“There are already a dozen cases piling up against me,” she said. “I’m a journalist. One murder case is enough to frame me.”

Rupa, a former chief correspondent at privately owned broadcaster Ekattor TV, now faces nine murder cases. Her husband, Shakil Ahmed, the channel’s former head of news, is named in eight.  

A year ago, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh’s interim government after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of student-led protests, during which two journalists were killed.

Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina. But in a November 2024 interview with newspaper The Daily Star, Yunus said that murder accusations against journalists were being made hastily. He said the government had since halted such actions and that a committee had been formed to review the cases.

Still, nearly a year later, Rupa, Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta and Mozammel Haque Babu, arrested on accusations of instigating murders in separate cases, remain behind bars. The repeated use of such charges against journalists who are widely seen as sympathetic to the former regime appear to be politically motivated censorship.

In addition to such legal charges, CPJ has documented physical attacks against journalists, threats from political activists, and exile. At least 25 journalists are under investigation for genocide by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal – a charge that has been used to target figures linked to the former Hasina government. 

“Keeping four journalists behind bars without credible evidence a year on undermines the interim government’s stated commitment to protect press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Real reform means breaking from the past, not replicating its abuses. All political parties must respect journalists’ right to report as the country is set for polls in coming months.”

A CPJ review of legal documents and reports found that journalists are often added to First Information Reports (FIRs) – documents that open an investigation – long after they are filed. In May, UN experts raised concern that over 140 journalists had been charged with murder following last year’s protests.

Shyamal Dutta’s daughter, Shashi, told CPJ the family has lost track of how many cases he now faces. They are aware of at least six murder cases in which he is named, while Babu’s family is aware of 10. Rupa and Ahmed’s family told CPJ that they haven’t received FIRs for five cases in which one or the other journalist has been named, which means that neither can apply for bail.

Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’s press secretary, and police spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. 

Violence and threats

In 2025, reporters across Bangladesh have faced violence and harassment while covering political events, with CPJ documenting at least 10 such incidents, most of which were carried out by members or affiliates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal. In several instances, journalists sustained serious injuries or were prevented from reporting after footage was deleted or phones seized, including Bahar Raihan, Abdullah Al Mahmud, and Rocky Hossain.

Responding to the allegations, Mahdi Amin, adviser to Acting BNP Chair Tarique Rahman, told CPJ that while isolated misconduct may occur in a party of BNP’s size, the party does not protect wrongdoers. 

Others have faced threats from supporters of different political parties and the student groups that led the protests against Hasina. Reporters covering opposition groups like Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, have come under particular pressure. On June 9, Hasanat Kamal, editor of EyeNews.news, told CPJ he’d fled to the United Kingdom after being falsely accused by Islami Chhatra Shibir of participating in a violent student protest. Anwar Hossain, a journalist for the local daily Dabanol, told CPJ he’d been threatened by Jamaat supporters after publishing negative reports about a local party leader. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to Abdus Sattar Sumon, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami, but received no response.

Since Hasina’s ouster, student protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) have increasinglytargeted journalists they accuse of supporting the former regime, which in one case led to the firing of five journalists. Student-led mobs have also besieged outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to ADSM leader Rifat Rashid but received no response.

On July 14, exiled investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who fled Bangladesh after exposing alleged high-level corruption under Hasina and receiving threats from Awami League officials, posted on X about the repression of the media: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

“It is outrageous that journalist Sneha Barve, who was nearly killed for exposing wrongdoing, has been threatened once again, while the main suspect in her assault walks free,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must urgently guarantee Sneha Barve’s safety to send a clear message that attacks on the press will not be tolerated and ensure those responsible are swiftly prosecuted.”

Barve told CPJ that on July 24, Prashant Pandurang Morde – who was arrested for his role in the earlier attack on the journalist – accosted her outside her office in the town of Manchar and threatened her, saying, “This time, we should finish the matter for good.”

On July 4, Barve, founder of the Samarth Bharat Pariwar YouTube-based news channel, was attacked by a group of men while reporting on alleged illegal construction on disputed land in Manchar, Pune district. A video of the attack shows a man striking Barwe with a wooden rod before she loses consciousness.

Five suspects were arrested but released on bail three days later.

The man accused of wielding the rod, Pandurang Sakharam Morde, a businessman with alleged political connections, was named in the First Information Report opening the investigation, but has not been arrested.

On July 18, Prashant Morde, son of Pandurang Sakharam Morde, went to Barve’s father’s office and threatened to harm the entire family, the journalist told CPJ. In a complaint to police, reviewed by CPJ, Barve said the three suspects had been collecting information about her family and requested police protection.

CPJ’s WhatsApp messages requesting comment from Fadnavis’ media advisor, Ketan Pathak, did not receive any reply. Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Sandeep Gill told CPJ by WhatsApp that he would reply, but did not immediately respond to queries. CPJ was unable to immediately source contact information for Morde.

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

Thai government and police officials have both issued public statements condemning the attacks on Cambodian migrant workers.

RFA Khmer service’s Poly Sam speaks with Bangkok-based rights and labor activist Phil Robertson of Asia Human Rights Labour Advocates (AHRLA) about what’s being done.

Below is a transcript of the interview for RFA Perspectives:

(Citizen video)

RFA:

Quite a few Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have been discriminated against since the war broke out on July 24th. A Cambodian NGO that works in Thailand documented around 16 cases that Thai youth gangs have been beating up Cambodian migrant workers.

And I’m wondering, in your opinion, why would a country like Thailand allow this kind of violence to happen to migrant workers?

Phil Robertson:

Well, I will say a couple of things on this. First, the Thai government and the Thai police have actually issued statements saying that this should not happen. So we had the police on Friday, saying very clearly, no attacks should happen against migrant workers and that anybody who did this would face the full force of law.

We also saw the deputy government spokesperson make a similar statement, again, saying that the police were going to patrol and trying to protect migrants in areas where there are a significant number of Cambodian migrants. But the big problem in Thailand is that there is a yawning gap between what officials say and what the law says and what actually happens on the ground.

(RFA)

And as you said, there were these youth attacks. I’ve seen some of the videos that were quite horrific, with gangs of Thai youths attacking Cambodian migrant workers who had nothing to do with what is going on between the two countries. I mean, those migrant workers are simply here trying to make a living, and send money back to their families.

And those attacks have caused a great deal of fear in the Cambodian migrant community. There are a number of people who have voluntarily left, who have headed to the border, to try to return because they were so afraid. And that’s really unfortunate because Thailand needs migrant workers. They need these workers working agricultural construction, particularly, you know, here in Bangkok, much of the construction is being done by Cambodian workers.

So, I’ve seen a couple different worksites, including one that I was, nearby at a restaurant just the other day and I was talking to the waiters and saying what’s happening with the worksite over there? And they said, oh well, it was all Cambodian construction workers and they all ran away.

(Citizen video)

So quite clearly, the fear is very significant. And, I don’t see that anybody has been prosecuted yet, for these attacks. And what that shows again, is that the Thai police are a bit of a paper tiger here and there remains a degree of impunity to abuse migrant workers. And this has been an ongoing problem in Thailand for many years.

This is a bigger problem of which this latest incident is just part, which is that migrant workers really are treated very poorly in Thailand that they don’t get their rights under law. And I’m not just talking about Cambodians — I’m talking about Burmese. I’m talking about Lao, I’m talking about Vietnamese. I’m talking about all sorts of different people, from different countries in the region who come to Thailand.

They expect that they’re going to be treated accordance with law. They’re going to get the minimum wage.They’re going to get the the basic rights and benefits under the labor law in Thailand. And it simply doesn’t happen. They’re not being considered as equal to Thais, even though the law says they must be.

RFA:

Except the fact that’s in — I think most Cambodians are being at the brunt of the injustice that’s what’s going on in Thailand right now, because the two countries are practically at war at this time. And just like you said up to now there is no arrest of the perpetrator. And some of them, we can see their faces.

I think if Thai authorities have the intention to arrest those people, I think they probably could easily do it. But like you said they are paper tigers at this point in time. Do you know why that is? Since this will portray a very negative image for the Thai government and Thais as a country?

Phil Robertson:

I’m assuming that the orders that were given to crack down on anybody who attacks migrants simply doesn’t filter down to the lower levels of the police force and the local officials.

You know that there’s not enough power and determination behind the order to make it stick. And unfortunately, the migrant workers may not know where to go for help. And really, what they need to do is they need to be contacting groups, NGOs and others, many of those who are, in a coalition called the Migration Working Group. That group is one which has NGOs that do advocacy and take up cases and try to pressure the Thai government to do the right thing and what we find is whenever migrants actually achieve some degree of justice in Thailand, invariably there’s an NGO or a Thai labor union that is helping them.

(Andre Malerba/Reuters)

On their own, the migrant workers don’t have enough power or knowledge on how to work the Thai system and to actually achieve some degree of recognition for their rights. And so, this is a big problem.

As I said, there’s a big gap between what the law and policy says and what the actual implementation is on the ground. And I’m assuming that these police either don’t want to take on the Thai youth because they’re worried that they might get in trouble.

Someone would single them out as going after youth who were expressing what some in the right wing and the conservative elements of Thai society would see as justified attacks and that they would worry that they would have issues and problems and they assume that these attacks would soon be forgotten.

And things will go back to the way they were before. So this is, really an unsatisfactory and unacceptable situation that once again whenever something goes wrong between Thailand and Cambodia, invariably it is the Cambodian workers in Thailand that face the brunt of the abuse by unthinking Thai nationalists who don’t recognize that these migrant workers are ordinary people just trying to make a living.

RFA:

You just answered my question, actually, in addition to what you say is that the Cambodian migrant workers simply are really fearful of their safety at this point in time.

And many of them went into hiding meaning that they’re not leaving their apartment, their home or the place that they’re staying. So, some of them actually say that they’re really, really afraid to go out to buy food or necessities.

I’m just wondering, since you are based in Thailand and you understand Thai culture and stuff like that, it’s there any possibility that average Thai citizens can help alleviate the pain and suffering of these people?

(Chor Sokunthea/AFP)

Phil Robertson:

Well, I think many — Look, I mean, I think that there are many Thai citizens who would look at this situation and say, yeah, there’s no reason to attack these migrant workers. These migrant workers are just ordinary people and I think that most Thai people, most Thai citizens are pretty considerate and pretty humanitarian in their outlook.

I’ve had many cases of migrant workers where somebody faced a difficult time and there was a good Samaritan there was someone from the Thai community who was prepared to help. But what we have is also some of these ultranationalist, right wing youth or gangs, who think it’s easy and fun to go out and attack a migrant worker.

And they need to be brought to book. They need to be held accountable under the law. And frankly, the Thai police are just not doing their job.That’s the fundamental problem. Again, it comes to the Thai police, their failures, to effectively protect people in Thailand, whether they be Thai or other nationalities.

RFA:

So, who is to blame in this situation? You said the Thai police are not doing their job. Should the international community or the Cambodians blame the Thai police?

Phil Robertson:

I think the Thai police are at the core of the problem. It’s their failures to implement the law. As I said, there was a very clear statement on Friday, by senior Thai police officials saying attacks against migrants would not be tolerated. And the deputy government spokesperson said the same thing.

RFA:

Do you think they really mean that?

Phil Robertson:

Absolutely. The policy makers are saying the right thing. They’re saying, “We don’t want to attack civilians. We don’t see attacking civilians who have nothing to do with this as a way forward. And this discredits Thailand,” as you’ve mentioned. It makes Thailand look bad.

