Murad, who works as a reporter for Urdu News and runs the independent news site Pakistani24, later appeared  before the Judicial Magistrate Islamabad (West) court, where he was placed in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days under Pakistan’s cybercrime laws for allegedly posting “intimidating content” online, according to a copy of the court order, reviewed by CPJ.

“The shocking overnight raid on the home of seasoned journalist Waheed Murad is part of a disturbing trend of enforced disappearances and detentions of journalists by Pakistan’s security agencies,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must allow Murad to resume reporting without fear of detention, threats, or intimidation.”

Murad’s mother-in-law, Abida Nawaz, said that the unidentified men who abducted the journalist did not say where they were taking him. Before Murad appeared in court, she had filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court seeking his recovery. The petition states that the journalist had raised his voice about the disappearance of exiled journalist Ahmed Noorani’s two brothers in Islamabad.

Noorani’s brothers have been missing since March 18, when individuals identifying themselves as police forcibly entered their family home. In addition, journalist Asif Karim Khehtran disappeared from his home district of Barkhan on March 13, and Farhan Mallick, founder of the independent online media platform Raftar, continues to be held in FIA detention after being detained on March 20 in Karachi.

CPJ’s text messages requesting comment from Information Minister Attaullah Tarar received no response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“We urge Jordanian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Omar Al Zayood, which would send a clear signal that authorities respect the freedom of the press and stop criminalizing journalists,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We reiterate our call for the repeal of the 2023 cybercrimes law, which has further stifled the independence of the media in Jordan.”

The public prosecutor in the capital Amman ordered Zayood’s arrest after questioning him on the charge of “inaccuracy and insulting the dignity of individuals.” Penalties under the law include prison sentences of three months to three years, and fines of 5,000 to 20,000 Jordanian dinars (US$7,000 to 28,000).

CPJ was unable to confirm which Al Hashmiyah News report the lawsuit referred to or for how long Zayood was ordered detained.

Al-Khasawneh served as prime minister from 2000 until September 2024, when he resigned following parliamentary elections. King Abdullah II appointed Jjafar Hassan to replace him.

CPJ has criticized the Cybercrime Law, which criminalizes vaguely defined online activities, including social media posts deemed to be “fake” or that undermine national unity. Since its introduction, numerous journalists have been arrested and prosecuted for their critical online commentary on sensitive topics.

At least two journalists were imprisoned in Jordan at the time of CPJ’s latest annual prison census on December 1, 2024. Both have since been freed.

CPJ’s email to Al Hashmiyah News requesting comment did not receive a reply. CPJ was unable to find contacts for Amman’s public prosecutor or Al-Khasawneh.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Boughalleb, a reporter with local independent channel Carthage Plus and local independent radio station Cap FM, was sentenced to six months in prison in April 2024 on defamation charges. But he has been imprisoned for nearly a year, as his sentence was increased to eight months on appeal and he has been charged on a second defamation count under Decree 54.

Tunisian authorities have used the cybercrime law to continue to arrest, prosecute, and silence members of the press, the letter states.

Read the letter here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) were previously approved by the National Assembly and now await the president’s signature to become law. 

“The Pakistan Senate’s passage of amendments to the country’s cybercrime laws is deeply concerning. While on its face, the law seeks to tamp down the spread of false news, if signed into law, it will disproportionately curtail freedom of speech in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “President Asif Ali Zardari must veto the bill, which threatens the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens and journalists while granting the government and security agencies sweeping powers to impose complete control over internet freedom in the country.”

The proposed amendments to PECA include the establishment of four new government bodies to help regulate online content and broadening the definitions of online harms. CPJ’s texts to Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar did not receive a response.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists announced nationwide protests against the amendments, calling them unconstitutional and an infringement on citizens’ rights.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On July 2, Jordanian authorities arrested al-Zoubi, a satirical journalist and publisher of the Sawalif news website, 11 months after he was fined 50 dinars (US$70) and sentenced to one year in prison for a Facebook post criticizing the government’s position on a controversial December 2022 transportation workers’ strike, according to multiple media reports and al-Zoubi’s lawyer, who spoke to CPJ.

