Attacks on the Media

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in Kenya to immediately investigate the assault of journalists by police at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi yesterday. According to media reports and journalists who spoke with CPJ, police officers attacked reporters covering an opposition politician's return to the country, causing injuries to at least two journalists. "Authorities in Kenya cannot resolve their political disputes by beating up journalists," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal from New York. "Kenyan authorities must urgently investigate this attack and put an end to any…Read more

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Indian authorities to determine the motive and bring to justice those responsible for the death of journalist Sandeep Sharma in central India's Madhya Pradesh state. Sharma, a reporter for the local News World television channel in the state's Bhind district, yesterday was driving on his motorbike to a government event when a truck hit him and ran him over, according to the channel's bureau chief, Vikas Purohit, who witnessed the collision, and a report by NDTV. Purohit told CPJ that he took Sharma to the local…Read more

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities in northeast India to investigate the beating of at least two journalists by police who broke up a student rally on March 10.Emmy Lawbei, a reporter for the TV station News18-Assam North East, and Catherine Sangi, a correspondent for the state-run radio station All India Radio, in the state of Assam, told CPJ that police hit them with heavy bamboo canes known as lathis while they were covering a rally by a student organization in Bairabi, a town in the district of Kolasib, on the…Read more

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has petitioned the National Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, over the brutal assault by the party's security officers on journalists which occurred at the party's National Headquarters in Accra, Ghana. On December 21, 2017, four journalists who were covering a protest at the premises of the NPP headquarters were brutalized by heavily-built security officials. Despite several appeals by the media and press freedoms organisations to the leadership of the NPP, the party has failed to take any action 33 days after…Read more

On October 27, 2017 Ahmad Noorani, an investigative journalist of the English-language daily The News International was assaulted by unidentified men in broad daylight at a busy intersection in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. Noorani's car was intercepted by six assailants riding on three motorbikes. They severely beat Noorani and his driver with iron rods after throwing out the keys from the ignition. The attackers attempted to snatch Noorani's mobile phone but failed. The attackers later escaped in motorcycles that did not have license plates. Both men sustained injuries to their heads…Read more

The murder of journalist, Gauri Lankesh, on 6 September is a devastating blow to freedom of expression, PEN International said, as it called for a full and impartial investigation into her killing. "Gauri Lankesh was a tireless campaigner for freedom, justice, human rights, and liberal values, and I had the privilege to have known her. She was courageous and graceful, and stood firm in support of the marginalised and the vulnerable. She fought divisiveness with words; her opponents had bullets. Her killers must be identified and tried according to law. Her work will…Read more

The Pacific Freedom Forum is calling on Pacific Islands Forum leaders to address the issue of over-zealous security officers, after a journalist was manhandled at the opening ceremony. "It was upsetting to hear that a colleague, trying to capture Samoa's traditional welcoming of Pacific island leaders, was manhandled by a policeman," says PFF Chair Monica Miller. Local and overseas journalists were edging up to the back corner of a tent, where some delegates were seated, to get out of the rain, when a police officer grabbed the journalist by the arm and tried…Read more