So I think people recognize that what has happened, these attacks are damaging to Thai credibility. And it’s damaging to the Thai image. But the problem is that the recognition, the policy recognition and the announcements simply don’t make it down to the level where the police enforce the law.

(Chor Sokunthea/AFP)

And so, we don’t have police investigating. We don’t have police necessarily looking at CCTV to figure out through facial recognition who these people were who are the attackers?

As you said, there are a number of cases where the faces of the attackers are very clear. These people could be identified and they haven’t been, and that’s a problem. That’s a failure of local police to carry out orders that have been issued from above.

RFA:

Since the Thai authorities specifically, Thai police cannot fulfill their role and responsibility to protect migrant workers from Cambodia, what do you think the Cambodian government should do to help their own people?

Phil Robertson:

Well, I’m not sure the Cambodian government can do anything to help their own people. I mean, the problem is that the Cambodian government’s migration management processes are corrupt.They are failing.

They provide no protection to Cambodian migrant workers. Even when it was open and operating, the Cambodian embassy in Thailand was worthless when it came to protecting Cambodian workers.

So, for the Cambodian government, the claim that now they’re sort of very concerned about the status and the health of migrant workers in Cambodia when they’ve done so little to help Cambodian migrant workers who’ve come here previously. I think it’s, you know, it’s a bit ridiculous.

The Cambodian government doesn’t have a real leg to stand on when it comes to talking about protecting migrant workers overseas, because they don’t. They simply fail. Whether it be in Thailand or Malaysia, Indonesia or the Middle East. The Cambodian migrant workers who are overseas are on their own.

RFA:

Well, the situation is a bit different. One is they’re neglecting the people. Another one is that people are facing severe discrimination and perhaps death. You know, if someone allowed this to happen.

Phil Robertson:

Unfortunately, what I would say about this is I would say that if the Cambodian government starts to come in and say that they are here to protect the Cambodian migrant workers, everybody would understand that that was a political ploy by the Cambodian government.

If the Cambodian government was serious about doing something, they would be working with U.N. agencies like the IOM, to provide effective protection and support for migrant workers living overseas, whether they be in Thailand or somewhere else.

But, sending migrants overseas is big money. The brokerage fees are a lot of money. And this has been taken over by Oknha and other corrupt people in Cambodia,who do deals with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Labor looks the other way. So, Cambodia does not have a good record when it comes to protecting its migrant workers overseas.

Certainly, if it wants to speak up and say something about what has happened to the migrant workers in Thailand, I think that that would be helpful. But, it would also just, get more attention on the migrant workers as well. I mean, I think what we need to do is have a way of getting NGOs to pressure Thai police to do their job.

RFA:

Regarding the NGOs — your organization — is there any specific task or responsibility that you guys are doing to help migrant workers at this particular time?

Phil Robertson:

Well, we’re trying to coordinate responses amongst Thai NGOs to go out and investigate and look at these cases and try to figure out how we can get a more effective policing response to go after the people who were committing the crimes and try to find ways to help the migrant workers themselves.

We’re very small. So we work in coalition with other groups and that’s the best we can do, to be honest. But we need to speak out about these issues as well. Ultimately, it would be good to have more international media attention on what has happened to migrant workers from Cambodia in Thailand.

But I think it’s hard. It’s hard because everybody is focused on the big issues at the border and the cross-border shelling and what is happening in places like Minburi, or other parts of the Bangkok suburbs where these attacks have been taking place is sort of out of sight, out of mind for many of the international media.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

On July 23, KIS24 Info’s Steves Paluku, ElectionNet’s Paul Beyokobana, and Kisangani News newspaper’s Sébastien Mulamba visited the offices of Tshopo province’s Minister of Finance Patrick Valencio to ask him to respond to media criticism about his appearance in and alleged funding of a television series, Paluku and Beyokobana told CPJ.

Ministry officials beat the three journalists, who all work for privately owned outlets, with sticks and their fists, injuring Beyokobana’s hand, before armed police took them to a local police station and the Kisangani prosecutor’s office, where they spent the night, the journalists told CPJ.

The journalists’ lawyer, Andy Muzaliwa, told CPJ that they were released on July 24 and ordered to appear at the prosecutor’s office on Monday, July 28, to meet Valencio and his deputy chief of staff, Jacques Lomamisa.

Paluku told CPJ that the journalists did not appear in court on Monday because Muzaliwa was not available but were expected to do so in the coming days. Paluka added that on Monday he separately filed a complaint against Valencio at the Supreme Court of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, over his detention.

“The Congolese officials and police who attacked and detained journalists Steve Paluku, Paul Beyokobana, and Sébastien Mulamba must be held accountable and the legal proceedings against the journalists should be dropped,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal. “Authorities in the DRC should focus on ensuring the safety of journalists working to report the news, not violently silencing them for asking questions.”

Valencio’s office defended the minister, saying that Congolese law did not prohibit his participation in a film at a time when he was not a minister, the online outlet Boyoma Revolution reported.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Valencio and Lomamisa rang unanswered.

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

On July 11, a group of men overran a polling station in Ablekuma North constituency and assaulted a candidate, forcing voting to be temporarily suspended.

Kwabena Agyekum Banahene, a reporter with GHOne TV, told CPJ that amid the turmoil, a police officer asked him to leave the area and slapped and pushed him. Banahene’s mouth was injured, according to GhanaWeb.

At the same polling station, ATV Ghana reporter Vida Wiafe was hit with pepper spray deployed by police, according to a video posted by Metro TV Ghana. CPJ could not confirm whether the journalist was deliberately targeted. 

In a third incident at the polling station, a partially masked man struck with his hand and shoved Joy News reporter Sally Martey from behind, a video posted by the outlet showed.

“The July 11 assaults on journalists Kwabena Agyekum Banahene and Sally Martey, as well as the tear-gassing of reporter Vida Wiafe, are just the latest examples of the threats regularly faced by journalists in Ghana,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal. “There has not been enough accountability for attacks on the press — it should be a top priority for authorities.”

In a July 12 statement, police promised to arrest anyone found to have engaged in acts of violence during the Ablekuma North elections. Banahene told CPJ that he reported his attack to the police and the officer involved was suspended and charged. 

In April, CPJ wrote to President John Dramani Mahama — on his 100^th day in office— to call for swift investigations into cases of attacks against the press.

CPJ’s calls and text messages seeking comment from police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi received no response.

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

“The violence against journalists in Sweida — including injuries, intimidation, and the ransacking of media offices — along with the attack on a media outlet in Damascus, signals a dangerous escalation in threats to Syria’s press,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Authorities must investigate these incidents and ensure accountability. Journalists should not face violence or obstruction for doing their work.”

Fighting in Sweida governorate began on July 13, 2025, after a Druze merchant was assaulted by Bedouin tribesmen. The confrontation escalated into armed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin fighters, drawing in Syrian government forces. Israeli airstrikes on July 15 and 16 followed in Sweida and Damascus, with Israel citing the protection of Druze communities. A U.S.-brokered truce temporarily halted fighting, but conditions on the ground remained unstable.

• On July 15, Nadim al-Nabulsi, a reporter for Ahrar Horan, a local media collective, sustained minor injuries while covering events in Sweida after an Israeli drone strike. “I was reporting near the entrance of the city, following a [Syrian government] General Security Forces vehicle on my motorcycle,” al-Nabulsi told CPJ. “The vehicle was hit by drone-dropped explosives. I was around 25 meters (82 feet) behind and tried to hide, but some shrapnel hit my lower back.” He said he was wearing a “Press” vest at the time.

• Also on July 15, freelance journalist Muhannad Abu Zaid was wounded during clashes. He said he was following a General Security Forces convoy into Sweida when gunfire broke out. “I took cover and started filming, but a sniper fired and hit my hand,” he told CPJ. “I think the bullet was meant for my chest, but a car shielded me.”

• On July 16, an Israeli airstrike In Damascus, targeting the Syrian army’s general staff headquarters damaged Al-Hadath TV’s office. According to a video posted by the channel on X, no one was injured.

• On July 19, four journalists wearing “Press” vests — freelance photographer Ali Haj Suleiman, a Getty Images contributor; photographer Bakr Alkasem, who contributes to Agence France-Presse; NoonPost reporter Hamza Abbas; and NoonPost camera operator Qusay Abdulbari — were beside their car in Sweida when it was struck by bullets. “We were covering events in Sweida, entering at the Omran roundabout,” Haj Suleiman told CPJ. “Druze armed factions appeared to counterattack, and gunfire came from three directions. We took cover behind our car as snipers and RPGs fired. After 10 minutes, the shooting stopped.”

• Also on July 19, Karam Nachar, editor-in-chief of the privately owned outlet Al-Jumhuriya, posted that one of the outlet’s journalists, who asked not to be named for his own safety, was robbed and threatened in his home in Sweida by what the journalist said “appeared to be newly recruited members of the ministry of defense.” CPJ spoke with the journalist and confirmed that he is now safe in Damascus. “The four gunmen took $1,600 in cash, my phone, and a camera worth around $2,000,” he said, adding that he managed to escape the raid after another journalist intervened.

CPJ contacted Mohammad Al-Saleh, the Syrian ministry of information’s spokesperson, via messaging app. He said authorities had not blocked journalists from working but warned them that Druze snipers were active in the area, and advised them to evacuate to avoid kidnapping or crossfire. Al-Saleh said the government holds its institutions accountable for any misconduct but currently lacks the means to pursue armed groups operating outside the law — “though that time will come.”

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

“The violence against journalists in Sweida — including injuries, intimidation, and the ransacking of media offices — along with the attack on a media outlet in Damascus, signals a dangerous escalation in threats to Syria’s press,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Authorities must investigate these incidents and ensure accountability. Journalists should not face violence or obstruction for doing their work.”

Fighting in Sweida governorate began on July 13, 2025, after a Druze merchant was assaulted by Bedouin tribesmen. The confrontation escalated into armed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin fighters, drawing in Syrian government forces. Israeli airstrikes on July 15 and 16 followed in Sweida and Damascus, with Israel citing the protection of Druze communities. A U.S.-brokered truce temporarily halted fighting, but conditions on the ground remained unstable.

• On July 15, Nadim al-Nabulsi, a reporter for Ahrar Horan, a local media collective, sustained minor injuries while covering events in Sweida after an Israeli drone strike. “I was reporting near the entrance of the city, following a [Syrian government] General Security Forces vehicle on my motorcycle,” al-Nabulsi told CPJ. “The vehicle was hit by drone-dropped explosives. I was around 25 meters (82 feet) behind and tried to hide, but some shrapnel hit my lower back.” He said he was wearing a “Press” vest at the time.

• Also on July 15, freelance journalist Muhannad Abu Zaid was wounded during clashes. He said he was following a General Security Forces convoy into Sweida when gunfire broke out. “I took cover and started filming, but a sniper fired and hit my hand,” he told CPJ. “I think the bullet was meant for my chest, but a car shielded me.”

• On July 16, an Israeli airstrike In Damascus, targeting the Syrian army’s general staff headquarters damaged Al-Hadath TV’s office. According to a video posted by the channel on X, no one was injured.

• On July 19, four journalists wearing “Press” vests — freelance photographer Ali Haj Suleiman, a Getty Images contributor; photographer Bakr Alkasem, who contributes to Agence France-Presse; NoonPost reporter Hamza Abbas; and NoonPost camera operator Qusay Abdulbari — were beside their car in Sweida when it was struck by bullets. “We were covering events in Sweida, entering at the Omran roundabout,” Haj Suleiman told CPJ. “Druze armed factions appeared to counterattack, and gunfire came from three directions. We took cover behind our car as snipers and RPGs fired. After 10 minutes, the shooting stopped.”