Al-Zoubi is now in Marka prison in the capital, Amman, his lawyer, Khaled Jit, told CPJ via messaging app.

“Jordanian authorities are stepping up censorship and arrests of journalists instead of allowing them to express themselves freely,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Jordanian authorities must immediately release journalist Ahmed al-Zoubi, drop all charges against him, and stop using cybercrime laws to punish journalists.”

Al-Zoubi was convicted under Jordan’s Cybercrime Law of “the crime of performing an act that led to provoking conflict between the elements of the nation.”

CPJ, along with other rights organizations, has criticized the 2023 law.

Al-Zoubi’s lawyer told CPJ that there were procedural errors during the trial and asked the court to consider an alternative punishment to prison.

Khaled Qudah, a member of the Jordanian Journalists’ Syndicate, told CPJ that the organization respects the judiciary and its decisions, but that legal decisions and procedures regarding freedom of speech needed revision.

Al-Zoubi’s arrest comes weeks after the Soloh Court in Amman sentenced journalist Heba Abu Taha to one year in prison after convicting her of violating the Cybercrime Law for “inciting discord and strife among members of society” and “targeting community peace and inciting violence.”

The arrest also follows a decision in May to shutter the Al-Yarmouk TV channel in Jordan, where al-Zoubi worked years earlier.

CPJ’s email to Jordan’s Ministry of Justice for comment did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On June 7, Niger’s head of state Abdourahamane Tchiani, who overthrew the democratically elected president in July 2023, reintroduced prison sentences of one to three years and a fine of up to 5 million CFA francs (US$8,177) for defamation and insult via electronic means of communication, according to news reports.

A jail term of two to five years and a fine of up to 5 million CFA francs (US$8,177)  were also set for the dissemination of “data likely to disturb public order or undermine human dignity,” even if such information is true, according to CPJ’s review of a copy of the law.

“The changes to Niger’s cybercrime law are a blow to the media community and a very disappointing step backwards for freedom of expression,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “It is not too late to change course by reforming the law to ensure that it cannot be used to stifle journalism.”

Previously, the crimes of defamation and insult were punishable with fines of up to 10 million CFA francs (US$16,312), while dissemination of data likely to disturb public order carried a penalty of six months to three years’ imprisonment.

The government abolished criminal penalties for defamation and insult in 2022 to bring the 2019 cybercrime law into line with the 2010 press freedom law.

On June 12, Niger’s Minister of Justice and Human Rights Alio Daouda said in a statement that the 2022 amendments were made “despite the opposition of the large majority of Nigeriens.” He said that decriminalization of the offenses had led to a “proliferation of defamatory and insulting remarks on social networks and the dissemination of data likely to disturb public order or undermine human dignity” despite authorities’ calls for restraint.

“Firm instructions have been given to the public prosecutors to prosecute without weakness or complacency” anyone who commits these offenses, he said.

CPJ and other press freedom groups have raised concerns about journalists’ safety in the country since the 2023 military coup.

This April, Idrissa Soumana Maïga, editor of the privately owned L’Enquêteur newspaper, was arrested and remains behind bars on charges of undermining national defense. If convicted, he could face between five and 10 years in prison.

Several Nigerien journalists were imprisoned or fined over their reporting prior to decriminalization in 2022.

CPJ’s calls to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to request comment went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The new cybercrime law approved by Jordanian King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is alarming, and could see journalists facing harsh prison terms and huge fines over their work,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities never should have approved this law, and should now work to repeal it and ensure it will not be used to silence journalists.”

The 2023 Cybercrime Law criminalizes online posts deemed to be “fake news” or which undermine national unity; promote, instigate, aide, or incite “immorality,” or demonstrate “contempt for religion.” Penalties include prison sentences of three months to three years, and fines ranging from 5,000 to 20,000 Jordanian dinars (US$7,000 to 28,000).

