Intimidation & Harassment

Police in Jessore, Bangladesh, should immediately release journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol from custody and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Kajol, a photographer and editor of the biweekly Pakkhakalmagazine, had been missing since March 10, one day after a criminal defamation suit under the Digital Security Act was filed against him and 31 others, as CPJ reported at the time. Today, the Border Guard Bangladesh arrested Kajol at the Benapole Port Police Station on charges of trespassing, saying that he was caught illegally crossing the border from India, according to news reports.…Read more

Pakistan authorities should immediately lift restrictions placed on Geo News and allow it to broadcast freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the country’s broadcast regulator, contacted cable distributers throughout the country today and ordered them to stop transmitting Geo TV, the Urdu TV news channel owned by Jang Media Group, or else switch its broadcasts to a higher channel that is harder for viewers to find, according to news reports and Azhar Abbas, managing director of the broadcaster, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. The regulator did…Read more

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that several journalists were attacked, threatened, or had equipment taken while covering elections in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, on February 1. At least 15 journalists were beaten, threatened, denied access to polling stations, or had equipment broken or taken while covering the mayoral and ward councilor vote, according to reports. Separately, over 30 complaints of election irregularities, including voters being denied entry to polling stations or people standing outside centers with firearms, were reported to the Election Commission on February 1, according to the Daily Star.  The…Read more

Ugandan police should drop all charges against journalist Willy Tamale and cease harassing reporters for their political coverage, the Committee to Protect Journalists said last week. On January 6, police in central Uganda’s Wakiso district detained four journalists who were covering a planned political event by opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, according to news reports and Facebook posts by Robert Ssempala, the executive director of the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, a local press rights group. Police released three of the journalists later that day without charge, but detained Tamale, a reporter with…Read more

Malawian authorities should drop the prosecution of three journalists who wanted to cover the return to the country on January 8 of a European Union electoral observer mission, but were instead detained for two hours at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, the capital, and charged with disorderly conduct, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Three journalists from the privately owned Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and Zodiak  Broadcasting Station (ZBS) were at the VIP section of the airport to cover the arrival of the delegation, who were due to present their final report on the disputed May 21 election,…Read more

Authorities in Sierra Leone should investigate recent attacks against journalists covering local politics, and should ensure that reporters can do their jobs safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On January 4, a group of men slapped and hit Foday Conteh, a reporter with the privately owned Calabash newspaper, after he arrived at the home of Musa Bamba Fodey Jalloh, a minister of parliament, to interview the politician, Conteh told CPJ in a phone interview. The attack took place at Jalloh’s home in Sierra Leone’s northern Bendugu village, and Conteh said he was afraid…Read more