• Also on July 19, Karam Nachar, editor-in-chief of the privately owned outlet Al-Jumhuriya, posted that one of the outlet’s journalists, who asked not to be named for his own safety, was robbed and threatened in his home in Sweida by what the journalist said “appeared to be newly recruited members of the ministry of defense.” CPJ spoke with the journalist and confirmed that he is now safe in Damascus. “The four gunmen took $1,600 in cash, my phone, and a camera worth around $2,000,” he said, adding that he managed to escape the raid after another journalist intervened.

CPJ contacted Mohammad Al-Saleh, the Syrian ministry of information’s spokesperson, via messaging app. He said authorities had not blocked journalists from working but warned them that Druze snipers were active in the area, and advised them to evacuate to avoid kidnapping or crossfire. Al-Saleh said the government holds its institutions accountable for any misconduct but currently lacks the means to pursue armed groups operating outside the law — “though that time will come.”

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

“The arrest, abuse, and intimidation of journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region are deeply concerning and reflect a broader pattern of hostility toward press freedom,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Authorities must investigate these incidents transparently and ensure that journalists can report safely and without fear of retaliation or violence.”

In the early hours of July 9, Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, arrested three journalists in Rovia, a subdistrict of the northern city of Duhok’s Bardarash area. The journalists — Taif Goran, a reporter for opposition-linked NRT TV; his camera operator, Rayan Sidqi; and Rizgar Kamil, a reporter for Westga News — had traveled to Erbil’s Khabat district to cover clashes between security forces and tribal fighters. After all journalists were blocked from entering the area, they returned to Rovia to broadcast live and were detained. They were released the afternoon of July 10, after more than 25 hours in custody.

Taif Goran told CPJ that at around midnight, during a live broadcast, five Asayish vehicles arrived and officers beat and blindfolded the journalists. “We were tortured and beaten as much as they could and pressured to quit journalism,” he said. “Later, we were moved to Bardarash and held in solitary cells that had been used as toilets, in 35-degree (95 F) heat with no ventilation or water for hours.”

Goran said they were forced to unlock their phones, which were returned on July 15 with all their data erased.

Kamil told CPJ that officers beat the men during the arrest and again at the Asayish office in the city of Rovia. “They called us traitors and chaotic,” he said. “My phone was reformatted, and my back still hurts from the beating.”

On July 14, three security personnel assaulted Hersh Qadir, head of NRT’s Erbil office, while he was covering a protest in Erbil’s Ainkawa district. He told CPJ that a man in plainclothes identifying himself as an Asayish officer ordered him not to broadcast.

CPJ contacted the Bardarash Asayish by phone, where officials confirmed the arrests but denied any assault or torture, offering no further explanation.

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

Freelance photojournalist Tod Seelie was attacked by a group of people at an immigration protest while he was covering the event in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 14, 2025.

The protest was part of the nationwide “No Kings” movement opposing President Donald Trump, timed to coincide with a military parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Tensions in LA were already heightened after a wave of aggressive immigration enforcement raids across Southern California.

Seelie, who was clearly identifiable as press with a patch on his helmet and credentials around his neck, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was surrounded by five or six individuals who objected to being photographed.

“It escalated very suddenly,” he said.

When the group demanded he stop taking pictures, Seelie reminded them they were in a public space where there is no expectation of privacy, and he had a First Amendment right to document the event.

The group surrounded him, knocked him to the ground, and one person swung at his head. Another grabbed his phone and smashed it on the pavement. His camera sustained only cosmetic damage. Seelie ran, then kept shooting, but he spent the rest of the day scanning the crowd for people from the group.

“This is an unprecedented shift in my understanding of the safety of protest,” he said.

Earlier that day, Seelie said he was shoved by deputies as they formed a containment line to trap protesters. During the chaos, he was hit on his right leg by a crowd-control projectile and exposed to tear gas fired into a nearby group of journalists. He sustained only minor injuries — a bruise and irritation from the gas.

“The protesters did more damage than law enforcement did,” he said.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Barwe, the founder of the Samarth Bharat Pariwar YouTube-based news channel, was brutally beaten July 4 while reporting on claims of  illegal construction activity on disputed land in the Manchar region of Maharashtra’s Pune district, according to several news reports. A widely circulated video of the attack, reviewed by CPJ, shows a man striking Barwe with a wooden rod before the journalist  loses consciousness. She was hospitalized for three days with serious head and spinal injuries, and is currently recovering at home.

Police arrested five men over two days in connection with the attack who were granted bail and released,  Indian Express reported. The suspect wielding the stick has yet to be taken into custody.

“It is unacceptable that journalist Sneha Barwe’s attackers still walk free two weeks after her violent assault. This sends a troubling message that attacking the press will be met with impunity,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Maharashtra authorities must act decisively to ensure accountability and send a clear signal that violence against journalists will not be tolerated.”

The arrested suspects were accused of violating six sections of the Indian Penal Code, including provisions related to voluntarily causing hurt and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, according to Indian media watchdog Free Speech Collective. Three other people were also hurt in the attack with Barwe, who had been targeted on at least two previous occasions in connection with her reporting on local governance issues.

Srikant Kankal, the police officer supervising Barwe’s case, did not respond to CPJ’s texted request for an update on finding the journalist’s main attacker.

In February 2023, journalist Sashikant Warishe was murdered for reporting on a land dispute in Maharashtra.

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

“Media freedom is often a casualty of war, and Israel’s recent war with Iran is no exception. We have seen Israeli authorities use security fears to increase censorship, while extremist right-wing politicians have demonized the media, legitimizing attacks on journalists,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Despite hopes that we will see a ceasefire in Gaza this week, Israel’s government appears relentless in its determination to silence those who report critically on its military actions.”

After Haaretz newspaper published an interview with Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed Gazans waiting for food aid, a mayor in southern Israel threatened to shut shops selling the popular liberal paper. This follows the government’s decision last year to stop advertising with Haaretz, accusing it of “incitement.”

Authorities are also pushing ahead with a bill to dismantle the public broadcaster, Kan, and shutter its news division, the country’s third-largest news channel. Meanwhile, government support has seen the right-wing Channel 14 grow in popularity.

The hostile climate fueled by Israel’s right-wing government has emboldened settler violence against journalists. On July 5, two Deutsche Welle (DW) reporters wearing press vests were attacked by Israeli settlers in Sinjil, West Bank — an incident condemned by Germany’s ambassador and the German Journalists’ Association, which called it “unacceptable that radical settlers are hunting down media professionals with impunity.” Reporters from AFP, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were also present. Palestinian journalists had to flee.

“War is a dangerous time for civil rights – rights that Netanyahu’s government is actively undermining as it moves toward dismantling democracy,” Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn told CPJ.

‘Broadcasts that serve the enemy’

During the Israel-Iran war of June 13 to 24, anti-press government actions included:

• A June 18 military order requiring army approval before broadcasting the aftermath of Iranian attacks on Israeli military sites. Haaretz reported that this order was illegal as it was not made public in the official government gazette or authorized by a parliamentary committee.

• On June 19, security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Israelis who see people watching “Al Jazeera broadcasts or reporters” to report their sightings to authorities. Israel shut down the Qatari-based outlet in May 2024, and six of its journalists have been killed while reporting on Israel’s war in Gaza. Many Arabs in Israel still watch Al Jazeera broadcasts, and former Israeli officials have appeared on the network since the shutdown. 

“These are broadcasts that serve the enemy,” Ben-Gvir said. 

• On June 20, Ben-Gvir and communications minister Shlomo Karhi issued a directive that broadcasting from impact sites without written permission would be a criminal offense.

When Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanded that the ministers explain the legal basis for their announcement, the ministers said she was “trying to thwart” their efforts to ensure that foreign media “don’t help the enemy target us.”

• On June 23, Haaretz reported that the police’s legal adviser issued an order giving officers sweeping powers to censor journalists reporting from the impact sites.

“This directive, which primarily targets foreign media and joins a wave of police and ministerial efforts to obstruct news coverage, is unlawful and infringes on basic rights,” Tal Hassin, an attorney with Israel’s biggest human rights group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told CPJ.

ACRI petitioned the Attorney General, arguing that the police adviser did not have the legal authority to issue such an order. It has not received a response.

Journalists censored, detained, and abused

CPJ subsequently documented at least four incidents involving journalists who were abused and blocked from reporting.

• On June 20, police stopped a live broadcast from Tel Aviv by Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT’s correspondent Mücahit Aydemir, although he told the officers he had the required permits, including authorization from the military censor. For several days afterwards, Aydemir received “unsettling phone calls” from unknown Hebrew-speakers, he told CPJ.

• On June 21, privately owned Channel 13’s journalist Ali Mughrabi and a camera operator, who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisals, were expelled from a drone crash site in Beit She’an, northern Israel, despite showing their press accreditation. During a live broadcast, Deputy Mayor Oshrat Barel questioned their credentials, shoved the cameraperson, and ordered them to leave. She later apologized.

“What we’re experiencing isn’t just about the media — it’s about citizenship,” Mughrab, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian origin, told CPJ.

• On June 22, a civilian police volunteer squad, led by far-right activist and rapper Yoav Eliasi, known as “The Shadow,” detained three Jerusalem-based, Arab Israeli journalists and one international journalist, after separating them from their non-Arab colleagues outside a building in Tel Aviv that had been damaged by an Iranian strike.

Mustafa Kharouf and Amir Abed Rabbo from the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency, Ahmad Gharabli, with Agence France-Presse news agency, and another journalist who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisal, were held for three hours.  

Kharouf told CPJ, the unit asked them who was “Israeli” and allowed the non-Arab journalists to leave. 

“One officer accused us of working for Al Jazeera, even though we showed official press credentials,” said Kharouf.

“When I showed my ID, they told me I wasn’t allowed to film because I’m not Israeli – even though they treat us like Israelis when it comes to taxes,” Gharabli told CPJ.

Armed volunteer squads have rapidly grown from four before the October 2023 Hamas attack to around 900 new units, an expansion that “had negative effects on Arab-Jewish relations,” Dr. Ark Rudnitzky of Tel Aviv University told CPJ in an email. Squad members “tend to suspect an Arab solely because they are Arab,” he said.

“It was clear they targeted the journalists because they were Arab,” said Israeli journalist and witness Oren Ziv, who wrote about the incident.

The Central District Police told CPJ via email that the journalists were “evacuated from the building for security reasons related to their safety and were directed to alternative reporting locations.”

• On June 24,  Channel 13 correspondent Paz Robinson and a camera operator who declined to be named were reporting on a missile strike in southern Israel’s Be’er Sheva when a woman shouted that he was a “Nazi” and “Al Jazeera” and blocked him from filming, screaming, “You came to celebrate over dead bodies.”

“After I saw the woman wasn’t backing down, I decided to leave. I’m not here to fight with my own people. I’m not a politician. I came to cover events,” Robinson told CPJ.

Earlier in the war with Iran, CPJ documented eight incidents in which 14 journalists faced harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, or forced removal by the police.

The Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit told CPJ via email that police “made significant efforts to facilitate safe, meaningful access for journalists” during the war with Iran.  “While isolated misunderstandings may occur…case was addressed promptly and professionally.”

