Intimidation & Harassment

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

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

Pakistani journalists receive death threats after reporting called ‘fake news’ in TV program

Pakistani authorities should investigate threats made to journalists Ahmad Noorani and Gul Bukhari and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists have said. On August 27, Noorani, a co-founder and reporter at the independent investigative news website FactFocus, published an article that used pubic records to detail the financial assets of retired Army General Asim Saleem Bajwa, who chairs Pakistan’s Chinese-financed infrastructure projects and is a special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting. On August 29, the privately owned TV broadcaster ARY News aired a segment, which CPJ viewed, that called…Read more

Ghanaian soldier beats journalist, seizes reporters’ camera and phones

Authorities in Ghana must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the recent attack and harassment of journalists Stanley Nii Blewu and Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey, and ensure those responsible are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 12, in Accra, the capital, a soldier kicked and punched Blewu, a reporter with the privately owned TV3 broadcaster, while he and Gold-Alorgbey, also a TV3 reporter, were covering a local sanitation project, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement by the Ghana Journalists…Read more

Malaysian police raid Al-Jazeera’s office, seize computers in escalating legal harassment

Malaysian police raided Al-Jazeera’s Kuala Lumpur office and seized two computers in an ongoing criminal probe into the global broadcaster’s July 3 report on the government’s treatment of undocumented migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis, news reports said. Six of Al-Jazeera’s Malaysia-based reporters and staff members are being investigated on criminal charges including sedition, defamation, and violation of the country’s Communications and Multimedia Act for the “101 East” program “Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown,”reports said. In a statement, Al-Jazeera condemned the raid as a “troubling escalation” and called on Malaysian authorities to end investigations into their journalists.…Read more

Journalist Matiullah Jan abducted in Pakistan 1 day before Supreme Court hearing

Pakistan authorities should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the disappearance of journalist Matiullah Jan and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. This morning, several unidentified men intercepted Jan’s car in Islamabad’s G-6 Sector, forced him into another vehicle, and drove away, according to news reports, Abdul Razaq Jan, the journalist’s son, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and security footage of the abduction, which CPJ reviewed and which was shared on social media. In the footage, about a dozen men are seen exiting at least three vehicles and forcing a…Read more