RSF urges politicians to respect press freedom in the UK general election campaign

In the weeks since the announcement that the UK will hold a snap general election on 8 June, the campaign period has been marked by a number of worrying moves to restrict the press. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for all candidates to respect press freedom in their campaigning. On 2 May, local journalists reported that they were shut in a room and prohibited from filming Theresa May’s campaign event at a factory in Cornwall. The county’s biggest news website, Cornwall Live, stated that its reporters were only permitted to ask two questions,…Read more

India’s Supreme Court bans reporting judge’s statements

  • Posted on May 15, 2017
  • /Under Legal
An Indian Supreme Court order banning news media from quoting a judge who accused other senior judges of corruption is a troubling blow to freedom of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar yesterday sentenced CS Karnan, a judge at the Kolkata High Court, to six months in prison on charges of contempt of court and ruled that "no further statements made by him should be reported hereafter." The court in February 2016 stripped Karnan of his powers…Read more

Attackers beat TV journalist at his home in India’s Andhra Pradesh state

Authorities in India must investigate and bring to justice those responsible for an attack on freelance journalist Rama Reddy, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Reddy, a TV reporter, was attacked in apparent retaliation for his reporting on illegal sand mining, according to a report in The New Indian Express. Reddy, who lives in the Eluru district of Andhra Pradesh state, was attacked in his home around midnight on May 3 by about four unidentified individuals, according to reports. The assailants knocked on the journalist's door and questioned him about his reports…Read more

RSF 2017 Press Freedom Index – ever darker world map

The 2017 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows an increase in the number of countries where the media freedom situation is very grave and highlights the scale and variety of the obstacles to media freedom throughout the world. The World Press Freedom map is getting darker. The global indicator calculated by RSF has never been so high, which means that media freedom is under threat now more than ever. Three more countries sank into the darkest depths of the Index in 2017: Burundi (down 4 at 160th), Egypt…Read more

Indian police assault journalist

Indian authorities should identify and discipline New Delhi police officers who assaulted journalist Meghnad Bose yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Bose, a reporter with The Quint, a news website, was broadcasting a Facebook Live video outside the city's Jamia Milia Islamia University, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was receiving an honorary doctorate, when police assaultedBose, the journalist said. "Authorities should swiftly discipline the police officers responsible for assaulting Meghnad Bose simply for doing his job," CPJ Asia Program Director Steven Butler said from Washington, D.C. "The police should train…Read more

Blogger stabbed to death in Maldives

Authorities in the Maldives should swiftly identify and bring to justice those responsible for the murder of blogger Yameen Rasheed, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Rasheed died after he was found with multiple stab wounds in the stairway of his apartment building yesterday, according to media reports. Rasheed was transported to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, where he died while receiving treatment, according to Raajje TV. He had 16 stab wounds to his chest, neck, and throat, the independent broadcaster reported. Rasheed, 29, was known for his satirical political commentary on his…Read more

Indian journalist charged under Official Secrets Act

Authorities in India should immediately drop all charges against Poonam Agrawal, a journalist for the English-language news website The Quint, the Committee to Protect journalists said today. Police in Nashik, roughly 170 kilometres (105 miles) northeast of Mumbai, on March 28 opened a criminal case against Agrawal on charges of spying and criminal trespass under the Official Secrets Act, a 1923 anti-espionage law. They also charged her with criminal defamation and abetment of a suicide under the Penal Code, according to the journalist and media reports. If convicted of all charges, she faces…Read more

NTV reporter kidnapped, beaten over post about Ugandan First Lady

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled to learn that TV reporter Gertrude Uwitware was kidnapped andbeaten during the weekend over her coverage of a dispute between well-known university academic Stella Nyanzi and Janet Museveni, who is Uganda's minister of education and President Yoweri Museveni's wife. Gertrude Uwitware, who covers health issues for Nation Television (NTV), Uganda's leading privately-owned TV channel, was walking along one of Kampala's safest and most touristic avenues on the afternoon of 8 April, when a man and a woman forced her to get into their car at gunpoint. After…Read more