CPJ’s emails to the Attorney General, Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk, Ben-Gvir, and Shlomo requesting comment did not receive any replies. 

Kholod Massalha is a CPJ consultant on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a researcher with years of experience in press freedom and freedom of expression issues.

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

On Saturday, July 5, Chicangana, news director of radio station Guaviare Estéreo, and Torres were leaving their home in the southern town of San José del Guaviare when a man shot them. Chicangana was wounded in the throat, thorax, and shoulder and was in stable condition at a Bogotá hospital, while Torres, who was wounded in the throat and chin, is recovering in a San José del Guaviare hospital also in stable condition, Erica Londoño, Guaviare Estéreo’s director, told CPJ.

“We strongly condemn the shooting of Colombian journalist Gustavo Chicangana and his wife,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “This is a heinous attack on press freedom and the safety of those who work to inform the public. We urge Colombian authorities to immediately investigate it and ensure that journalists can do their work without fear of violence or intimidation.”

Chicangana, 62, who also works for Caracol Radio Guaviare and the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), has received numerous threats for his reporting and had been assigned a bodyguard by the Colombian government’s National Protection Unit but he was off-duty and not with the journalist at the time of the shooting.

The most recent threat against him came from the Renacer de Erpac, one of several drug-trafficking groups operating in south-central Colombia’s violence-plagued Guaviare department. A week before the attack on Chicangana and Torres, the group had demanded that Guaviare Estéreo broadcast a statement announcing Renacer de Erpac’s presence in the area. When the station refused, the group declared its journalists “military objectives,” Londoño said.

In a statement Monday, the Colombia attorney general’s office announced that the suspected gunman, William Alexander Perea, 21, had been arrested and charged with aggravated attempted homicide. A second man was also arrested in connection with the shooting, but the statement provided no further details. 

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

“The lethal attack that took Salomón Ordóñez’s life is a stark reminder of how little President Claudia Sheinbaum has done since assuming office late last year to change the cycle of violence and impunity that plagues journalists,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “Mexican authorities can break this cycle by bringing the culprits of this devastating attack to justice.”

Ordóñez, the founder and editor of the Facebook-based Shalom Cuetzalan Produccions, was attacked by unknown assailants at approximately 8 p.m. in Cuetzalan, a town 110 miles northeast of Mexico City,  according to news reports. Witnesses found Ordóñez, 40, with at least two gunshot wounds, the reports added. The journalist died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.

Ordóñez mostly covered cultural news and political events related to local culture, which he shared to his news site’s over 75,000 followers—a significant number in Cuetzalan, which has 50,000 inhabitants. His coverage made him a popular figure in the community, according to a SPD Noticias report.

One journalist from the region, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal, told CPJ via messaging app that Ordóñez did not cover sensitive political topics, corruption or organized crime in the area.

The Puebla state government, in a short statement released June 24 on Facebook, said the office of the state prosecutor (FGE) is investigating the attack. Several calls by CPJ to the FGE went unanswered.

It is unclear whether Ordóñez had received threats. CPJ was unable to retrieve contact information for his family.

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

Asia Pacific Report

Ninety-five New Zealand lawyers — including nine king’s counsel — have signed a letter demanding Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and two other ministers urge the government to take a stronger stand against Israel’s “catastrophic” actions in Gaza.

The letter has been sent amid rising tensions in the region, following Israel’s surprise attacks on Iran last Friday, and Iran’s retaliatory attacks.

A statement by the Justice For Palestine advocacy group said the letter’s signatories represented all levels of seniority in the legal community, including senior barristers, law firm partners, legal academics, and in-house lawyers.

• READ MORE: Israel kills at least 70 Palestinians in Gaza’s deadliest day at militarised aid sites
• The full Justice For Palestine letter

The letter cited the 26 July 2024 joint statement by the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand which acknowledged: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.”

“But it has continued,” said the letter.  “The plight of the civilian population in Gaza has significantly deteriorated, featuring steadily escalating levels of bombardment, forced displacement of civilians, blockades of aid and deliberate targeting of hospitals, aid workers and journalists.”

The same month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had declared Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be unlawful.

Obligations under international law
In September last year, New Zealand voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on all UN member states to comply with their obligations under international law and take concrete steps to address Israel’s ongoing presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the Justice For Palestine statement.

At the time, New Zealand had noted it expected Israel to take meaningful steps towards compliance with international law, including withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The letter stated that Israel had done nothing of the sort.

The letter points out that last month independent UN experts had demanded immediate international intervention to “end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza.”

UN experts have observed more than 52,535 deaths, of which 70 percent continue to be women and children, said the statement.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, had called for a response “as humanitarians” urging “Humanity, the law and reason must prevail”.

The Justice For Palestine letter urged the government to consider a stronger response, including:

• condemning Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
• reviewing immediately all diplomatic and political and economic ties with Israel, and
• imposing further sanctions after New Zealand had imposed sanctions on two extremist Israeli politicians.

Rising concern over Israeli breaches
One of the letter’s signatories, barrister Max Harris, said:

Aedeen Boadita-Cormican, another barrister, who signed the letter, said: “The government could do more to follow through on how it has voted at the United Nations and what it has said internationally.”

“This letter shows the depth of concern in the legal community about Israel’s actions,” she added.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

Israel is intensifying its war on Iran, bombing the headquarters of the country’s national TV network on Monday and assassinating another top military leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has responded with barrages of long-range missiles targeting Israel. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown little interest in containing Israel’s assault, posting on social media that “everyone should immediately evacuate” the capital Tehran.

“How can a city, a metropolis of 10 million people, suddenly evacuate? And to where?” says Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi. She notes that while Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is civilian in nature, these attacks could push the leadership into militarizing it and pursuing nuclear weapons.

We also speak with Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg, who says the war on Iran has allowed Israel’s establishment to “draw the world’s attention away from Gaza,” countering rising domestic and international criticism. “Netanyahu felt the global sentiment shifting … and because of that, he attacked Iran.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV.

The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news broadcast was underway.

The transmission was briefly interrupted before Hassan Abedini, IRIB’s news director and deputy for political affairs, appeared on air to condemn the “terrorist crime”.

• READ MORE: Blasts rock Tehran, Tel Aviv; Iran warns Israel of ‘devastating’ attacks
• Other Israeli war on Iran reports

At the time of the attack, news anchor Sahar Emami was presenting the news. Despite the building trembling under the first strike, she stood her ground and continued the broadcast.

“Allah o Akbar” (God is Great), she proclaimed, drawing global attention to the war crime committed by Israel against Iran’s national broadcaster.

Moments later, another blast filled the studio with smoke and dust, forcing her to evacuate. She returned shortly after to join Abedini and share her harrowing experience.

“If I die, others will take my place and expose your crimes to the world,” she declared, looking straight into the camera with courage and composure.

Casualties unconfirmed
While the number of casualties remains unconfirmed, insiders reported that several journalists inside the building had been injured in the bombing.

Israel’s war ministry promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the aggression on the state broadcaster as a “war crime” and called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the regime.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the attack and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable for its assault on the media.

“The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB’s office during a live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Baghaei wrote on X.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also condemned the bombing of the IRIB news building, labeling it an “inhuman, criminal, and a terrorist act.”

CPJ ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state TV channel while live on air.”

“Israel’s killing, with impunity, of almost 200 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region,” Sara Qudah, the West Asia representative for CPJ, said in a statement after the attack on an IRIB building.

The Israeli regime has a documented history of targeting journalists globally. Since October 2023, it has killed more than 250 Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The regime launched its aggression against the Islamic Republic, including Tehran, early on Friday, leading to the assassination of several high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.

In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones late Friday night, followed by more retaliatory operations on Saturday and Sunday as part of Operation True Promise III.

In Israel, 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since hostilities began. In Iran, 224 people have been killed.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Ben Camacho, freelance reporter for LA nonprofit The Southlander

You were injured while covering protests on June 7 at the Paramount Home Depot, the site where one of the initial immigration raids that spurred the protests occurred. What happened in the lead-up to your injury?

Pretty much the whole day, pepper balls were being shot by the sheriffs towards the protesters. I was keeping an eye out for those all day. But they were also throwing stingers, which is like a flashbang. They were definitely being thrown directly at people at some point, which is extremely dangerous. And rubber bullets, of course, were kind of flying as well. Some protesters were throwing their plastic water bottles or maybe fist-sized pieces of concrete. It seemed like most of them just kind of fell short of their target.

I had on a gas mask and half-face, ballistic-rated goggles, and a press pass. Mind you, the National Guard, like the military, had not been deployed yet.

Before I was shot, I was in an area where people were peacefully protesting. I was keeping an eye on my co-reporter, who was getting video. That’s when I saw a projectile go straight into the area where he was, and that’s when I saw Nick Stern [a British photojournalist] get shot.

I ended up going over and helping him get away. As I went back toward the protest area, pain hit me in the kneecap. I started screaming. I had never felt that type of pain before. I started to turn around to try to walk away, and the pain got worse.

Someone came up to me and helped me walk away. Then I was shot again, this time in my right elbow. It was excruciating at this point. I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I was in such a weird, shocked state of mind.

The next day, I went to Urgent Care to get checked out. Thankfully, my injuries are just serious, nasty bruises and a nasty cut. I’ve been home since, making sure these minor injuries don’t become worse.

Could you have imagined this happening in Los Angeles?

The police violence this time around feels much, much higher than any protests in the past few years. I also covered the 2020 uprising [the Black Lives Matter protests] and, yes, there was extreme police violence back then too.

This time, police action feels a lot more indiscriminate and a lot stronger, and that’s just from [what I experienced with] the Los Angeles authorities.

How has being a person of color shaped your reporting experience?

I am from these communities that people are being taken from. My hometown, just outside of LA, is also rising up against this. And I have a significant audience on my reporting platforms. And because I’m not out there, that’s a voice lost. 

Abraham Márquez, investigative journalist for The Southlander

While covering protests, you were hit by less lethal munitions fired by law enforcement on June 6, and then by what seemed to have been the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on June 7. Could you have expected this in your hometown?

You know, it’s not my first rodeo. I’ve never seen them [law enforcement in Los Angeles] be careful with the press in the years that I’ve been documenting protests here.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced them telling the press, “Hey, go on this side, you’ll be safe here,” or them holding back from not attacking.

I think at this point, Los Angeles’ law enforcement feels somewhat empowered because their actions will be backed up by the federal government, if they do something wrong.LA is heavily policed right now — we’ve got sheriffs out; we’ve got CHP [California Highway Patrol] out; cops from other cities are here; we’re going to have the Marines and the National Guard. It feels like they can do whatever they want and get away with it.

What’s at stake when journalists are attacked?

Reporters are on the front lines trying to document the reality of what it is to live in this country. We’re trying to document that people are being arrested and deported without due process. Police officers are brutalizing people who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest and to assemble peacefully.

What has it been like emotionally covering this?

I haven’t had a chance to really sit back, zoom out, and really let this process. My phone’s been blowing up this whole week with alerts of potential ICE raids, or information about where people are, where they’re getting arrested. I’m just trying to prepare and get ready, and make sure that I’m ready for the next day.

Mekahlo Medina, anchor and reporter for NBC4 News

What has surprised you most about the nature of the recent protests and the response from law enforcement?  

LA is the epicenter of immigration. We have the most undocumented people in the entire country — I think just under a million in LA County, a population of 10 million. Immigration is a national issue, and I think we fully expected some sort of reaction once it came to our doorstep. We just didn’t know what that was going to be.

