Legal Constraints

Pakistan expands prison terms for online defamation to 5 years

Pakistan authorities must immediately revoke a recently enacted ordinance that further criminalizes freedom of expression in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Sunday, February 20, President Arif Alvi enacted amendments to the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, increasing the prison term for online defamation on social media platforms from three to five years, following an expedited trial that would conclude “preferably not later than six months of taking cognizance of the case,” according to news reports and a copy of the ordinance, which CPJ reviewed. The amendments allow any member of…Read more

Islamabad High Court to indict three Pakistani journalists for criminal contempt

The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern over the Islamabad High Court’s decision to indict Pakistani journalists Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Aamir Ghauri, and Ansar Abbasi, calling it a dangerous attack on press freedom and freedom of expression. On December 28, 2021, the Islamabad High Court decided to indict Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, owner and editor-in-chief of the Jang Media Group–which owns the English-language newspaper The News International; Aamir Ghauri, editor of The News International; and Ansar Abbasi, investigations editor of The News International, for criminal contempt of court in relation to a November 15 investigative report by Abbasi, according to The…Read more

Maldives legislature considers bill that could force journalists to reveal sources

Maldives legislators must reject a provision of the proposed Evidence Bill that would allow courts to compel journalists and media outlets to reveal their sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The bill, which CPJ reviewed, includes a broad provision allowing courts to order outlets and journalists to reveal anonymous sources when a court decides that the “public interest of revealing a journalist’s source” outweighs “the negative impact on the source or others” as well as “the ability of journalists to continue to find factual sources of information and bring such information to…Read more

Bangladesh authorities charge 3 journalists under Digital Security Act

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, and cease harassing members of the press under the draconian Digital Security Act, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 8 and 12, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted Digital Security Act charges against Kishore, a cartoonist; Khalil, editor of the Sweden-based news website Netra News; and Kajol, a photographer and editor with the Daily Pakkhakal magazine, according to multiple news reports and a person familiar with the cases, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal by Bangladesh…Read more

Singapore High Court rules that The Online Citizen bloggers defamed prime minister

The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed alarm at the Singapore High Court’s ruling awarding Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong more than US$156,500 in damages in defamation suits against bloggers Terry Xu and Rubaashini Shunmuganathan. The High Court on September 1 ruled that Xu, chief editor of The Online Citizen news blog, “acted recklessly, with indifference to the truth and with ill-will” in publishing Shunmuganathan’s August 2019 article about tensions among Prime Minister Lee’s siblings that caused “serious harm” to the premier’s reputation, according to news reports.  According to Xu, who spoke with CPJ via email, and…Read more

UK: Sun, Mail and Rusbridger align as industry unites against Official Secrets Act reforms

Press Gazette: Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has argued reforms to the Official Secrets Act would mean a future Edward Snowden-style whistleblower would be forced to avoid mainstream UK publications to spill secrets. Instead they would avoid fears of stricter sentences for publication in the public interest by sharing information with a foreign title or website or putting it online themselves, he said in his submission to Government. His stance puts him in rare agreement with the likes of the The Sun as the industry unites against the proposed reforms in fear they…Read more

UK journalists could be jailed like spies under proposed Official Secrets Act changes

Press Gazette: Journalists could be treated like spies for reporting on matters of public interest under planned reforms to the UK’s Official Secrets Act. The move has caused alarm at a time when press freedom is seen as being under attack in the UK following the raid by the Information Commissioner to find The Sun’s Matt Hancock-scoop source. Yesterday, it was revealed that foreign governments are targeting UK journalists with mobile phone spyware. The Government said the reform was needed as the existing acts, with the last update in 1989, are no longer enough to…Read more

Ugandan authorities detain 2 journalists on criminal libel charges

Ugandan authorities should drop the criminal libel charges against journalists Pidson Kareire and Darious Magara, and reform the country’s laws to decriminalize speech, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 27, the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Court in Kampala, the capital, charged Kareire and Magara with criminal defamation and ordered them to be detained until a bail hearing on June 17, according to a copy of the charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed, and a statement by the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-U), a local press rights group. The charge sheet alleges…Read more

Pakistani TV anchor censored after denouncing violence against journalists

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled that Hamid Mir, the well-known host of one of Pakistan’s most prestigious TV programmes, has been taken off the air by his TV channel after saying at a protest that those responsible for recent physical attacks on journalists should be identified. An autocratic climate is steadily taking hold in Pakistan, RSF said. The host of Capital Talk, a current affairs programme broadcast every weeknight on Geo News, Hamid Mir was suspended summarily, without any form of proceedings. He told RSF that his channel’s management notified him that he would…Read more

Ugandan police summon Daily Monitor employees in libel and false news investigation

Ugandan police should immediately drop their criminal investigation into the Daily Monitor newspaper and guarantee that the media can cover security forces’ alleged misconduct without retaliation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 31, the police Criminal Investigations Department summoned Tony Glencross, the managing director of the Daily Monitor’s parent company, Nation Media Group-Uganda, and Tabu Butagira, the group’s managing editor, to record statements as part of a police investigation into allegations of criminal libel, incitement to violence, and false news publication, according to reports by the newspaper and the BBC. The investigation focuses on a May 31 report by…Read more