Jordan’s parliament passed the law on July 27, and King Abdullah approved it on August 12. The law was published in the official state newspaper on August 13, and is scheduled to come into force on September 12.

The new law amends a 2015 cybercrime law, which was also used to target journalists. Political commentator Adnan al-Rousan was imprisoned in August 2022 for violating the 2015 law by writing articles “insulting to Jordan” and “offensive to the national approach and fabric, and insulting the cohesion of Jordanian society and state institutions.” 

Earlier this month, satirical journalist Ahmed al-Zoubi was sentenced to one year in prison for a social media post about a strike over diesel prices, according to media reports.

CPJ emailed the Royal Hashemite Court for comment but did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On February 8, police in the capital Lilongwe summoned Mtenje via phone to appear the following day for questioning over a Maravi Post story she did not write or publish, according to news reports, a statement by the Malawi chapter of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a bail form that CPJ reviewed, and a CPJ interview with the journalist. When Mtenje arrived at the station the next day, police detained her for 12 hours and charged her with defamation and offensive communication following a complaint by National Intelligence Service Director General Dokani Ngwira.

“The detention, confiscation of her phone, and charging of Malawian journalist Dorica Mtenje following a complaint from the country’s intelligence chief about an article that was not bylined and that she did not write is a fishing expedition to intimidate the press,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “We urge Malawian authorities to immediately drop the charges against Mtenje and ensure that criminal defamation is repealed, in the same way that sedition and insulting the president are no longer crimes in Malawi.”  

On February 18, President Lazarus Chakwera assented to the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill of 2022, which repeals the crimes of sedition and insulting the president.

On February 9, Mtenje appeared at police headquarters in Lilongwe at around 8 a.m. and was formally charged and detained at about 5 p.m., according to a news report and the journalist. Mtenje said her mobile phone was confiscated but returned upon her release three hours later.

Her supervisor, Lloyd M’bwana, was also summoned for questioning over the same story but he did not appear, according to MISA, Mtenje, and M’bwana, who spoke to CPJ. M’bwana told CPJ he did not go because he did not receive an official summons, only a call from police.

Mtenje is charged with offensive communication, under to Section 87 of the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act, and defamation, under Section 200 of the country’s penal code.

If found guilty of offensive communication, Mtenje faces up to a year in prison or a fine of 1 million Malawian kwacha (US$975), while the defamation charge carries an undefined fine, a two-year imprisonment, or both.  

Mtenje told CPJ that she appeared before police on her own and was not accompanied by a lawyer. 

“I asked the officer why they summoned me after showing me the story I didn’t even write, but I was told they suspect that me and my boss could have written it,” Mtenje told CPJ. “They took away my phone…at some point, one officer went away with it. It has no password.”

Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu told CPJ he had secured Mtenje’s release and that her case was “closed.” However, the officer who handled the matter claimed to be unaware of the closure after her release, according to Mtenje.

When reached by CPJ via messaging app, Ngwira said he had not made any complaints against a journalist, but he alleged thata tabloid had been writing “lies against my person and the National Intelligence Service without even a single attempt to seek our side of whatever they write.” 

Ngwira said a police investigation was what led to the summoning and arrest of Mtenje. “I believe they are still investigating, and even for her to be released quickly was because MISA Malawi through their [chairperson] reached out,” he told CPJ.

Malawi Police Service spokesperson Peter Kalaya did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. He is quoted by the MISA statement as saying police were only acting on a complaint by the National Intelligence Service Director. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The complaint stems from a video investigation by Titu, which was broadcast by Ekattor TV on March 1, 2022, alleging that a local shrine’s management committee, led by Shahidul Islam Mollik, general secretary of the Mirzaganj Union Parishad, an administrative government unit, had engaged in corruption.

Mollik’s nephew, Badal Hossain, filed the complaint, which accused the journalist of violating three sections of the Digital Security Act, pertaining to defamation, unauthorized collection of identity information, and publication of false, threatening, or offensive information, according to those sources. Each of those offenses can carry a prison sentence of between three and five years, and a fine between 300,000 taka (US$3,160) and 1,000,000 taka (US $10,530). 