What has surprised me the most has been the federal response. I thought, maybe, we would see them as part of ICE operations, but not at the protests in the way that we have.

You and your news crew were fired on with pellet projectiles by federal agents while covering June 7 protests. Did you ever think this would happen in Los Angeles? 

I’ve covered many protests in the 20 years I’ve been here, and we have a very good relationship with LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] around our coverage of the protests, and what we’re supposed to do and not supposed to do.

I felt going into protest situations last weekend [June 6- 8] that we would be fine. And then when we got shot by federal agents, I think we were all taken aback. I can’t say it was targeted toward me. But what I can say is, most of the protesters had already left. We had large cameras; I had “Press” on my vest. We were all clearly identified.

What worries you about the situation in Los Angeles going forward?

I’m concerned that the non-lethal munitions might actually hurt somebody to a degree where they could lose an eye or something else along those lines. That worries me a lot.

Television crews have had some of our equipment and trucks attacked or destroyed — without anyone in them — by protesters, but I would say most journalists are concerned about all the agents and what they’re firing.

In this country, for the most part, journalism and journalists have been respected. It’s part of our constitution — freedom of press. It’s embedded in who we are every day from day one. The government is trying to keep us [journalists] from doing our job. I think it should be a red flag for a lot of people.

Ryanne Mena, crime and public safety reporter for the Southern California News Group

You were hit twice with less-lethal munitions on June 6 and then again on June 7, resulting in a concussion. Could you have imagined this happening in your home community? 

After Trump was elected, I was really nervous for what would come in Los Angeles, because I know Los Angeles, and people show up for protests. But I didn’t think that I would be doing a job that would involve federal agents shooting at me.

Do you plan to continue covering this story?

Yes. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I have a very deep connection to the city and immigrant rights. I think it is so important to document why people are taking to the streets, and also to document the community that has been forming with all this anger.

It is an honor to be one of the reporters out there recording the first draft of history. This is history that we’re living through.

What do you want people outside of Los Angeles to understand about what’s happening now?

Seemingly, journalists are being targeted. There have been many of us who have been injured in the last several days, at least once on live TV with an Australian reporter. There are so many of us who have been injured by federal agents, by local law enforcement, and it’s all unacceptable. Every single agency that has been involved in harming journalists should be condemned and should be investigated, I believe.

Other journalists should get ready to get ready because I feel like Los Angeles is just the first place where this kind of violence against journalists, or similar things, might happen. This is only the beginning.

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

Government officials confirmed that Torres was detained May 13 but have since provided no information on the charges against him.

The letter calls on Venezuelan authorities to “guarantee that human rights defenders can carry out their work freely and safely, without fear of harassment, reprisals or imprisonment” and to allow Torres regular communication with family members and trusted lawyers.

Read the full letter in English here and Spanish here.

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

Initial protests demanding accountability for the tragedy have turned into a widespread movement against corruption and President Aleksandar Vučić’s increasingly authoritarian rule, and as a result, journalists have faced a surge in physical attacks, threats, online harassment, smear campaigns, and even spyware — often driven by Vučić’s supporters, government officials, and pro-government media.

Since the beginning of November, the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (IJAS) has recorded 23 physical assaults. There have been 18 assaults so far this year, already surpassing the 17 in all of 2024. The IJAS has tallied a total of 128 of various types of attacks and threats so far this year, suggesting the overall number may soon exceed last year’s 166 cases.

“In the political crisis Serbia is going through since November, we are witnessing a sort of open warfare against independent media,” Jelena L. Petković, a freelance journalist specializing in covering media safety in the Western Balkans, told CPJ. “2025 might turn out to be the worst year on record for journalist safety in the country.”

Petković said U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection, the rise of populist leaders like Viktor Orbán in neighboring EU states, and the crisis the USAID funding freeze has caused for Serbia’s independent media have emboldened Vučić to intensify his pressure on the press — frequently accusing journalists and civil society groups of being foreign agents and traitors. She noted that none of the attacks on journalists since last November have led to prosecutions, underscoring a broader pattern of impunity.

“This surge of attacks on independent journalists who hold the power to account in Serbia reflects a broader attempt to silence critical reporting amid a deepening political crisis,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Serbian authorities must end the impunity for these attacks, take urgent steps to protect journalists, and put a stop to the hostile climate that emboldens those who seek to intimidate journalists.”

CPJ emailed questions to the press office of the presidency and to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the police, but did not receive any replies.

Below is a breakdown of the most serious attacks since November 1, 2024, based on CPJ’s review of cases documented by local press freedom groups:

Physical attacks

CPJ’s review of 15 physical attacks, affecting at least 23 journalists, found that the incidents mostly occurred during protests and ranged from attempts to snatch journalists’ phones to assaults that caused injuries. Some attackers were politicians or public officials, and several journalists reported that police failed to protect them.

• On May 17, 2025, an unidentified individual attempted to knock the phone of Južne Vesti journalist Tamara Radovanović from her hand while she was documenting a rally by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the southern city of Niš. Instead of protecting her, police removed her from the scene to “reduce tension,” without taking action against her attacker, according to the journalist.

• On May 16, while filming an SNS event attended by party officials in the eastern village of Makovište, N1 TV camera operator Marjan Vučetić was attacked from behind by unknown individuals, who struck his back and neck, causing light injuries. Others insulted him, calling him a “traitor” and “foreign mercenary.”

• On April 12,  during an SNS rally in the capital Belgrade, pro-government supporters attacked a five-member KTV crew. Milorad Malešev, a technician, had three teeth knocked out, while others sustained scrapes and bruises. Police intervened only after camera operator Siniša Nikšić was assaulted, at which point they surrounded the journalists and told them to stop reporting, saying they couldn’t guarantee their safety.

• On March 23, Saša Dragojlo, a journalist for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), was beaten while covering a protest by a man later identified by Serbian media as a former boxer and SNS activist in Belgrade. Despite Dragojlo identifying himself as press and requesting help, police intervened only to prevent further escalation, but failed to take action against the attacker. 

• On November 27, 2024, during a pro-government demonstration in Belgrade, supporters insulted an N1 news crew and attacked journalist Jelena Mirković, hitting her shoulder and knocking the microphone from her hand. Reporter Aleksandar Cvrkutić’s camera was also struck as he filmed the scene.

• On November 22, Nova TV reporter Ana Marković was lightly injured when demonstrators struck her phone from her hand while she was reporting in Belgrade.

• On November 6, while live streaming a municipal assembly session in the northerntown of Kovin, journalist Miloš Ljiljanić of Kovinske Info was physically attacked by an SNS councilor, who shoved him, tried to grab his phone, and twisted his arm.

• On November 5, in the northern city of Novi Sad, a group of masked individuals insulted an N1 TV crew and struck cameraperson Nikola Popović’s hand, causing him to drop and damage his camera. They also assaulted Euronews camera operator Mirko Todorović, knocking him to the ground. Police at the scene did not intervene.

Police violence, obstruction, detention

• On May 17, 2025, police in Niš detained Nikola Doderović, a correspondent for Australian radio broadcaster SBS, as well as a journalism student accompanying him, for over an hour during a pro-government rally. After demanding their IDs, officers questioned them about their presence and activities, which Doderović said was unnecessary and arbitrary. Local press freedom groups called the detention a “clear form of intimidation.”

• On May 16, police in Novi Sad briefly detained freelance photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić for “identification,” even though his helmet was marked as “press.” Earlier, officers had beaten him along with some protesters while he was documenting a blockade of the court and prosecutor’s office.

• On April 28, police pepper-sprayed and beat journalist Žarko Bogosavljević of Razglas News while he was covering a protest, despite his wearing a press vest.

• On April 10, prosecutors in Belgrade detained Dejan Ilić, a columnist for news site Peščanik, for a day on criminal charges of “causing panic and disorder.” The charges stem from comments he made during a March 29 Nova TV talk show, where he discussed political alternatives for Serbia, including a transitional government.

• On March 14, several journalist crews traveling from neighboring Croatia and Slovenia to cover anti-corruption protests in Belgrade were briefly detained at the border and denied entry, before being sent back.

• On February 25, police raided the premises of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, an NGO operating the fact-checking platform Istinomer, for 28 hours as part of a corruption probe tied to USAID funding — allegations that local press freedom groups have denounced as politically motivated.

• On January 17, police forcibly removed five journalists — with N1 TV, Nova TV, Radio 021, and the daily newspaper Danas — from Novi Sad City Hall, preventing them from covering an opposition-led protest.

Surveillance, spyware

• On March 27, BIRN reported that two of its journalists had been targeted with Pegasus spyware in February. The attempted “one-click” attack failed, as the journalists did not open the malicious link.

Other threats, smears

• In April 2025, a 60-minute video, produced by a pro-government NGO, aired on six national channels and circulated on social media, portraying journalists from N1 TV, Nova TV, and other outlets of publishing house United Group as foreign agents, extremists, and enemies of the state allegedly operating illegally in Serbia.

• In February and March 2025, National Assembly President Ana Brnabić accused N1, Nova S, and Danas of spreading hatred and lies. Facing critical questions, Vučić asked a reporter from investigative outlet KRiK how much money he had received from USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy. The president also blamed N1 TV and its Brussels correspondent Nikola Radišić of contributing to a “color revolution,” a reference to pro-democracy movements that have emerged in various Eastern European countries, which Vučić has portrayed as a Western attempt to undermine Serbia’s sovereignty. Radišić was excluded from a press conference in Brussels as well.

• Since November 2024, journalists working for independent media outlets N1 TV, Nova TV, and online platform Magločistač, as well as press freedom advocates, have received threats of physical violence and death.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Attila Mong/CPJ Europe Representative.

An escalation in fighting between Indonesian security forces and Papuan pro-independence fighters in West Papua has seriously threatened the security of the largely indigenous population, says Human Rights Watch in a new report.

The human rights watchdog warned that all parties to the conflict are obligated to abide by international humanitarian law, also called the laws of war.

The security forces’ military operations in the densely forested Central Highlands areas are accused of killing and wounding dozens of civilians with drone strikes and the indiscriminate use of explosive munitions, and displaced thousands of indigenous Papuans, said the report.

• READ MORE: Fiji rights coalition slams ‘betrayal’ of West Papua for Indonesian benefits
• Other West Papua reports

The National Liberation Army of West Papua, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility in the killing of 17 alleged miners between April 6 and April 9.

“The Indonesian military has a long history of abuses in West Papua that poses a particular risk to the Indigenous communities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

“Concerned governments need to press the Prabowo [Subianto] administration and Papuan separatist armed groups to abide by the laws of war.”

The fighting escalated after the attack on the alleged miners, which the armed group accused of being targeted soldiers or military informers.

Operation Habema
The Indonesian military escalated its ongoing operations, called Operation Habema, in West Papua’s six provinces, especially in the Central Highlands, where Papuan militant groups have been active for more than four decades.

On May 14, the military said that it had killed 18 resistance fighters in Intan Jaya regency, and that it had recovered weapons including rifles, bows and arrows, communications equipment, and Morning Star flags — the symbol of Papuan resistance.

Further military operations have allegedly resulted in burning down villages and attacks on churches. Papuan activists and pastors told Human Rights Watch that government forces treated all Papuan forest dwellers who owned and routinely used bows and arrows for hunting as “combatants”.

Information about abuses has been difficult to corroborate because the hostilities are occurring in remote areas in Intan Jaya, Yahukimo, Nduga, and Pegunungan Bintang regencies.

Pastors, church workers, and local journalists interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Indonesian forces had been using drones and helicopter gunships to drop bombs.

