Articles Written By: Lindsay Ross

Two journalists in Mozambique attacked by police while covering officer’s funeral

Mozambican authorities must investigate and hold to account police officers who assaulted two broadcast reporters and ensure that journalists are able to report freely and without fear, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.  On August 4, reporters for privately owned broadcaster Tua Televisão, Alexandre Eusébio and Ivaldo Novela, were assaulted by five officers of Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in the capital, Maputo, while covering the funeral of another police officer who had committed suicide, according to media reports, a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern…Read more

Two journalists in Mozambique attacked by police while covering officer’s funeral

Mozambican authorities must investigate and hold to account police officers who assaulted two broadcast reporters and ensure that journalists are able to report freely and without fear, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.  On August 4, reporters for privately owned broadcaster Tua Televisão, Alexandre Eusébio and Ivaldo Novela, were assaulted by five officers of Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in the capital, Maputo, while covering the funeral of another police officer who had committed suicide, according to media reports, a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern…Read more

Zimbabwe police charge 2 journalists with publishing false information

Zimbabwean authorities should immediately drop all charges against journalists Wisdom Mdzungairi and Desmond Chingarande and allow them to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Tuesday, August 2, police summoned Mdzungairi, editor-in-chief of the privately owned media company Alpha Media Holdings, and Chingarande, a senior reporter with the company, to appear for questioning the following day, the journalists told CPJ by phone. On Wednesday morning, Mdzungairi and Chingarande appeared at the Harare Central Police Station where police held them for about three hours and charged them with transmitting “false data…Read more

Gambian police attack, detain journalist Yusef Taylor

Gambian authorities should swiftly investigate and hold to account the police officers who harassed journalist Yusef Taylor, drop any charges against the journalist, and allow him to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On July 5, police officers blocked Taylor, editor and manager of the privately owned Gainako news website, from reporting about a land dispute in Gambia’s West Coast region, and then arrested him and charged him with obstructing police, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a statement by the local press freedom group…Read more

Adani Group files criminal defamation suit against freelance Indian journalist Ravi Nair

Indian authorities should not pursue criminal defamation charges against journalist Ravi Nair, and should ensure he can work free from legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On July 26, police in New Delhi ordered Nair to appear in a court in Gandhinagar, the capital of the western state of Gujarat, on July 29, according to multiple news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. The police presented Nair with a bailable arrest warrant, which required his presence in court but did not mandate his arrest, according to those…Read more

Sri Lankan security forces detain, assault journalists covering political unrest

  • Posted on August 2, 2022
  • /Under Assault
Sri Lankan authorities must thoroughly and swiftly investigate recent attacks on journalists by the country’s security forces, hold the perpetrators to account, and cease harassing the staff of Xposure News, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On the early morning of July 22, Sri Lankan security forces assaulted at least four members of the press, including three journalists with the privately owned digital news platform Xposure News, covering a military raid on a protest site and subsequent demonstration in Colombo, the capital, according to those journalists, who spoke with CPJ by phone.…Read more

Indian journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh arrested following 9-hour home raid

Indian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh, cease harassing him in retaliation for his work, and allow him to report freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Sunday, July 17, police in the Ramgarh district of eastern Jharkhand state arrested Singh, a freelance journalist, following a nine-hour raid on his home, according to multiple news reports and Singh’s wife, Ipsa Shatakshi, who spoke to CPJ by phone. During the raid, police seized two mobile phones, two laptops, a hard drive, a notebook, and some personal items, according to those…Read more

Botswana journalist Tshepo Sethibe criminally charged over ‘alarming publications’

Botswana authorities should immediately drop the criminal charge against Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler director Tshepo Sethibe, return devices seized from the outlet, and refrain from harassing the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.  On July 13, about 25 law enforcement officers arrested Sethibe at his home in the town of Mogoditshane, northwest of the capital Gaborone, and charged him under a law barring “alarming publications,” according to news reports, a Facebook post by his outlet, and the journalist and his lawyer, Obonetse Jonas, both of whom spoke with CPJ via messaging app.  After arresting Sethibe,…Read more

Pakistani journalist Peer Muhammad Khan Kakar held for 1 week over corruption allegations

Pakistan authorities must immediately cease harassing journalist Peer Muhammad Khan Kakar, drop any investigations into his work, and allow him to report freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On July 7, police in the Loralai district of the southwest Balochistan province arrested Kakar, a correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Dunya News, according to the journalist’s son Amirullah Kakar, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a statement by the Pakistan Press Foundation, a local press freedom group. His son said the arrest was in response to an…Read more

Journalist Hasibur Rahman Rubel found dead in Bangladesh

Bangladesh authorities must thoroughly and swiftly investigate the disappearance and death of journalist Hasibur Rahman Rubel, determine if he was killed for his work, and hold any perpetrators accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On the evening of July 3, Rubel received a phone call and left the office of Kushtiar Khabar, the privately owned newspaper where he worked as acting editor, in the southwest Khulna division’s Kushtia district, according to multiple news reports and a local journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of…Read more