Attacks on the Media

Indian reporter who covers corruption beaten, left for dead

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation into this week’s severe beating of a reporter in India’s east coast state of Andhra Pradesh who has repeatedly criticized a local legislator and the corruption associated with the state’s sand mafia. Those behind this attack, the third this journalist has received in as many years, must be identified, RSF said. Nagarjuna Reddy, who works for the local Telugu-language daily Neti Surya, was nearly killed in this latest assault, which occurred shortly after he left a police station in the town of Ongole on the…Read more

Pakistani TV reporter murdered for covering criminal gang

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an all-out investigation into the murder of Mirza Waseem Baig, a reporter for the 92 News TV channel, who was gunned down in the state of Punjab, in eastern Pakistan, after covering the activities of a criminal gang specializing in extortion. Based in Sarai Alamgir, 120 km southeast of Islamabad, Baig died while being taken to hospital after being shot six times at close range by three men outside his home on 30 August. The police officer in charge of the investigation, Ameer Abbas, told RSF that…Read more

Tanzania detains Watetezi TV journalist over investigation of police

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned for the welfare of investigative journalist Joseph Gandye, who was arrested yesterday and handed over to police on whom he had reported critically, alleging they had abused other detainees. Police summoned Gandye, a production editor and reporter with Watetezi TV, to appear at Urafiki police station in Dar es Salaam, where they questioned him in the presence of his lawyer about his reporting, according to a statement from the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, a non-governmental coalition that owns Watetezi TV. Police said they arrested Gandye on suspicion of publishing false…Read more

RSF calls for former Gambia president to stand trial for journalist’s murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, now living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, to be extradited back to Gambia to stand trial for the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydara, a newspaper editor who was the dean of Gambia’s journalists and RSF’s correspondent. RSF issued the call after an army officer confessed on July 22nd to Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that he carried out Hydara's murder and said it was ordered by President Jammeh.  Detained since 8 February 2017, two weeks after Jammeh’s removal from office and…Read more

Channels TV reporter dies from injuries after shooting at Nigeria protest

Nigerian authorities should immediately investigate the death of Precious Owolabi, a reporter for the privately owned Channels TV, who was shot during a protest in Abuja on July 22, and ensure those responsible are held to account. Owolabi, 23, was shot while covering a confrontation between Shiite Muslim protesters and Nigerian police, and died the same day after being taken to a hospital, according to a Channels TV broadcast uploaded to its YouTube page. He had been covering a protest over the detention of Ibrahim Yaqoub El Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, according…Read more

Three men to be tried in Malta for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) takes note of the announcement by the Maltese authorities that three men are to be tried for journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder in 2017 but insists that all those who wanted to silence her must be brought to justice. The announcement came 21 months to the day after Caruana Galizia, a journalist who investigated corruption, was killed by a bomb placed under her car outside her home in Malta. The three men – Vincent Muscat and Alfred and Georges Degiorgio – have been held for the past 19 months…Read more

Two Ghanaian journalists arrested and interrogated, one allegedly tortured in custody

Ghana's Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice should immediately launch an independent investigation into the arrests of Modern Ghana editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum and security forces' alleged torture of Abugri, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 27, in Accra, the capital, Ministry of National Security officers arrested Abugri and Britwum at the offices of their employer, the privately owned news website Modern Ghana, interrogated them at Ministry of National Security offices, and confiscated their laptops and phones, according to Britwum, who…Read more

Pakistani journalist Muhammad Bilal Khan stabbed to death in Islamabad

Pakistani authorities should swiftly investigate the killing of journalist Muhammad Bilal Khan in Islamabad on 16 June to determine the motive and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. On June 16, unknown individuals attacked Khan, an independent journalist who ran a YouTube channel where he interviewed political figures and talked about religion and politics, and stabbed him to death, according to news reports. The government has vowed to investigate the killing, according to Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn. "Authorities must quickly launch a credible investigation into the killing of Muhammad Bilal Khan,…Read more
Nigerian journalist Kofi Bartels says police beat him, threatened him with sexual assault

Nigerian journalist Kofi Bartels says police beat him, threatened him with sexual assault

Nigerian authorities must investigate and hold accountable the police officers responsible for allegedly assaulting and threatening journalist Kofi Bartels, the Committee to Protect Journalists have said. On June 5, a group of at least five police officers punched and kicked Bartels, a reporter with the privately owned Nigeria Info radio station, beat him on the knees with pieces of wood, and arrested him for filming them, according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ on the phone and posted about the attack on Twitter. At the police station, an officer told Bartels that the…Read more

Journalists assaulted, news vehicle burned at Kenyan high school

Kenyan authorities should thoroughly investigate the attack on a Kenya Television Network news team at a Machakos county high school and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 3, a group of students at St. Steven's Girls High School, a boarding school in Machakos county, and their principal attacked a team of journalists with the privately owned Kenya Television Network, according to news reports and two journalists from the network, who spoke with CPJ. Students kicked, punched, and threw stones at reporter Carolyne Bii, driver Immaculate Joseph, and cameraman…Read more