“Civilians from the Korowai tribe community, known for their tall treehouse dwellings, have been harmed in these attacks, and have desperately fled the fighting,” said the Human Rights Watch report.

“Displaced villagers, mostly from Intan Jaya, have sought shelter and refuge in churches in Sugapa, the capital of the regency.”

Resistance allegations
The armed resistance group has made allegations, which Human Rights Watch could not corroborate, that the Indonesian military attacks harmed civilians.

It reported that a mortar or rocket attack outside a church in Ilaga, Puncak regency, hit two young men on May 6, killing one of them, Deris Kogoya, an 18-year-old student.

The group said that the Indonesian military attack on May 14, in which the military claimed all 18 people killed were pro-independence combatants, mostly killed civilians.

Ronald Rischardt Tapilatu, pastor of the Evangelical Christian Church of the Land of Papua, said that at least 3 civilians were among the 18 bodies. Human Rights Watch has a list of the 18 killed, which includes 1 known child.

The daughter of Hetina Mirip said her mother was found dead on May 17 near her house in Sugapa, while Indonesian soldiers surrounded their village. She wrote that the soldiers tried to cremate and bury her mother’s body.

A military spokesman denied the shooting.

One evident impact of the renewed fighting is that thousands of indigenous Papuans have been forced to flee their ancestral lands.

Seven villages attacked
The Vanuatu-based United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) reported that the military had attacked seven villages in Ilaga with drones and airstrikes, forcing many women and children to flee their homes. Media reports said that it was in Gome, Puncak regency.

International humanitarian law obligates all warring parties to distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Civilians may never be the target of attack.

Warring parties are required to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians and civilian objects, such as homes, shops, and schools. Attacks may target only combatants and military objectives.

Attacks that target civilians or fail to discriminate between combatants and civilians, or that would cause disproportionate harm to the civilian population compared to the anticipated military gain, are prohibited.

Parties must treat everyone in their custody humanely, not take hostages, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The Free Papua Movement has long sought self-determination and independence in West Papua, on the grounds that the Indonesian government-controlled “Act of Free Choice” in 1969 was illegitimate and did not involve indigenous Papuans.

It advocates holding a new, fair, and transparent referendum, and backs armed resistance.

Vast conflict area
Human Rights Watch reports that the conflict areas, including Intan Jaya, are on the northern side of Mt Grasberg, spanning a vast area from Sugapa to Oksibil in the Pegunungan Bintang regency, approximately 425 km long.

Sugapa is also known as the site of Wabu Block, which holds approximately 2.3 million kilos of gold, making it one of Indonesia’s five largest known gold reserves.

Wabu Block is currently under the licensing process of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

“Papuans have endured decades of systemic racism, heightening concerns of further atrocities,” HRW’s Asia director Ganguly said.

“Both the Indonesian military and Papuan armed groups need to comply with international standards that protect civilians.”

Republished from Human Rights Watch.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“Journalist Bijay Pradhan’s brutal attack is yet another grave reminder of the growing dangers faced by local journalists across India, particularly those targeted in the eastern state of Odisha,” said CPJ India Representative Kunāl Majumder. “Authorities must ensure a swift and impartial investigation and bring those responsible to justice.”

Pradhan, a reporter with the privately-held Odia-language news outlet Bada Khabar, was tied up and brutally beaten by a group of men on May 23 while reporting on alleged irregularities in a local construction project in the Kulthipali village of Bolangir district. A video of the assault widely shared on social media, shows Pradhan being kicked and dragged by a group. The assault went on for two hours and resulted in the rupture of his right eardrum. He is undergoing treatment for his injuries in Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital, Pradhan told CPJ. 

Pradham said his attackers also snatched his mobile phone, on which he had recorded the incident, his microphone, and other equipment to stop him from reporting.

Five individuals named in the official complaint including the prime suspect have been arrested. They are being investigated for charges including assault, voluntarily causing hurt (including by dangerous means), misappropriation, theft, and property damage. 

News reports quoted a senior police officer saying “the contractor involved in the retaining wall construction may have instigated the assault” and that his “involvement is under thorough investigation.” However, Pradhan told CPJ he fears he could be targeted again if he resumes field reporting.

CPJ has documented multiple attacks in Odisha on journalists such as Jyotiranjan Mohapatra,  Pratap Patra, Tarun Kumar Acharya—including murder, physical assault, and targeted violence explicitly linked to their reporting on sensitive topics such as sand mining, child labor, and local corruption. 

CPJ’s requests for comment sent to Abilash G., the superintendent of police in the Bolangir district, did not receive any reply.

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

“DRC authorities must swiftly, thoroughly, and transparently investigate journalist Samy Kambere Malikidogo’s shooting and hold the officer responsible to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Durban. “Journalists covering events of public interest, such as public demonstrations, must be protected by law enforcement, not targeted.”

Kambere, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kibali FM, was shot in his right arm on May 23 by an officer with the Congolese National Police (PNC), according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ, and a press release from the local press freedom organization L’Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse en Afrique (OLPA).

Kambere told CPJ that he was wearing a clearly distinguishable press badge around his neck when police shot him as he reported on the protests against increased insecurity, including the May 22 killing of a store owner by unidentified armed men. Kambere received medical treatment at a local health clinic following the attack and was released. 

A local police commander known as Major Dakota told CPJ by phone that he was on medical leave but had been informed that the shooting was under investigation.

CPJ has previously documented attacks on journalists covering insecurity protests in the DRC.

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

“Liberian authorities must hold to account those who attacked Smile FM, beat media technician Cyrus Gbeway, and prevented the station from broadcasting for two weeks,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Durban. “The safety of journalists and the Liberian people’s access to information should be a top priority for authorities.”

The shutdown, which ended on May 19, came amid a dispute at Smile FM between two rival boards over leadership of the community radio station in Zwedru, the capital of eastern Grand Gedeh County.

Gbeway told CPJ that two of the men who forced their way into the station’s compound at dawn, smashed his phone, and evicted him were known associates of county superintendent Alex Chersia Grant. The president appoints 15 superintendents nationally, whose roles are administrative.

Grant told CPJ he was one of the station’s founders and rejected news reports that he ordered the raid. Grant said that he did know the two men identified by Gbewey but he did not know why they participated in the raid and declined to explain his relationship with them.

Solo Uriah Lewis, who was recently ousted as station manager, told CPJ that he called the police when he arrived at the radio station and saw it had been occupied.

Since the end of Liberia’s civil war in 2003, the media has grown significantly but is often reliant on financial support from government or politicians. CPJ has documented journalists being beaten, threatened, and harassed by politicians and security forces.

The Press Union of Liberia described the incident as “disturbing” and called on the police to ensure Smile FM could operate without interruption.

CPJ’s calls and text messages to request comment from national police spokesperson Cecelia Clarke did not receive any replies.

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

The BDS movement has a global list of companies to boycott. Those on the list include multinational corporations such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Dell, HP, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s, among others, that have been associated with or shown support for Israel. The logic being that a withdrawal of such monetary, cultural, military and other support would prohibit Israel from carrying out its offensive in Palestine. It is estimated that about 53,000 Palestinians have been killed in this since October 2023, with the actual toll likely to be far higher.

The demonstration by 10-12 IPSP members on May 10 was along similar lines. They were distributing pamphlets on what was happening in Palestine outside a Domino’s outlet. Just when they were about to wrap up, things suddenly escalated.

What Happened on May 10?

One of the IPSP members, Swapnaja Manoj Limkar, told Alt News that the pro-Palestine group was questioned by 10-15 people as they were carrying out their campaign. “They asked us, ‘What are you doing?’, ‘What about Pahalgam?’, pointed at the Palestine flag and called us ‘deshdrohi‘ (traitor)… We were, anyway, wrapping up at that point and leaving, but within a few minutes, these people called some 50-60 others over there. They mentioned they were from the Bajrang Dal. One of those who led the mob was a BJP leader from Pune,” she said.

“At this point, there were only four of us—two females and two males—remaining there because I asked everybody else to leave when I sensed this might be escalating,” she said, adding, “One person from the mob started hitting the two men with a cricket bat. Lalita (another IPSP member present there) and I were trying to shield them as the mob was not attacking the women. If we hadn’t been there, it could have turned into a lynching situation… I was given rape and death threats, my saree was torn”.

Swapnaja’s account of the thrashing was corroborated by a video shared by the Instagram account @hindutvawatchin on May 12. The caption reads: “Hindu nationalists assaulted activists who were distributing pamphlets against the genocide in Gaza as part of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, in front of a Domino’s outlet.” It also mentioned that the mob was led by BJP leaders Mahesh Pavale and Sagar Dhame.

The video showed two men holding an individual by their collar as others joined in to hit him. While this was happening, a woman in a green saree could be seen trying to shield the individual. In the same video, some men were treating another individual in a similar way when a woman in a black and white saree tried to protect him from the violence. The video also shows the mob hurling abuses at them. At some point, someone from the enraged mob could also be heard shouting “Pakistan Zindabad”. But the audio was not clear, so we could not decipher whether it was said in a particular context or as part of sloganeering.

 

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A post shared by Hindutva Watch (@hindutvawatchin)

A May 11 post on the official Instagram page of BDS India on May 11 detailed the incident with Swapnaja’s statement. The caption said that the police allegedly detained IPSP members while the assailants were let go.

Swapnaja also told Alt News that BJP leader Mahesh Pavale, who allegedly led the mob, told the police that IPSP members raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. “It was spread in the news that in our protest, we raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans, it was also claimed that we were promoting pro-Hamas policies when we have clearly mentioned in our pamphlet that we do not support the ideology of Hamas, we only support the Palestinian liberation movement, the freedom struggle of Palestine”.

Hamas is a political and militant organisation that controls the Gaza Strip. It had launched an attack against Israel in October 2023, which triggered the war in which thousands of civilians have now been killed.

Swapnaja also showed us pictures of several other similar campaigns they organised. “We never faced backlash like this,” she said.

Police Complaints

Both parties filed complaints against each other at the Warje-Malwadi police station in Pune on May 12. Alt News has reviewed a copy of these.

A first information report (FIR) filed by the IPSP names three individuals—Mahesh Pavale, Sagar Dhame and Amit Jadhav. All three are affiliated with the BJP. Thy have been charged under sections 79, 189(2), 190, 191(2), 115(2), 351(2) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Section 79 deals with words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman, while 189(2) deals with knowingly joining or remaining in an unlawful assembly despite being aware that it is unlawful. Section 190 punishes every member of unlawful assembly as guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object, 191(2) looks at punishment for provoking riots, 115(2) deals with voluntarily causing hurt, 351(2) with criminal intimidation and 352 with intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.

Meanwhile, the FIR filed by the Hindutva group is against 11 individuals of the IPSP, of which only four were named in the FIR. However, the charges invoked by them were far more severe. The FIR charged them with sections 196, 299, 302, 189(2), 190, 126(2) and 135 of the BNS.

Section 196 deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, or any other ground, 299 punishes those indulging in deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, 302 penalises those who speak with with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of another person, 126(2) deals with wrongfully restraining a person and 135 punishes those who assault or use criminal force to confine a person wrongfully.

Note that the FIR against IPSP has no mention of the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. Alt News also reached out to the deputy commissioner of police (Zone 3) Sambhaji Kadam, who told us that the cases were under investigation, and presently, statements are being recorded. When asked about the severity of the sections in the FIRs, DCP Kadam said that all sections imposed were “proper and correct”. Regarding the claim of the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan being raised by the protestors, he said that the matter is being investigated, and the CCTV footage is being reviewed. He did not confirm or deny whether such slogans were raised nor told us by which group.

