Intimidation & Harassment

Malawi police detain, charge journalist Dorica Mtenje over story she did not write

Malawian authorities should immediately drop defamation and cyber-related charges against Maravi Post journalist Dorica Mtenje and allow her to report free from legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On February 8, police in the capital Lilongwe summoned Mtenje via phone to appear the following day for questioning over a Maravi Post story she did not write or publish, according to news reports, a statement by the Malawi chapter of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a bail form that CPJ reviewed, and a CPJ interview with the journalist. When Mtenje arrived at…Read more

Bangladesh shutters newspaper run by political opposition party

Dainik Dinkal, the newspaper of Bangladesh’s main opposition party, was forced to close on Monday after its printing license was canceled in what the outlet’s managing editor, Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, said were invalid grounds. Dainik Dinkal suspended operations on February 20 after the Bangladesh Press Council, a quasi-judicial, government-funded body headed by a former High Court judge, rejected its appeal against a government shutdown order, Biswas told CPJ. “The shutdown of Dainik Dinkal is a blatant attack on media freedom ahead of Bangladesh’s January 2024 national election,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s…Read more

Nigerian journalist Agba Jalingo charged with cybercrime over report on governor’s relative

Authorities in Nigeria should swiftly drop the cybercrime charges against journalist Agba Jalingo, cease harassing him for his work, and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On December 8, 2022, authorities in the southern Nigerian state of Cross River filed cybercrime charges against Jalingo, publisher of the privately owned news website CrossRiverWatch, according to a report by the privately owned news website Sahara Reporters and a charge sheet reviewed by CPJ. Jalingo told CPJ via messaging app that he is expected in court on…Read more

Pakistani newspaper editor threatened over story about high-level corruption

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a Pakistani businessman’s “unacceptable” threats against a newspaper editor in response to a story implicating him in a prominent corruption scandal, and calls on Pakistan’s government to guarantee the journalist’s safety. The threats were made in a phone call that Hamza Azhar Salam - the editor of The Pakistan Daily newspaper - received on 9 December, the day after he ran a story implying that, in 2019, property tycoon Malik Riaz helped then Prime Minister Imran Khan cheat the state of millions of dollars. If the story and a tweet about the story were not…Read more

Delhi police raid The Wire office and homes of its editors over retracted Meta reports

Indian authorities must stop harassing employees of the news website The Wire and let them work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Monday, officials with the Delhi police crime branch searched the New Delhi office of The Wire and the residences of editors Siddharth Vardarajan, M.K. Venu, Siddharth Bhatia, and Jahanavi Sen, and seized their electronic devices, according to various news reports and Vardarajan, who spoke to CPJ over phone.  The searches were in relation to a police investigation into The Wire based on a complaint from Amit Malviya, an official with the ruling Bharatiya…Read more

Zimbabwean journalists assaulted, harassed, and blocked from covering events

  • Posted on October 24, 2022
  • /Under Assault
Zimbabwean authorities and ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) should investigate the assaults and harassment of journalists covering events of public interest in the past week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. “The increasing cases of violence against journalists in Zimbabwe is becoming a serious source of concern and must be strongly condemned,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Press freedom violations and the rising impunity for crimes against journalists should not be tolerated as the country prepares for a general election in 2023.” Between Thursday, October…Read more

Bangladesh authorities arrest siblings of UK-based journalists

Bangladesh authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Nur Alam Chowdhury Pervez and Abdul Muktadir Manu and cease harassing family members of journalists who report from abroad, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On September 13, officers with the detective branch of the Bangladesh police, in the Noakhali town of the southeast Chittagong division, arrested Nur Alam Chowdhury Pervez, brother of Shamsul Alam Liton, editor of the privately owned United Kingdom-based Weekly Surma newspaper, according to news reports, a report by The Weekly Surma, a Twitter thread by Bangladeshi editor Tasneem Khalil, and a person familiar with the…Read more

Sierra Leonean authorities fine, suspend licenses of Star broadcasters

Authorities in Sierra Leone should ensure that Star television and radio stations can broadcast news without undue interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.  In mid-August, Sierra Leone’s broadcast media regulator, National Telecommunications Commission, suspended the licenses of privately owned broadcasters Star Radio and Star TV for over two weeks and denied workers access to the broadcasters’ transmitters in Brookfields, a neighborhood in western Freetown, the capital, according to an August 19 commission statement and Philip Neville, the broadcasters’ founder who holds 70% ownership of shares and handles the finances. Neville, who spoke with…Read more

Four Zimbabwean journalists beaten, forced to delete footage by ruling party supporters

  • Posted on August 30, 2022
  • /Under Assault
 Zimbabwean authorities should investigate the brutal assault of four journalists working for private media outlets, bring the perpetrators to justice, and ensure that party supporters do not attack members of the press covering political rallies, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.  The reporters assaulted are: Chelsea Mashayaombe, a reporter for online newspaper Zimbabwe DailyPellagia Mpurwa, a reporter for online magazine Technomag Tongai Mwenje, managing editor of news website SportBriefToneo Rutsito, editor of Technomag Around 12:30 p.m. on August 25, the journalists were injured after they filmed a convoy of 20 vehicles of the…Read more

Nigerian journalist Agba Jalingo detained over defamation, cyberattack complaint

Nigerian authorities should drop all investigations into publisher Agba Jalingo, compensate him for his previous unlawful detention, and stop harassing the journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On August 19, a group of about 15 police officers arrested Jalingo, publisher of the privately owned news website CrossRiverWatch, at his home in Ogudu, in Lagos state, according to Jalingo, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, CrossRiverWatch editor Ugbal Jonathan, who spoke with CPJ by phone, and a statement by the International Press Centre, a local press group. Officers detained Jalingo at a police…Read more