Titu told CPJ that after conducting research for the investigation in Mirzaganj, Hossain had called him on February 19 and urged him not to publish the report.

On February 20, Hossain came to the Ekattor TV office in the town of Patuakhali and offered the journalist a bribe in exchange for agreeing not to publish the report, according to Titu and CCTV footage of the incident, which was shown in Titu’s video investigation.

When reached via messaging app, Hossain denied the allegations that he pressured Titu not to publish the report.

Titu told CPJ that after accepting the complaint, the Barisal Cyber Tribunal subsequently ordered the Mirzaganj police station to investigate the complaint. Anowar Hossain Talukdar, the station’s officer in charge, is the vice president of the shrine’s management, according to Titu and a document issued by the Waqf Administration, a regulatory agency under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which CPJ reviewed.

Mollik and Talukdar did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

Titu said that he expects to be summoned for further hearings after the police submits its investigative report to the tribunal. Under Section 40 of the Digital Security Act, investigations are to be completed within 60 days, with the possibility of extension upon court approval. Titu told CPJ that police did not complete the investigation within the 60-day period, adding that he was not informed that they were granted an extension.

Titu said he has repeatedly received direct, in-person threats from politicians and their associates for his extensive reporting on their alleged corruption. He fears these political leaders have banded together in recent months, he told CPJ, and are planning further retaliation against him, including possibly arrest.

CPJ has repeatedly documented the use of the Digital Security Act to harass journalists in retaliation for their work, and has called for the law’s repeal.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

“While Nigerian journalist Luka Binniyat’s release on bail is a welcome development, he never should have been detained in the first place, and the charges against him should be dropped without delay,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “His ongoing prosecution on cybercrime charges and the stringent requirements for his bail are stark examples of how journalism continues to be criminalized in Nigeria.”

Authorities detained Binniyat on November 4, 2021, as CPJ documented at the time. He is facing charges under Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act for allegedly distributing false information.

For his bail, Binniyat was required to provide a bond of 1 million naira (US$2,402) and two sureties by people who live in and own land in Kaduna state, which were approved by the prosecutor’s office, according to the journalist and his lawyer, Ehizogie Imadojemu, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app and in phone interviews.

If convicted, Binniyat could face up to three years in prison and a fine of 7 million naira (US$17,049), Imadojemu said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On September 24, police arrested Fwema at his home in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and have since detained him at the Oysterbay police station, according to a statement by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders’ Coalition (THRDC), as well as Florence Fwema, the cartoonist’s brother, and Robert Mwampembwa, the head of the Creative Industry Network, a local industry body, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Police say that Fwema is under investigation on cybercrime offenses, but have yet to arraign him in court, according to his brother, Mwampebwa, and a THRDC lawyer familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ via messaging app but asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns.

Fwema was arrested days after publishing on his Instagram page a political cartoon that was critical of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, according to those sources.

Separately, on October 2, police in Kawe, a suburb in Kinondoni District of the Dar es Salaam region, arrested Shemsanga, a reporter with the recently established YouTube news channel Mgawe TV, while he was covering an event by members of BAWACHA, the women’s league of the Tanzania’s leading opposition party, CHADEMA, according to the Defenders’ Coalition statement, as well as Shemsanga, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Mgawe told CPJ that police detained him later that day when he went to seek bail for Shemsanga. Both men told CPJ that they were released on the evening of October 4, but that police are still investigating them on allegations of illegal assembly, alongside several members of BAWACHA. Shemsanga told CPJ that police had yet to return electronic devices confiscated during his arrest.

“Critical political commentary and coverage of the opposition are essential to Tanzania’s democratic discourse, and it is deeply worrying that police are equating this kind of journalism to criminal activity,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Police should unconditionally release cartoonist Opptertus John Fwema. Authorities should also discontinue any ongoing investigations into Mgawe TV’s Harold Shemsanga and Ernest Mgawe, return their confiscated devices, and abandon the habit of throwing journalists behind bars for their work.”