Note that the IPSP did not have police permissions for their demonstration.

Swapnaja called the charges against the IPSP by the Hindutva mob ‘baseless’. She told Alt News that IPSP was moving the High Court to quash the FIR. “All the charges mentioned in the FIR we filed against them are bailable, while the charges filed against us are non-bailable,” she said.

The post Pro-Palestine group in Pune attacked by Hindutva mob, booked for promoting religious enmity appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues, including the protracted conflict between the government and the militant group Al-Shabaab.

Since Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared a “total war” on the Al-Shabaab following his 2022 election, the government has attempted to censor media coverage of the militant group’s “extremism ideology.” Amid a deteriorating security situation, with Al-Shabaab’s recent bombing near a presidential convoy and attacks  on strategic government positions, authorities have stepped up efforts to control public discourse.

On March 6, Information Minister Daud Aweis Jama said there was a ban on publishing “statements or news” that could threaten national security or “misuse or fabricate information, whether directly or indirectly.” Press freedom and human rights groups interpreted these broad directives, which echoed an October 2022 statement by the administration, as censorship.  

“The government is really trying to control the narrative, to shape discussions around how it is handling the security situation in the country,” said Abdullahi Hassan, a conflict researcher covering Sudan and Somalia at rights group Amnesty International. “The repression against the media and the attacks on journalists that you are seeing are aimed at silencing government critics and are directly related to those efforts to shape the narrative”

Since March 15, CPJ has documented the following violations in the Somali capital Mogadishu, based on media reports, research by local rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), and interviews with affected journalists:

● On March 15, National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers raided the home of RTN Somali TV reporter Bahjo Abdullahi Salad and arrested her. Authorities held her for about four hours in connection to a now-deleted TikTok video, in which she commented on the failure to clear rubbish in a Mogadishu district.

●  On March 18, police raided the offices of the Risaala Media Corporation after the station aired footage of the site of the bomb attack on the presidential convoy and briefly detained five journalists. Officers briefly held at least 17 other journalists covering the attack as well.

●  On March 26, police raided the family home of online journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul, after he published a series of interviews critical of NISA and covered Al-Shabaab actions. Mohamed Ibrahim, who also works as the information and human rights secretary at SJS, was not home at the time but went into hiding for about three weeks. He told CPJ he was continuing to keep a low profile due to safety concerns.

● On March 28, police officers briefly detained three Himilo TV journalists — Abdirazak Haji Sidow, Anisa Abdiaziz Hussein, and Abdullahi Abdulqadir Ahmed — as well as two journalists from the privately owned news outlet Mustaqbal Media — Abdirizak Abdullahi Adan and Abdirahman Barre Hussein —  while they were covering a protest against sexual violence.

● On April 1, police raided the offices of Five Somali TV and arrested journalists Mohamed Roraye, Ahmed Mohamud, Mohamed Abdi Afgooye, Dahir Dayah, following a report alleging the disappearance of police officers. The journalists were released later that day.

● On April 28, police arrested Risaala TV journalists Abuukar Mohamed Keynaan and Abdirashid Adow Ibrahim while they were covering a mortar attack, accusing them of exaggerating the Al-Shabaab’s actions. They were released unconditionally the same day.

● On April 29, security agents shot at and briefly detained Shabelle Media Network journalists Shukri Aabi Abdi and Najib Farah Mohamed as well as Hiiraanweyn TV correspondent Hussein Osman Makaraan and Saab TV’s Deeq Moalim Jiinow while they were interviewing displaced people. The journalists were not injured.

● On May 5, at around 1 a.m., NISA agents raided the home and media studio of journalist Mohamed Omar Baakaay, who runs a news channel on YouTube,while he was away, the journalist told CPJ. The officers beat and arrested Baakaay’s 17-year-old brother and MM Somali TV’s Bashir Ali Shire, who was also staying there.Authorities released them later that day, without providing reason for the arrest, said Baakaay.

Information minister Daud Aweis and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also emailed NISA, the Somali presidency, and the information ministry for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

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

The April 27 women’s anti-war demonstration in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia was small but significant — one of several recent protests criticizing Hamas, which has controlled Gaza with an iron fist since ousting its political rival Fatah in 2007. Designated a terrorist organization by many Western governments, Hamas is known for violently targeting and killing its critics.

“They even told me that I would be responsible if my wife participated in the demonstration,” said Abu Jarad, a 44-year-old correspondent for Ramallah-based privately owned Sawt al-Hurriya radio station. “I have not covered any recent demonstrations,” he concluded, recalling how he was beaten and interrogated for hours by Hamas-affiliated masked assailants in the southern city of Rafah in November 2023, accusing him of “covering events in the Gaza Strip calling for a coup.”

He only secured his freedom with a promise to stop reporting.

Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Their fears of reporting on opposition to Hamas seem well-founded. A statement by Palestinian Resistance Factions and Tribes in Gaza, which includes Hamas, condemned the protesters as “collaborators with Israel,” a charge historically used to justify executions. Israeli outlets said that Hamas had killed Palestinians who participated in the March anti-war protests.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, a Palestinian official from a Hamas-allied militant group condemned “suspicious figures” who tried “to exploit legitimate protests to demand an end to the resistance” against Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Armed, masked Hamas militants forcibly dispersed some protesters and assaulted them, according to the BBC.

Spies and journalists are ‘one and the same’

Abu Jarad reported Hamas’ threat against himself and his wife to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the official union for Palestinian journalists, and PJS publicly condemned Hamas for violating press freedom.

Prior to this, PJS had only published one other incident involving Hamas during the war — the brutal assault of Ibrahim Muhareb, who was beaten unconscious by armed men in plainclothes who said they were from the police investigations department. He sustained deep head wounds.

“Without giving any reason, they tried to assault me,” said Muhareb, a freelance photographer for the local Quds Feed media network and the Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT, who was working from a tent next to southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

“When I tried to contact a police officer in charge of journalists’ affairs, they tried to dismantle my tent. When I resisted, they began assaulting me, by kicking me,” the 28-year-old said.

“I tried to speak to them calmly, but they began to beat me even more severely. They suddenly struck me with an instrument, causing me to lose consciousness, and blood flowed from my head,” he told CPJ.

“Some colleagues tried to intervene, but they prevented them, literally telling them that ‘the spy and the journalist are one and the same,'” Muhareb said.

Muharab said he tried to lift a cover put over his head and face but the officers threatened him with a gun. Eventually, some journalists pulled him free and sought medical treatment for wounds all over his body.

Muharab’s experience is not unusual — it’s his decision to go public that marks him out.

“There are major violations committed by the Hamas government and group against journalists,” PJS’ head Nasser Abu Bakr told CPJ. “The violations range from summonses, interrogations, phone calls, threats, sometimes beatings and arrests, to harassment, publication bans, interference with content, and surveillance.”

Violations by Hamas are underreported

For almost two decades, CPJ has documented multiple press freedom violations by Hamas — as well as all the other warring parties in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories — including detentions, assaults, obstruction, and raids.

The war in Gaza has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ started keeping records in 1992, with at least 178 journalists among some 52,000 Palestinians killed since Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. An overwhelming majority of these killings, arrests, and threats were carried out by Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, press freedom violations by Hamas during the war have been vastly underreported.

PJS often documents Hamas attacks on the media internally, without publicizing them, for fear of reprisals, the group told CPJ. In other cases, PJS staff hear about events secondhand as journalists are too scared to report them.

CPJ’s experience echoes that of PJS.

In separate incidents this year, two Gaza-based journalists told CPJ that they were intimidated by Hamas security agents who blocked them from reporting in certain areas. The journalists did not consent to CPJ going public about their experiences for fear of retaliation. To them, the priority was to be able to continue reporting from the field.

More recently, a TV crew told CPJ they were assaulted by Hamas security forces while trying to film. But, again, the journalists did not want CPJ to publicize the incident as it was later resolved between the powerful clans that wield influence over most of Gaza’s population.

PJS’ deputy head Tahseen al-Astal told CPJ that Palestinian journalists are reluctant to spotlight their own problems, driven by a collective desire not to “pivot eyes from the war in Gaza,” which they felt was a more pressing story.

“Most journalists have begun to practice self-censorship in their writing to avoid any problems with security,” he added.

Mohammed Abu Aoun is another of the few journalists willing to speak publicly.

A correspondent for Fatah-affiliated Awda TV, Abu Aoun told CPJ that he was beaten by Hamas’ Internal Security Force in 2024 while interviewing a woman near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“During the interview, the woman insulted Hamas and some of its leaders. The officers immediately took me to an unknown location and beat me,” said Abu Aoun, 26, adding that they searched his cell phone and told him to stop working in the vicinity of the hospital.

In response to CPJ inquiries, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the government had received no media complaints regarding “threats related to covering protests or public gatherings,” threats from security personnel, or summonses from internal security agents.

Al-Thawabta said the government had “fully opened the field” for media to cover events freely in a “safe, transparent” environment and it was committed to “ensuring that security agencies do not interfere with the content of media coverage or the work of journalists.”

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

“CPJ urges Indian authorities to ensure that responses to national security concerns remain firmly grounded in democratic principles and constitutional protections for press freedom,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India Representative. “We call on the government to uphold transparency in content regulation, adhere to due process, and avoid using national security as a blanket justification to suppress independent journalism.”

On April 29, the Indian government ordered the blocking of the YouTube channel 4PM News Network, which has about 7.3 million subscribers, citing national security and public order. On May 1, 4PM Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Sharma filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the government’s order. The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to Sharma’s petition.

Separately, on April 24, Rakesh Sharma, a senior journalist with the Dainik Jagran newspaper, was physically assaulted by supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party while covering a protest in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, following the terrorist attack. Local police have filed a first information report (FIR), a document that opens an investigation, but there are no reports of arrests.

Meanwhile, police in Uttar Pradesh launched criminal investigations last week into political commentators and satirists Neha Singh Rathore and Madri Kakoti, who publishes under the name Dr. Medusa, for allegedly inciting unrest and threatening national unity through their online posts about the tourist attack, with potential prison sentences of three years to life if convicted.

In addition, Supreme Court lawyer Amita Sachdeva filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime South Division in New Delhi on April 29, accusing satirist Shamita Yadav, also known as “The Ranting Gola,” of anti-India propaganda after her video critiquing the government’s response to the attack was reposted by a Pakistani user.

On April 28, the Ministry of External Affairs sent a letter to Jackie Martin, the head of BBC India, expressing strong disapproval of the BBC’s use of the term “militant attack” to describe the event.

The Indian government has also blocked 16 Pakistani news, sports, and commentary YouTube channels following the attack, citing national security concerns.

These developments coincide with a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting advisory, reviewed by CPJ, that prohibits live coverage of anti-terrorist operations, citing security risks.

CPJ emailed India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the police departments overseeing the investigations for comment but did not receive any replies.

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

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

In the early hours of May 2, the quiet of night was shattered aboard the Conscience, a civilian vessel anchored in international waters, 17 kilometers off the coast of Malta. Aboard were 18 crew members and passengers, jolted from sleep by the sound of two explosions. Flames and smoke filled the air. The ship had just been struck—by what the crew members say were drone attacks.

The very day of the attack, more passengers from 21 countries were waiting in Malta to be ferried out to join the Conscience. Among those slated to join the ship were world-renowned environmentalist Greta Thunberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, and longtime CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry.

