Attacks on the Media

The government of Sri Lanka should respect press freedom, ensure unrestricted access to social media and communication platforms, and allow the media to work freely and independently during a nationwide state of emergency, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Friday, April 1, the Sri Lankan government declared the emergency, which allows authorities to conduct warrantless arrests, and imposed a curfew to contain protests after violent demonstrations over the country’s economic crisis erupted last week, according to news reports. On the evening of March 31, Sri Lankan police and security forces arrested at least…Read more

Ghanaian authorities should swiftly investigate an attack on journalist Michael Aidoo and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On March 5, two soldiers at a military hospital in the Ashanti region repeatedly slapped Aidoo, a member of an investigative journalism fellowship program organized by the local press freedom group Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and forced the journalist to do push-ups for taking pictures of the hospital, according to the journalist, who spoke by phone with CPJ, and an MFWA report. The attack lasted around 30…Read more

Ugandan authorities should investigate a February 22 assault on and several incidents of suspected surveillance of freelance journalist Lawrence Kitatta, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Kitatta, a photojournalist and reporter, has been in hiding and unable to work since March 11, he told CPJ via messaging app, after a group of 12 men thought to be plain-clothed government security officers were seen allegedly surveilling the offices of the Vision Group, a Kampala-based state-owned media company that publishes Kitatta’s work in its New Vision  and Bukedde newspapers, according to a report by New Vision and…Read more

Pakistani authorities must conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into the attack on journalist Zahid Shareef Rana and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Sunday, March 27, a group of around 10 men assaulted Rana, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Daily Ausaf, in the Bhakkar district in the northeast Punjab province, according to a bystander’s video of the incident; a statement by the National Press Club in Islamabad, Pakistan; a statement by the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists, and Rana, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Rana told CPJ that on…Read more

Nigerian authorities should investigate the recent attack and brief abduction of journalists Fredrick Nnaji and Chigozie Nwafor, hold those responsible to account, and ensure all journalists can cover the local elections safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.  On February 23, four unidentified men attacked and briefly abducted Nnaji, a news producer and presenter with the Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS), and Nwafor, an ESBS reporter, as they were driving to cover local elections in Enugu state in southeast Nigeria, according to media reports, as well as Nnaji and a source familiar with the…Read more

 Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure those who assaulted him are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Wednesday evening, Chouta was watching the UEFA Champions League soccer game between Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain with friends in a snack bar in the Damas district of the capital Yaounde when three unidentified men in a green pick-up truck abducted the journalist, drove him to the outskirts of the city, and viciously kicked and beat him…Read more

Sierra Leone authorities should swiftly identify and hold to account those responsible for the recent attack on journalist Alusine Antha, the Committee to Protect Journalist said Friday. On February 17, in the western city of Waterloo, a group of about 30 people attacked Antha while he covered a meeting over a land dispute, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a statement by the Media Reform Coordinating Group, a local press association. Antha, a presenter and producer with the privately owned broadcaster Eagle Africa FM, planned to cover a…Read more

Authorities in Eswatini must immediately investigate the brutal assault by correctional officers on Nomthandazo Maseko, a reporter for the privately owned news website Swati Newsweek, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. At noon on February 8, about 20 correctional services staff in Matsapha, a town about 22 miles from the capital Mbabane, assaulted the journalist, according to Maseko and her editor, Eugene Dube, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a report by her employer. Maseko was assaulted after livestreaming a protest on Swati Newsweek’s Facebook page by members of the Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo)…Read more

Ghanaian authorities should swiftly identify and hold to account the police officers who attacked journalist Eric Nana Gyetuah, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. At about 1:30 p.m. on February 3, in the western city of Takoradi, a group of at least five police officers in plain clothes attacked Gyetuah, a program producer with the privately owned broadcaster Connect FM, according to reports by Connect FM’s affiliated news website 3news.com and a journalist familiar with the incident who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. Gyetuah photographed the officers while they sat in…Read more