Pakistani journalist taken from home in Balochistan

Authorities in Pakistan should do everything in their power to ensure the swift release of Zafar Achakzai, a journalist for the newspaper Daily Qudrat, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Men in civilian clothes on June 25 took Achakzai, a senior reporter at the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Qudrat, from his home in Quetta, in Pakistan's restive western province of Balochistan, according to local media and Naimat Achakzai, who is the editor of Daily Qudrat and Zafar's father. Naimat Achakzai told CPJ that the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force organized by the federal…Read more

Pakistan: Journalist arrested for posting critical posts on Facebook

This statement was originally published on pakistanpressfoundation.org on 30 June 2017. Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on June 29, 2017 charged Zafar Achakzai, a journalist working for Daily Qudrat in the city of Quetta, under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. Local journalists believe Achakzai was arrested for comments he had posted on Facebook criticizing security agencies and the arrest of Majeed Khan Achakzai, a member of the provincial assembly, for killing a traffic police constable in a hit and run car accident. Earlier, on June 25 paramilitary Frontier Corps raided Achakzai's…Read more

Tanzania imposes two-year publishing ban on newspaper

Tanzania should immediately revoke a publishing ban on Mawio, a privately owned weekly newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Tanzania's Information, Sports and Culture minister Harrison Mwakyembe imposed a 24-month ban on Mawio's print editions and any articles posted online yesterday over articles that mentioned two retired presidents, Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete, in reports on a government investigation into allegations of misconduct in the mining sector, according to a statement released by the director of Information Services, Hassan Abbasi. The statement, viewed by CPJ, accused Mawio of contravening a state…Read more

Pakistani journalist murdered in Haripur

Pakistani authorities should swiftly and credibly investigate the murder of Bakhsheesh Elahi and swiftly bring all those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Elahi, the Haripur bureau chief for the daily newspaper K2, was fatally shot in Haripur, about 80km (50 miles) north of Islamabad, on June 11, according to police, news reports, and his employer. Elahi was on his way to work when unknown assailants on a motorcycle shot him repeatedly, Shuraiz Khan, of the Haripur police department, told CPJ. The Pakistani daily newspaper Dawn reported that Elahi…Read more

Pakistan: Car rams into journalist who covers religious minorities

Rana Tanveer, a Lahore-based reporter for the English language newspaper, The Express Tribune, suffered a broken leg after a car rammed into him on June 9, 2017. He had been receiving death threats from unidentified people for covering stories about religious minorities in Pakistan. Tanveer told Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) that on May 30, when he came out of his home to go to the office, he saw that a death threat had been written on his door. Although Tanveer had received threats earlier dating back to 2013, the latest threats terrified his…Read more

Royal Media group journalist Emmanuel Namisi threatened, assaulted in Kenya

Kenyan authorities should credibly investigate and swiftly bring to justice those responsible for attacking and threatening Emmanuel Namisi, a broadcast journalist for the Royal Media group, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Namisi told CPJ that men he identified as bodyguards of Kenneth Lusaka, governor of the western Kenyan county of Bungoma, threatened him and assaulted him at a Bungoma club on the night of June 5, 2017. He said the men were angry at a story he had written alleging they played a role in the death of a woman at…Read more

Tonga wrongful dismissal case will clarify role of public broadcaster

A wrongful dismissal complaint being brought against the government of Tonga by the sacked General Manager of the national broadcaster will help to educate the public and politicians on the independent public-interest role of national broadcasters, says regional media watchdog the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF. The online network of working Pacific journalists and media practitioners has expressed alarm and concern on increasing threats to media independence in Tonga especially the national broadcaster, the Tonga Broadcasting Corporation. Their fears are that 'inaccurate and highly personal views on the public-service mandate of public broadcasters' aired…Read more

UK Labour manifesto plans ‘inconsistent with press freedom’

Press regulation plans set out in the Labour Party’s leaked manifesto are inconsistent with the principles of press freedom, the Society of Editors has warned. The manifesto, leaked to a number of news organisations this week, reaffirms the party’s commitment to “implement the recommendations” made in part 1 of the Leveson Inquiry and to begin part 2 of the inquiry into relationships between the police and the media and corporate governance. The recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry led to a cross-party agreement to pass into law Section 40 of the Crime and Courts…Read more

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