Fwema publishes illustrations and cartoons on his Instagram account and takes commissioned work in Dar es Salaam, according to Mwampembwa. On September 16 and again on September 20, Fwema published a political cartoon that depicts Hassan as a child playing with a basin of water painted with the Tanzanian flag, while a large man wearing a black coat printed with the words “Kiwete”—“cripple” in Kiswahili and a play on words that refers to former President Jakaya Kikwete—stands behind her, telling a group of concerned people that “she leads the country well.” The cartoon is a critical commentary on Hassan’s governance and depicts Kikwete being weak but also acting as her protector, according to CPJ’s review of the cartoon and a statement published by Cartooning for Peace, an international network of press cartoonists, calling for Fwema’s release.

On September 24, police initially claimed that they were arresting Fwema in connection to investigations into the theft of a motorbike, but the following day they told him that he was under investigation for misuse of the internet, according to Florence. The cartoonist did not have legal counsel present when he was initially questioned by police, who asked him about the cartoon, according to Florence Fwema and Mwampebwa.

Yesterday, a lawyer acting on behalf of the THDRC filed a bail application for Fwema at a Dar es Salaam court, which set a hearing in the case on October 11, according to a statement by the THRDC that was reviewed by CPJ.

In the October 2 incident, police approached Mgawe TV reporter Shemsanga while he was interviewing BAWACHA members following a jogging event in Kawe, according to the journalist. Even though Shemsanga identified himself as a journalist, the police officers demanded that he come with them to a local police station. The BAWACHA members, who demanded an explanation for his arrest, accompanied them to the station, Shemsanga said. At Kawe police station, the officers confiscated his devices including a camera and laptop; reviewed footage of his interviews; and locked him up in a cell, Shamsange said. Several of the women were also arrested, according to Shemsanga and an October 2 statement from BAWACHA that was posted on Twitter by the league’s secretary general, Catherine Ruge. Police said they had detained all of them on suspicion of illegal assembly and after a few hours they were transferred from Kawe to a police station about 24 kilometers (15 miles) away in Mbweni, according to these same sources.

Mgawe told CPJ that when he went to the police station in Mbweni later that day to seek bail for Shemsanga, police also arrested him. He said that they are investigating him for being complicit in the act of illegal assembly because he had sent the journalist on the assignment.

Following their release on October 4, both Shemsanga and Mgawe were ordered to report periodically to the police station in Mbweni. Shamsange told CPJ that Mbweni is far from his home and that his journey to and from the station on October 5 took about five hours on public transport. Shemsanga told CPJ they were due back at the police station on October 8.

Since mid-September BAWACHA has been organizing jogging meets for its members, saying that the events are supposed to promote good health among women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to media reports. Videos posted on Twitter by Ruge and on CHADEMA’s YouTube channel show women at several such events jogging in t-shirts printed with the words “Tume Huru” (“Independent Commission”) and chanting the same words, a reference to CHADEMA’s campaign for reforms to the country’s electoral commission.

In a phone call on October 7, Tanzania government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa referred CPJ to police, and specifically the force’s spokesperson David Misime, for comment on Fwema’s detention, and the arrest of Mgawe and Shemsanga.  

Someone who answered Misime’s phone today did not say anything and CPJ’s queries to Misime, sent via WhatsApp and SMS, were also unanswered.

When reached for comment on his phone, Kinondoni police commander Ramadhani Kingai referred CPJ to the Dar es Salaam special zone police commander, Jumanne Muliro, whose phone rang without answer today. Muliro did not immediately respond to a text message from CPJ asking about Fwema’s detention and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists. However, the local Dar Mpya news blog quoted Muliro saying that those arrested in Kawe had “indications of breaching peace by using exercise as pretext to rouse political sentiments,” according to an October 2 tweet from the outlet. 

A phone number for Tanzania’s Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro that was listed on the police’s website did not connect today. CPJ’s email to the police headquarters and an address for the Kinondoni regional police, asking about the detention of Fwema and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists, also went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.