Articles Written By: Lindsay Ross

Malawi media outlet closed after publishing stories on “maize gate”

Media Institute of Southern Africa MISA-Malawi is disturbed by news of the closure this morning of Blantyre Printing and Publishing Company (Times Group) offices by the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) over unpaid taxes. While MISA Malawi does not condone default on taxes, we strongly believe that the closure of Times Group is ill-timed and can easily be construed as an attempt by government to stop the media house from further publication of the 'maize gate' investigation specifically, and to silence critical voices generally. The issue of unpaid taxes could have been resolved through mutual business…Read more

Pakistan urged to free two journalists convicted of defamation

Committee to Protect Journalists Pakistan should immediately release Ikhlaque Ahmed Jokhio and Qurban Ali Gadehi, two reporters for the Sindhi-language weekly Saahiti Awaz who were sentenced to five years in prison for criminal defamation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. "Journalists should never be sent to jail because of their reporting," said Steven Butler, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "We call for the immediate release of Ikhlaque Ahmed Jokhio and Qurban Ali Gadehi and for Pakistani authorities to abolish criminal penalties for defamation." A court in Naoshehro Feroze, Sindh province, found Jokhio and Gadehi guilty…Read more

Seven journalists denied entry to Gambia ahead of contested inauguration

Seven international journalists planning to report on the inauguration of Gambia's president-elect Adama Barrow were denied entry to the country on January 16, according to reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the obstruction as a deliberate attempt to silence the press during a period of political unrest. "The legitimacy of the Gambian government strongly depends on the press being allowed to report on the country's political transition," said Peter Nkanga, CPJ's West Africa representative. "We call on authorities to allow all journalists to freely cover events in Gambia." Immigration officers denied entry…Read more

Pakistani journalist murdered in Baluchistan

Pakistani authorities should credibly investigate the fatal shooting of a journalist in Baluchistan province and bring those responsible to swift justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Two unidentified men on a motorcycle fatally shot Muhammad Jan, a reporter for the Urdu-language daily newspaper Qudrat in the Qalat district in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, and fled the scene, according to news reports. Jan, 37, was also press secretary at the press freedom group the Pakistan Media Council and a teacher at a secondary school in Qalat. Baluchistan has long been the site of conflict between the state…Read more

Cameroon suspends radio station, seals office

Cameroonian authorities should immediately reverse a decision to suspend independent broadcaster Radio Hot Cocoa 94 FM's permission to operate and allow the station to resume broadcasting immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Government officials in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region, yesterday sealed the station's office, its manager told CPJ. The regional governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, ordered Radio Hot Cocoa to suspend all activities until further notice, accusing it of inciting civil disobedience in a call-in show discussing a teachers' strike in the region, station manager Gideon Taka told CPJ. Residents of…Read more

Third journalist killed in India’s Bihar in eight months

The third murder of a journalist in the last eight months in India's eastern Bihar state on January 3, 2017 illustrates the danger of allowing such crimes to continue to be met with impunity, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today as it urged authorities to fully investigate the case. Unidentified men gunned down Braj Kumar Singh, a journalist for a Hindi daily, yesterday evening in Bihar's Samastipur district. Initial reports indicated that police believed Kumar to have been targeted due to a property dispute, but IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M.…Read more

Gambia orders three radio stations to cease broadcasting

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Gambian authorities to allow three independent radio stations to resume full broadcasting. Taranga FM, Hilltop Radio, and Afri Radio stopped broadcasting on January 1 on the orders of national security agents, who did not give any explanation for the measure, according to news reports. The closures come amid a political crisis in Gambia after President Yahya Jammeh refused to admit defeat in elections last month. Authorities may have targeted at least one of the stations after it announced details of President-elect Adama Barrow's inauguration, planned…Read more

Malaysian authorities repeatedly arrest, harass award-winning cartoonist Zunar

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Malaysian authorities should drop all criminal charges against editorial cartoonist Zulikiflee Anwar Ulhaque, better known as Zunar, and stop harassing him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested Zunar on December 17, the cartoonist said in a statement, the latest incident in authorities' relentless campaign of judicial and police harassment of the journalist. Police in uniform and civilian clothes arrested Zunar and two of his personal assistants at a public event in Kuala Lumpur organized to promote books of his work, press reports said. The cartoonist was detained…Read more

Bangladeshi reporter arrested over coverage of garment industry strike

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Nazmul Huda, a reporter who was arrested on 24 December 2016 because of his coverage of a strike by garment workers in Ashulia, the Dhaka suburb where Bangladesh's biggest garment factories are located. The police accuse Huda, who works for Bangla Daily and Ekushey TV (ETV), a privately-owned satellite TV service, of reporting false information and encouraging the strike that began in mid-December in factories that produce clothes for leading international retail chains such as Gap, Zara and H&M. Huda's computer and mobile phone were…Read more

UK Peers back call for Leveson part two

Society of Editors UK Peers have backed a move to force the Government to hold part two of the Leveson Inquiry. The House of Lords voted by 246 to 196, majority 50, to require an investigation into alleged corrupt relationships between the police and press. Last night's Government defeat follows the announcement by ministers at the start of November that they were holdlng a consultation into whether the second part of the Leveson Inquiry should go ahead. The Tory administration said there was a need to consider if part two of the phone…Read more