Intimidation & Harassment

Ugandan president threatens to “bankrupt” leading daily

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s threat to bankrupt his country’s leading daily newspaper by means of a lawsuit is unworthy of a head of state, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says, calling on him to respect press freedom in Uganda. Speaking on International Women’s Day (8 March), the country’s president for the past 34 years said he was bringing a legal action against the Daily Monitor for reporting that the Wall Street Journalhad said his “inner circle” was given Chinese-made vaccines against Covid-19 ahead of other people in Uganda. “Monitor, I’m going to make you bankrupt,” Museveni said, adding that he would…Read more

Safety of journalists remains active concern in Northern Ireland as BBC Panorama team is threatened

A threat against a BBC Panorama documentary team is the latest incident evidencing a worrying climate for the safety of journalists in Northern Ireland, where journalists reporting on paramilitary groups and organised crime are among the most at-risk journalists in the UK. RSF calls again for immediate steps by the UK government to address this alarming trend and ensure the safety of journalists in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK. In early February, a member of the BBC Panorama documentary team investigating alleged criminal underworlds across sport, drug-running and arms-dealing throughout Europe faced…Read more

Indian finance authorities raid Newsclick office, homes of editors and managers

Indian authorities must immediately stop occupying the offices of the news website Newsclick and cease harassing its editors and managers, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Since yesterday morning, officers with the Indian Finance Ministry’s Enforcement Directorate have raided Newsclick’s New Delhi office, as well as the homes of its editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, one other editor, and two members of its management, according to a senior editor with the outlet, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, and various news reports. As of today, officers continue…Read more

RSF demands police protection for Indian journalist receiving death threats

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Indian security services to make every effort to protect Neha Dixit, a Delhi-based freelance journalist who – after an attempted break-in at her home on the evening of 25 January – revealed that she has been subjected to an extremely targeted campaign of threats for months. Two days after the attempted break-in, which might otherwise have seemed relatively trivial, Neha Dixit revealed on Twitter that she has been getting threatening phone calls for the past five months from people who are clearly spying on her and know exactly…Read more

Nigerian investigative journalist forced to flee after massacre disclosures

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Nigerian authorities to guarantee the safety of investigative journalist Ibanga Isine, who fears for his life after the deaths of several sources linked to his reports on massacres in the north of the country.  During the night, his telephone lights up by itself. During the day, it is impossible to end some calls without switching the phone off. Isine, who has won several awards, no longer trusts the cell phones which he believes are compromised and bugged because of his investigations into massacres carried out in the south of…Read more

Ghanaian soldiers detain 3 Joy News employees, delete reporting footage

  • Posted on February 1, 2021
  • /Under Arrest
 Ghanaian authorities must investigate the recent detention of three Joy News staffers, and hold to account the soldiers who interfered with their reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On January 16, a group of about 30 military officers at the Apamprama forest reserve in Ghana’s southern Ashanti region detained reporter Erastus Asare Donkor, camera operator Kofi Asare, and driver Michael Sakyi while the three were on assignment for Joy News, a YouTube-based news outlet owned by the Multimedia Group conglomerate, according to Donkor, who spoke to CPJ by phone, and reports…Read more

Arrest warrant issued for Indian journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in defamation case

Authorities in the Indian state of Gujarat should drop their arrest warrant for journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and the Adani Group conglomerate should stop trying to intimidate journalists with legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Adani Group initiated criminal and civil defamation suits in 2017 against Guha Thakurta and three of his colleagues at the Economic and Political Weekly, a peer-reviewed academic journal, over an article alleging that the company had used its political influence to obtain favorable government policies, according to news reports, CPJ documentation from 2017, and Anand Yagnik, Guha Thakurta’s…Read more

Journalists in Uganda face accreditation hurdles ahead of election, risk criminal sanction

Ugandan authorities should ensure that members of the press can freely cover the country’s national elections on January 14, the Committee to Protect Journalists have said. On December 10, the Media Council of Uganda, a statutory body, said that local and foreign journalists would be barred from covering electoral events if they failed to properly register with that body, and directed all foreign journalists in the country to renew their accreditations within a week, as CPJ documented at the time. On December 21, the council issued a statement giving a December 30 deadline for registration, and threatened…Read more

Ghana journalist Oheneba Boamah Bennie held for 2 days, charged over Facebook posts

Authorities in Ghana should immediately drop all charges against journalist Oheneba Boamah Bennie and allow him work freely, say the Committee to Protect Journalists. On December 14, Ghanaian police arrested Bennie, a host and commentator with the privately owned Power FM broadcaster, and detained him until he was released on bail on December 16, Bennie told CPJ over the phone. Authorities allege that videos Bennie posted to his personal Facebook page on December 9 and 10, in which he described Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Ado as anti-democratic, constituted violations of the country’s constitution, according to court documents…Read more

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

  • Posted on November 10, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
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