,” Dmitrii Anisimov, spokesperson for the human rights news site OVD-Info, told CPJ.   

    Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, CPJ has documented 247 journalists and media outlets branded as foreign agents and six exiled journalists sentenced in absentia to jail terms ranging from 7½ to 11 years on fake news charges.  

    Although none of the journalists outside Russia have been taken into custody, the campaign against exiles has left many fearing for their safety – especially after three journalists who wrote critically about the war in Ukraine suffered symptoms of poisoning in 2022 and 2023.

    Impact of the new law

    'Foreign agent' journalist and Mediazona editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov in court in 2021 prior to spending 15 days in jail for retweeting someone else's joke on social media.
    Mediazona editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov in court in 2021, prior to being jailed for retweeting someone else’s joke on social media. He could face jail again for failing to note on his content that he is designated a “foreign agent.” (Screenshot: Mediazona/YouTube)

    Senior members of five independent media outlets that work with people designated as foreign agents told CPJ that it was unclear about how the new law will affect their journalists. 

    Novaya Gazeta’s Prusenkova said that the newspaper had “very few” designated foreign agents on its staff, and Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta Europe CEO Maria Epifanova told CPJ that her exiled staff accessed their earnings from Western bank accounts. However, there were worries about losing revenue from the sale or rental of homes they left behind, she said.

    Ivan Kolpakov, editor-in-chief of the Latvia-based independent outlet Meduza and one of the first Russians to be labeled as a foreign agent, told CPJ that, “Frankly speaking, we have not complied with foreign agent legislation in any form since 2023 [when Meduza was banned as an “undesirable” organization.]”  

    Meduza is not alone in refusing to comply with the law, despite the risk of criminal prosecution. Media analysis of Russia’s judicial records found that only one-sixth of 620 fines issued in 2023 and the first half of 2024 were paid — 4 million rubles (US$40,453) out of a total of 25.8 million rubles (US$260,954). 

    Sergey Smirnov, the exiled editor-in-chief of the popular outlet Mediazona, could be jailed for two years if convicted in a criminal case opened against him in December 2024 on charges of failing to note on his content that he was designated a foreign agent. Smirnov, who fled to Lithuania from Russia in 2022 after being jailed for a tweet the previous year, is one of 18 journalists — 16 of whom live in exile — prosecuted or fined under the foreign agent legislation in the last quarter of 2024.

    “It’s very simple: I’m not paying,” Smirnov told CPJ, undeterred by the potential consequences on his assets back home. “Technically, they could seize the apartment I co-own.”

    ‘Plague-stricken’

    The situation for such exiles can be perilous. In late 2024, Russian authorities continued their cross-border retaliation against the media by ordering the arrests in absentia of exiled journalists Tatyana Felgenhauer and Kirill Martynov.

    Some media veterans say they have become too desensitized to focus on their government’s latest legal maneuvers.

    “I’m not following these new developments,” said Roman Anin, exiled founder of the Latvia-based investigative website IStories, who is facing arrest for spreading “false information” about Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.

    “I’m already on the wanted list, and IStories has been declared an undesirable organization, which is much worse than being labeled a foreign agent — a status both I and IStories already have,” he told CPJ.

    “Russia today is like a plague-stricken part of the world, similar to places like North Korea. There’s no point in seriously discussing what the so-called lawmakers in this system have come up with now.”


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Azerbaijani journalist given 3-month pretrial detention in foreign funding case

    New York, February 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a February 6 Azerbaijani court decision remanding Toplum TV presenter Shahnaz Baylargizi to 3.5 months in pretrial detention over foreign funding allegations and calls for her immediate release.

    “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.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Tunisian journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek sentenced to 5 years in prison 

    New York, February 7, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the immediate release of journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek after a Tunisian court sentenced her to five years in prison on Wednesday. Another journalist, freelancer Chahrazad Akacha, was sentenced to 27 years in absentia.

    “The sentencing of journalists Chadha Hadj Mbarek and Chahrazad Akacha is a clear example of how the Tunisian government is using judicial harassment to crush press freedom and independent journalism,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Mbarek and ensure that journalists and media workers can work freely without fear of reprisal.”

    A Tunis court convicted Akacha and Mbarek, a journalist and a social media content editor at local independent content firm Instalingo, of “conspiring against state security” and “committing an offense against the President of the Republic.” 

