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

Maharashtra police arrest Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami

  • Posted on November 10, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the Indian state of Maharashtra to release Republic TV anchor and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami after he was arrested and ordered to be held for at least two weeks. Authorities are investigating allegations that Goswami abetted a suicide in May 2018, according to news reports. Yesterday, a local court in Alibaug, about 55 miles south of Mumbai, ordered him detained until November 18 while police investigate and decide whether to charge the journalist, according to news agency Press Trust of India. “Holding Arnab Goswami in prison while police conduct their…Read more

Nigeria journalist Oga Tom Uhia detained for weeks on defamation complaint

Authorities in Nigeria should immediately release Oga Tom Uhia, the publisher of local monthly magazine Power Steering, which covers the electrical power sector, and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 13, police arrested Uhia at his residence in Gwarimpa, a suburb of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, without a warrant and took him to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, according to Uhia’s lawyer, Evans Odeh, who spoke with CPJ via phone, and independent news website Forefront.  There, authorities questioned him about a complaint filed with police by Minister of…Read more

Media torched, reporters attacked in major threat to press freedom in Nigeria

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is very concerned about the physical attacks against Nigerian journalists and media in connection with the continuing protests against President Muhammadu Buhari and against violence by the SARS police unit, and calls on the authorities to put a stop to the attacks and guarantee the safety of media personnel. During yesterday’s “#EndSARS” protests in Lagos, the commercial capital, part of the TVC News channel’s studios and several of its cars were set ablaze, while gunmen on motorcycles invaded the headquarters of The Nation, one of the most popular privately-owned newspapers, and set fire to its…Read more

Daily Sangram reporter arrested in Bangladesh sedition case

  • Posted on October 26, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
Bangladeshi authorities should immediately release reporter Ruhul Amin Gazi and let him work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday evening, police officers in the Hatirjheel neighborhood of Dhaka, the capital,  arrested Gazi, a reporter with the Daily Sangram newspaper, according to news reports. The arrest came after Metropolitan Magistrate Debdash Chandra Adhikary rejected the journalist’s bail petition in an ongoing criminal investigation, according to those reports. Gazi and Daily Sangram editor Abul Asad have been under investigation for sedition since a complaint was filed in December 2019 over an article calling Abdul Quader Molla, an opposition…Read more

Indian authorities seal Kashmir Times office in Srinagar

The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the ongoing harassment of the Kashmir Times and its editor, Anuradha Bhasin, by the Jammu and Kashmir administration and called on authorities to immediately reopen and allow staff to work from its Srinagar office. On October 19, officials from the Estates Department of the region’s administration forced out employees and sealed the Srinagar office of the independent, English-language daily Kashmir Times without advance notice or legal documentation, according to multiple news reports and Bhasin, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. Bhasin said the newspaper has faced various retaliatory actions from authorities, including…Read more

Ghana journalist David Tamakloe arrested on false news charge

Authorities in Ghana should immediately drop all charges against journalist David Tamakloe and halt intimidation of journalists, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. On October 7, at around 5:30 pm, a group of plain-clothed police officers arrested Tamakloe, the editor in chief of the privately owned Whatsup News website, on the street near his office in Ghana’s capital, Accra, for a July 8 report that allegedly violated Ghana’s criminal code, according to Tamakloe who spoke by phone with CPJ. The July 8 report, which CPJ reviewed, alleged a pre-election crisis in the Ashanti region. Tamakloe,…Read more

Bangladeshi reporter slain by local gangsters in Dhaka suburb

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation into yesterday’s murder of a Bangladeshi newspaper reporter whose coverage of criminal activity in an industrial area south of the capital, Dhaka, had led to the arrest of two local gang leaders. His crime must not go unpunished, RSF said. After passers-by found him lying in a pool of blood at around 8:15 pm yesterday in Bandar, a municipality that is part of Narayanganj district, Iliyas Hossain was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead at 9 pm. Hossain’s family believe he was killed…Read more

South African journalists attacked covering farmer protest

 South African authorities must conduct a swift and transparent investigation into recent attacks on journalists covering protests held by farmers, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 6, in the Free State province town of Senekal, a protesting farmer harassed and assaulted Tracy Lee Stark, a photographer at The Citizen newspaper, while another attacked Marizka Coetzer, a reporter at the outlet, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ in phone interviews, and a report by their employer. The demonstrators, who were protesting the murder of farmers in South…Read more

Uttar Pradesh police arrest journalist on his way to cover Hathras gang rape case

  • Posted on October 13, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to immediately release journalist Siddique Kappan and drop any investigation into him. Kappan was arrested yesterday while traveling from the capital Delhi to Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh to report on a story, according to The Hindu and NDTV. According to K.N. Ashok, editor of Malayalam-language news website Azhimukham where Kappan is a regular contributor, Kappan was travelling to Hathras to cover the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman from a marginalized community that has sparked protests and national outrage. According…Read more