Attacks on the Media

Sierra Leone journalist Mahmud Tim Kargbo charged over police reporting

Sierra Leone authorities should immediately drop all charges against journalist Mahmud Tim Kargbo and allow him to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists have said. On December 4, a magistrate court in the capital, Freetown, charged Kargbo with sharing “insulting” and “scurrilous” information via Facebook and WhatsApp about the country’s assistant inspector-general of police, which allegedly caused the official’s “annoyance,” according to Kargbo, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a copy of the charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed. Authorities held Kargbo in the Pademba Road Prison for about two…Read more

Crime reporter deliberately killed by speeding car in northeastern India

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities in Assam, in northeastern India, to do everything possible to ensure that the murder of Parag Bhuyan – a journalist who was well known for covering different kinds of local criminal activity and who had recently received threats – does not go unpunished. A reporter for the Pratidin Time media group and the Axomiya Khabar newspaper, Parag Bhuyan was thrown more than six metres when a speeding car deliberately struck him outside his home in Tinsukia district, in Assam state, at around 8:10 p.m. on 11 November. He died of his injuries in…Read more

RSF calls for independent media group owner’s release in Pakistan

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Pakistan’s supreme court to order the immediate release of Jang media group owner Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, also known as MSR, who has been held on a spurious charge since March and whose release on bail has been refused twice by a court in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. The supreme court is due to hear his appeal against denial of bail next week. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman will complete his 240th day in a Lahore prison tomorrow because of a claim by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that a piece of…Read more

Media torched, reporters attacked in major threat to press freedom in Nigeria

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is very concerned about the physical attacks against Nigerian journalists and media in connection with the continuing protests against President Muhammadu Buhari and against violence by the SARS police unit, and calls on the authorities to put a stop to the attacks and guarantee the safety of media personnel. During yesterday’s “#EndSARS” protests in Lagos, the commercial capital, part of the TVC News channel’s studios and several of its cars were set ablaze, while gunmen on motorcycles invaded the headquarters of The Nation, one of the most popular privately-owned newspapers, and set fire to its…Read more

Bangladeshi reporter slain by local gangsters in Dhaka suburb

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation into yesterday’s murder of a Bangladeshi newspaper reporter whose coverage of criminal activity in an industrial area south of the capital, Dhaka, had led to the arrest of two local gang leaders. His crime must not go unpunished, RSF said. After passers-by found him lying in a pool of blood at around 8:15 pm yesterday in Bandar, a municipality that is part of Narayanganj district, Iliyas Hossain was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead at 9 pm. Hossain’s family believe he was killed…Read more

South African journalists attacked covering farmer protest

 South African authorities must conduct a swift and transparent investigation into recent attacks on journalists covering protests held by farmers, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 6, in the Free State province town of Senekal, a protesting farmer harassed and assaulted Tracy Lee Stark, a photographer at The Citizen newspaper, while another attacked Marizka Coetzer, a reporter at the outlet, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ in phone interviews, and a report by their employer. The demonstrators, who were protesting the murder of farmers in South…Read more

Nigerian journalist Ime Sunday Silas held since August on cybercrime charge

Nigerian authorities should immediately release journalist Ime Sunday Silas, drop the charges against him, and reform the country’s cybercrime act to ensure it is not used against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 17, police in Uyo city, the capital of Nigeria’s southern Akwa-Ibom state, arrested Silas, an editor with the privately owned Global Concordnewspaper and publisher of the news website The Profile, according to Solomon Johnny, Global Concord’s editor-in-chief, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Silas was arrested after he arrived in the Ikot Akpan Abia district of Uyo to…Read more

Indian journalist attacked and newspaper threatened in Tripura state following chief minister’s criticism of press

Authorities in India’s Tripura state should drop any legal threats against publications there, thoroughly investigate attacks on journalists, and guarantee press freedom in the state, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 11, state Chief Minister Biplab Deb, a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, condemned recent local news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which he alleged overstated the severity of the crisis, saying, “history will not forgive them [journalists], I shall not forgive them either,” according to news reports and a video of his remarks shared on Twitter. The following day, unidentified individuals…Read more

Arsonists torch office of independent newspaper Canal de Moçambique in Mozambique

Authorities in Mozambique should conduct a quick and thorough investigation into the arson attack on Canal de Moçambique, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At about 8 p.m. yesterday, in the capital, Maputo, unidentified individuals broke into the office used by the independent weekly investigative newspaper and its daily digital publication CanalMoz, poured gasoline on the furniture and equipment, and set it ablaze, according to news reports. The fire destroyed the newsroom, furniture, and all the equipment used for content production, as well as the paper’s archive, according to a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the…Read more

Ghanaian soldier beats journalist, seizes reporters’ camera and phones

Authorities in Ghana must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the recent attack and harassment of journalists Stanley Nii Blewu and Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey, and ensure those responsible are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 12, in Accra, the capital, a soldier kicked and punched Blewu, a reporter with the privately owned TV3 broadcaster, while he and Gold-Alorgbey, also a TV3 reporter, were covering a local sanitation project, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement by the Ghana Journalists…Read more