    Mbarek and Akacha, who has fled the country, were among the 41 people prosecuted in connection with their work at Instalingo since September 2021 following accusations that Instalingo was hired by members of the Ennahda opposition party to distribute content critical of President Kais Saied’s government. All were convicted on anti-state charges and handed long prison sentences on February 5. 

    Mbarek, in jail at the time of her sentencing, was initially arrested at her home in the city of Sousse on October 5, 2021, on anti-state charges. A judge dismissed the case and Mbarek’s charges on June 19, 2023, ordering her release, but she was arrested again after the state prosecutor filed an appeal.

    According to CPJ’s December 1, 2024 census there are at least five journalists behind bars in Tunisia, the highest number since 1992.

    CPJ’s email to the presidency requesting comment on Mbarek and Akacha’s sentences did not receive any reply.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh political satirist Temirlan Yensebek arrested on incitement charges

    New York, February 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the two-month pretrial detention of Temirlan Yensebek, founder of the Instagram-based satirical outlet Qaznews24, on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, for which he could face seven years in jail. 

    “The incitement charges against Temirlan Yensebek raise concerns that he’s being targeted for his biting political satire,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kazakh authorities should release Yensebek, drop the charges against him, and free journalists Ruslan Biketov and Asem Zhapisheva, who were detained for protesting Yensebek’s arrest.”

    Police in the southern city of Almaty arrested Yensebek on January 17. He was charged over a January 2024 Qaznews24 post, which has since been taken down, featuring a two-decade-old song with offensive lyrics about Russians, Kazakhstan’s largest ethnic minority. Authorities have since ordered the song be removed from social media.  

    Yensebek’s lawyer, Zhanara Balgabayeva, told CPJ that the charges were inappropriate and “merely a pretext” to jail Yensebek. She said the post was clearly marked as satirical and Yensebek did not author or perform the song, which was not banned.

    Balgabayeva’s view was echoed by journalists and activists who described it as a retaliatory response to a January 3 Qaznews24 post mocking Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.  

    In a country with few independent media outlets, Yensebek has succeeded in using satire to comment on current affairs. With social media, he regularly publishes spoof news stories that criticize authorities.

    Qaznews24’s political commentary has attracted more than 67,000 followers since its launch in 2021 — and the ire of authorities who swiftly arrested Yensebek on false information charges. The case was later dropped on the grounds that satire should not be prosecuted as false information.

    On January 19 and 20, police detained independent journalists Biketov, of the online outlet Kursiv, and Zhapisheva, for separately protesting Yensebek’s arrest. They were sentenced to 15 days’ administrative detention for alleged violation of Kazakhstan’s strict public protest laws.

    Almaty police did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via email but were quoted as saying Yensebek was detained for publishing material “containing clear signs of incitement of ethnic hatred.”

    (Editor’s note: The fourth paragraph of this alert has been updated to correct a typo.)


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Ukraine’s security service opens criminal case after Ukrainska Pravda report

    New York, February 3, 2025—Ukraine’s domestic security service (SBU) opened a criminal case on January 28 for “disclosure of state secrets” after independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda published statements by Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, at a closed-door parliamentary meeting.

    According to an unnamed source cited in the report, Budanov said that unless serious negotiations on ending the war are held by the summer, “dangerous processes could unfold, threatening Ukraine’s very existence.” Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence later denied the quote.

    “CPJ is concerned about Ukraine’s opening of a criminal case for ‘disclosure of state secrets’ based on Ukrainska Pravda’s reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must commit to respecting the confidentiality of sources and refrain from putting pressure on independent journalism.”

    CPJ was unable to determine whether the SBU opened the case against specific persons. The penalty for disclosing state secrets is up to eight years imprisonment.

    “We act within the law and strictly adhere to professional standards of journalism. Ukrainska Pravda, as always, stands by its sources of information, which is guaranteed by the current legislation of Ukraine and international law,” Ukainska Pravda editor-in-chief and 2022 IPFA Awardee Sevgil Musaieva said in a January 31 statement.

    CPJ emailed the SBU and Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence for comment but did not immediately receive any replies.

