Attacks on the Media

Ugandan ruling party youth convicted of assaulting journalists

This statement was originally published on hrnjuganda.org on 29 March 2017. Five youth supporters of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have been found guilty of assaulting three Entebbe-based journalists, thereby occasioning them actual bodily harm and maliciously damaging their property contrary to sections 335 and 236 of the Penal Code Act, respectively. “The accused persons had the intention of stopping journalists from covering the events (elections). The complainants were just doing their work as journalists and them being stopped [and] beaten was willful and unlawful. Therefore the accused persons are convicted…Read more

Reporter beaten by police while investigating police violence in Kenya

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the beating that Standard Media Group reporter Isaiah Gwengi received from a special border police unit in the western town of Usenge yesterday and calls for an investigation into this unacceptable act of police brutality. After arresting Gwengi, members of the Quick Response Team (QRT) stripped him naked and gave him a severe beating, inflicting injuries to his head and parts of his body, and confiscated his phone and SIM cards. Gwengi was arrested together with human rights activist Rodgers Ochieng while interviewing Usenge residents who have been…Read more

Awaiting justice for Ugandan journalist Andrew Lwanga

This statement was originally published by Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda on 9 March 2017. It was 12 January 2015 when WBS Television journalist Andrew Lwanga – who was covering a peaceful procession by a group of unemployed youth along Namirembe Road in Kampala – met his unfortunate fate. Lwanga was brutally assaulted by a senior police officer – the then District Police Commander (DPC) of Old Kampala, Joram Mwesigye. Lwanga was rushed to hospital in a critical and life-threatening condition. On 13 of January 2015 a group of journalists – led…Read more

Maldives journalists receive death threats

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) strongly condemn the death threat to some journalists and express concern over 'protective custody' of journalists on the island of Nilandhoo, Faafu Atoll. The IFJ urges the Maldivian government to investigate the death threats and ensure safety of the targeted journalists and create a conducive environment to safely report on issues of national interest. Raajje Television reported death threats against its staff to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) on Thursday, March 2, 2017, after the station received phone calls threatening to…Read more

Bangladeshi journalist fatally shot covering street battles

Committee to Protect Journalists Bangladeshi authorities should vigorously investigate and bring to justice those responsible for killing Abdul Hakim Shimul, a journalist for the daily Samakal newspaper, who died today from gunshot wounds sustained while covering political unrest yesterday, according to news reports. Violence broke out yesterday between rival factions of the ruling Awami League, namely supporters of the mayor of the northern Bangladeshi city of Shahjadpur and his opponents from another faction of the party, according to news reports. Some 15 people were injured in the fighting. Shimul was shot in the head and face while…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

Uganda: Former police commander charged with assaulting journalist

This statement was originally published by Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda On 18 November 2016, the Buganda Road Court ordered the former Old Kampala District Police Commander, Joram Mwesigye, to defend himself against charges of assaulting a Wavah Broadcasting Services (WBS) TV journalist, Andrew Lwanga. The Presiding Grade One Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu ruled that she perused the evidence of the six (6) prosecution witnesses and found it sufficient to warrant the Assistant Superintendent of Police Mwesigye to defend himself. Mwesigye faces three (3) counts including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and two…Read more

Indian journalist murdered in Bihar

Authorities in India's Bihar state should credibly investigate and swiftly bring to justice all those responsible for the murder of journalist Dharmendra Singh, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Three men on November 12, 2016 shot Singh, a reporter for the national, Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, near his home in Sasaram, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Ajit Kumar, a local journalist and a friend of Singh's, told CPJ. Singh died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital in the city of Benaras, Kumar said. Singh's colleagues said the journalist's…Read more

TV journalists attacked in Bangladesh

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins the Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF) in condemning the attack on two television journalists in Chawkbazar, Dhaka on November 6, 2016. The IFJ demands immediate action from authorities to arrest and punish the attackers. A dozen people assaulted reporter Shakil Hasan and cameraperson Shahin Alam of Jamuna TV as they were reporting on illegal polythene factories. The gang, including owners of two polythene factories, also tried to burn the reporter with kerosene. "Soon after we went there to report, a few men told us to steer…Read more

Pakistan: TV channel reporter injured in attack in Balochistan

Pakistan Press Foundation Mujeeb Tareen, a reporter for the Aaj News television channel, was attacked by three armed men on the night of 6 October 2016, in the town of Pishin in Balochistan province. According to Tareen, he was working in his office when the accused Abdullah who had a metal clip and two other individuals armed with knives entered and struck him several times with these weapons. He was seriously injured in the attack and required 14 stitches to his chin, ear, neck and arms. He is now stable and has been…Read more