    In October 2024, Ukrainska Pravda published a statement saying it was experiencing “ongoing and systematic pressure” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

    Several Ukrainska Pravda journalists, including Musaieva, have been obstructed and threatened over their work. Ukrainian investigative journalists have also faced surveillance, violence, and intimidation in connection with their work about Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

    In December 2024, CPJ sent a letter to Zelenskyy asking him to ensure that journalists and media outlets can work freely in Ukraine and that no one responsible for intimidating journalists goes unpunished. The letter was still unanswered as of February 2025.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hungarian authorities detain, charge 2 journalists seeking to question PM Orbán

    Berlin, February 3, 2025—Hungarian authorities should immediately drop misdemeanor charges against two journalists who were arrested in a parking lot as they waited to question Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and detained for three hours, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

    On January 30, police removed the independent online outlet Telex’s reporter Dániel Simor and camera operator Noémi Gombos from a car park outside a film studio in Fót, a city 15 miles north of the capital Budapest, before Orbán arrived to officially open it.

    “Hungarian authorities should conduct a swift and transparent investigation into the detention of Telex journalists Dániel Simor and Noémi Gombos at an event attended by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán”, said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “It is unacceptable to use police force to obstruct reporters from asking questions of public officials. This marks a clear escalation of intimidatory tactics, previously unheard of in Hungary.”

    Simor told CPJ that Telex was not allowed to ask Orbán questions during his annual end of year press conference in December, so they registered to cover the film studio opening and were waiting in the parking lot to ask Orbán some questions about healthcare.

    Simor said that Counter Terrorism Centre agents told the journalists to move to a cordoned-off press area but they refused, saying they wanted to directly question the prime minister. He said Orbán’s press officer, Bertalan Havasi, then said that their press accreditation for the event had been revoked and they were taken to a police station where they were questioned for three hours.

    Simor said the police then opened misdemeanor proceedings against them for resisting police orders, which carry a maximum penalty of a US$500 fine.

    In a statement, Havasi described the journalists’ “clowning” as “pathetic and illegal.” CPJ’s email requesting comment from him received no reply.

    Since Orbán returned to power in 2010, his right-wing government has systematically eroded protections for independent media. His landslide 2022 election victory has led to an even harsher media climate, with the introduction of a Russian-style law to clamp down on media outlets that receive foreign funding.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • American Bar Association on the Day of the Endangered Lawyer

    24 January 2025 was the Day of the Endangered Lawyer.  Its purpose is to call attention to threatened human rights lawyers who work to advance the rule of law and promote human rights under governmental harassment and intimidation, often at great personal risk.  Each year the focus is on those lawyers working in one designated country.

    In 2025, the Day of the Endangered Lawyer spotlights the persecution of lawyers in Belarus. Since 2020, a crackdown by the Belarus government has resulted in the targeting of lawyers and human rights defenders. Legal practitioners face increasing criminal sanctions, arbitrary detention and systemic interference in their abilities to practice law. Constitutional and legislative changes have eroded the independence of the judiciary and professional legal bodies and given the executive branch unwarranted control over the judiciary and legal profession.

    Today, the ABA recognizes these human rights lawyers who champion justice and fight for the rule of law.

    see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/11/06/new-study-lawyers-protecting-journalists-increasingly-threatened/

    and

    HRW reports on crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers in Belarus

    https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/01/aba-statement-re-day-endangered-lawyer/

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Taliban sentences Afghan journalist Sayed Rahim Saeedi to 3 years in prison

    New York, January 31, 2025—A Taliban court in Kabul sentenced Sayed Rahim Saeedi, the editor and producer of the ANAR Media YouTube channel, to three years in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda. He was sentenced on October 27, 2024, but those with knowledge of the case initially refrained from publicizing it out of concern for Saeedi’s safety, according to a journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of Taliban reprisal.

    “Sayed Rahim Saeedi has been sentenced to three years in prison without access to a lawyer or due process in the Taliban’s courts, while also suffering from serious health complications,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Taliban authorities must immediately release Saeedi and ensure that he receives necessary medical support and treatment.”

    Saeedi has been transferred to Kabul’s central Pul-e-Charkhi prison. He is suffering from lumbar disc disease and prostate complications, the journalist source told CPJ.

    The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence detained Saeedi, his son, journalist Sayed Waris Saeedi, and their camera operator, Hasib, who goes only by one name, on July 14, 2024, in Kabul and transferred them to an undisclosed location. While the younger Saeedi and Hasib were released two days later, Saeedi remained in detention.

    According to the exile-based watchdog group Afghanistan Journalists Center, Saeedi was arrested for his work criticizing the Taliban, including a screenplay he wrote about a girl denied an education by Taliban authorities.

    According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center, restrictions on the country’s media are tightening.

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.