The Conscience is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of international activists that has been challenging Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza since 2008.

The group alleges that the attack came from Israel—an allegation bolstered by a CNN investigation. According to CNN, flight-tracking data from ADS-B Exchange showed that an Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft departed from Israel early Thursday afternoon and flew at low altitude over eastern Malta for an extended period. While the Hercules did not land, its path brought it in proximity to the area where the Conscience was later attacked. The plane returned to Israel approximately seven hours later. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the flight data.

The ship suffered significant damage, but fortunately, no one was hurt. That was not the case when the Freedom Flotilla was attacked in 2010. This May 2 attack comes just weeks before the 15th anniversary of the infamous raid on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship that led a previous flotilla to Gaza in 2010. On May 31 of that year, Israeli naval commandos stormed the ship in international waters, killing ten people and injuring dozens. The Mavi Marmara had been carrying over 500 activists and humanitarian supplies. That attack drew condemnation from around the world and calls for an international investigation—calls that Israel dismissed.

One of this year’s flotilla organizers, Ismail Behesti, is the son of a man killed in the 2010 raid. In videos circulating after the recent strike, Behesti is seen walking through the damaged interior of the Conscience, his voice resolute as he condemns what he believes was another Israeli act of aggression against civilians on a humanitarian mission.

“People are asking how Israel can get away with attacking a civilian ship in international waters,” said Tighe Barry, speaking from the port in Malta. “But since October 8, 2024, Israel has shown complete disregard for international law—from bombing civilian neighborhoods to using starvation as a weapon by blocking food from entering Gaza. This is just one more example of its impunity.”

“Where is the outrage?” Barry continued. “The U.S. condemns the Houthis for stopping ships carrying weapons to Israel—and bombs Yemen mercilessly for it. But will they condemn Israel for attacking a peaceful ship on a humanitarian mission to Gaza?”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and activist groups such as CODEPINK are calling on governments and international bodies to speak out and take action.

The Conscience was carrying no weapons. It posed no threat. Its only crime was daring to challenge a brutal siege and slaughter that the UN itself has condemned as illegal and inhumane. That’s the real threat Israel fears—not the ship itself, but the global solidarity it represents.

So, will the world speak up about Israel’s latest outrage? Or will this, too, be quietly buried beneath the waves?

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Medea Benjamin.

A ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in its hull and cut off communication with those aboard. “We are dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship,” retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla, tells Democracy Now! “While we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel.”

The climate activist Greta Thunberg was also set to join the flotilla and said in an online video that activists would “continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“We are critically concerned that the chaos in Haiti makes it nearly impossible for anyone — journalists included — to safely go about their daily lives,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Order must be restored, not least so that media outlets such as Radio Panic FM can provide news to Haitians and the world, rather than being hijacked to become mouthpieces for gangs.”

Privately owned Radio Panic FM’s director Joseph Allan Jr. told the Haiti-based SOS Journalists group, that the station in the central city of Mirebalais has been under the control of gang members since April 20.

“The gunmen have their own producer to operate the radio station and they played repeatedly a song recently released by their boss Jeff Larose,” the Haitian-Caribbean News Network reported.

Larose heads the Canaan faction of Viv Ansanm, or Living Together in Creole — an alliance of former rival gangs who joined forces in 2023 and took control of most of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Viv Ansanm attacked Mirebalais in March, forcing residents to flee. Journalist Roger Claudy Israël was taken hostage along with his brother. Both were later released; another journalist, Jean Christophe Collègue, was reported missing by his family.

Panic FM is the fourth Haitian broadcaster to be struck by gangs in the last month, following attacks on Radio Télévision Caraïbes (RTVC) and Mélodie FM, and TV Pluriel, in Port-au-Prince.

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

Roger Claudy Israël, owner of local radio station RC FM, and his brother were kidnapped in the central city of Mirebalais by Viv Ansanm gang members who threatened to execute their captives in an April 4 video.

Viv Ansanm, or Living Together in Creole, is an alliance of former rival gangs who joined forces in 2023 and took control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince. Gangs attacked Mirebalais on March 31, killed several people and freed some 500 prisoners, forcing thousands to flee, including a dozen journalists.

“We call on Roger Claudy Israël’s kidnappers to free him and his brother without delay and urge Haitian authorities to restore order so that journalists and other citizens can live free from fear,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “This senseless violence must end.”

Jean Christophe Collègue, who worked for Voice of America until it went off air in March, is missing after his Mirebalais home was burned down.

Two journalists told CPJ they were attacked during anti-government demonstrations in the capital’s Canapé Vert district.

“Journalists are targets right now,” said one reporter whose head, collarbone, and ankle were injured on April 2.  “The police, the gangs, and the people are all against us,” he said on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Juan Martínez d’Aubuisson, who specializes in reporting on conflict zones and gangs, told CPJ that he was beaten on March 19 and almost lynched by a mob wielding machetes and shouting, “We don’t want journalists or foreigners.”

“People are angry and desperate,” said the award-winning El Salvadorian journalist and writer, who was saved by a protester, escaped on a motorcycle, and left Haiti.

“I have never seen anything like it. One false move and you can be turned into ashes,” he said, after describing seeing bodies burned in the streets.

Haiti topped CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, which ranks nations where journalists’ killers are most likely to go free.

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

On March 7, Chooma was attacked by ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) supporters while covering a charity event in the southern town of Mazabuka, with police arresting four suspects in connection with the attack, according to a police statement, reviewed by CPJ, and Wave FM Zambia.  

On March 23, Chooma was arrested and detained overnight on charges of “assault occasioning actual bodily harm” after a suspect in his attack lodged a separate complaint against him, the journalist said. Chooma told CPJ that he denied the allegations, which carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.

“The sequence of events suggests that the criminal case against Hope Chooma is an attempt to silence a journalist who spoke out about being assaulted while going about his duties as a reporter,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo in Nairobi. “Authorities should desist from further victimizing Chooma and ensure a credible investigation into the attack on journalists by ruling party supporters is completed.”

A medical report, reviewed by CPJ, noted that Chooma sustained a cut to his neck and shoulder pain. Halobatold CPJ the assailants warned him that they could do anything to him because “[they] are the government.”  

“It’s strange a cadre is claiming to have been assaulted when the correct position is that they were the aggressors,” Luckson Hamooya, president of the Mazabuka Press Club, told CPJ.

CPJ has previously documented UPND members and supporters raiding media houses and assaulting journalists. 

CPJ’s calls to UPND and government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa and police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga went unanswered.

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

The airstrike on the tent housing journalists in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis killed Hilmi al-Faqaawi, a social media manager for pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV, and injured the following journalists:

• Ahmed Mansour, Palestine Today news agency editor
• Ahmed Al-Agha, BBC Arabic contributor
• Mohammed Fayeq, freelance photojournalist and drone operator
• Abdullah Al-Attar, freelance photographer for Anadolu Agency
• Ihab Al-Bardini, camera operator contributing to U.S. channel ABC
• Mahmoud Awad, Al Jazeera camera operator
• Majed Qudaih, Radio Algerie correspondent
• Ali Eslayeh, photographer for West Bank-based site Alam24

The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted Hassan Eslayeh, a freelance photographer who was with Hamas on October 7, 2023. The IDF said Eslayeh, who was injured on April 7, 2025, was a “terrorist” who “participated in the bloody massacre.”

In 2023, the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photo of Eslayeh being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, after which CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies cut ties with the journalist.

“This is not the first time Israel has targeted a tent sheltering journalists in Gaza. The international community’s failure to act has allowed these attacks on the press to continue with impunity, undermining efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa  Director Sara Qudah. “CPJ calls on authorities to allow the injured, some of whom have sustained severe burns, to be evacuated immediately for treatment and to stop attacking Gaza’s already devastated press corps.”

Footage verified by Reuters news agency showed people trying to douse flames in the tent while other images of someone trying to rescue a journalist in flames were widely shared online.

CPJ’s email to the IDF’s North America Media Desk to request comment did not receive an immediate response.

More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.

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

The government, controlled by Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), launched a crackdown against CHP-controlled Istanbul municipalities, including two district municipality mayors and dozens of other politicians and municipality personnel, citing accusations of corruption. But authorities have since arrested thousands of protesters and have moved aggressively to tamp down media coverage of the demonstrations.

Authorities have raided the homes of at least nine journalists, detaining them along with at least four other journalists arrested while covering the protests, while hurting numerous others. Media regulators have also imposed suspensions and fines on pro-opposition broadcasters and threatened to cancel the licenses of TV channels covering the protests.

While many of the journalists arrested in the initial sweep have been released, press freedom advocates are concerned that authorities are deliberately targeting them to suppress coverage, as the government has done during times of civil unrest or protests in recent decades.

Since March 19, CPJ has documented the following press freedom violations:

Detentions

• On March 19, police detained freelance reporter and TV commentator İsmail Saymaz at his house in Istanbul. Saymaz, who has worked for pro-opposition outlets such as Halk TV and Sözcü, was put under house arrest pending investigation on March 21 for “assisting an attempt to overthrow the government” based on his interviews from years ago.
• On March 23, police detained Zişan Gür, a reporter for the leftist news website Sendika, from the field in Istanbul. He was released on March 27.
• On March 24, police detained five photojournalists who had covered the protests during raids on their homes in Istanbul: Yasin Akgül of Agence France-Presse (AFP), Ali Onur Tosun of NOW Haber, as well as freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç. An Istanbul court arrested the five for “violating the law on gatherings and demonstrations” on March 25, but they were released the following day. Prosecutors had argued that they were actually protesters, citing select police camera shots of them as evidence.
• On March 24, police detained freelance photojournalist Murat Kocabaş at his house in in the western city of Izmir. He was released on March 27.
• On March 25, police detained freelancer Yağız Barut as he was covering the protests in Izmir. He was released on March 27.
• On March 27, authorities arrested Kaj Joakim Medin, a Swedish reporter for newspaper Dagens ETC who was traveling to Istanbul to follow the protests, upon his arrival at the Istanbul airport. He was accused of insulting Erdoğan and of being a member of a terrorist organization, in relation to a 2023 investigation.
• On March 28, police detained Nisa Sude Demirel, a reporter with the leftist daily Evrensel, and Elif Bayburt, a reporter with leftist outlet ETHA, at their houses for covering the Istanbul protests. They were both released the following day.

Turkey has a history of imprisoning journalists, having been ranked among the top 10 worst jailers of journalists from 2012 to 2023, and the recent drop in number of journalists behind bars may be misleading as an indicator on its own.

Deportation

• On March 27, Istanbul police detained BBC correspondent Mark Lowen and deported him on a flight to London for covering the protests.

Injuries

• From March 21 to 23, at least 14 journalists were injured after being beaten or shot with rubber bullets by Istanbul police, while one reporter was assaulted by the protesters, according to the local media freedom group MLSA. Police also damaged journalists’ equipment.

Censorship

• Ebubekir Şahin, the government-appointed chair of the media regulator RTÜK, has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of Turkish TV channels covering the protests and opposition rallies.
• On March 27, RTÜK imposed heavy penalties on multiple pro-opposition TV channels, though the sanctions didn’t immediately go into effect since they can be challenged in court. Sözcü TV would have to stop broadcasting for 10 days if its appeal is rejected.

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

“CPJ condemns the assault on a journalist in Kryvyi Rih, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and hold the perpetrators to account,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Ukrainian authorities must ensure that journalists can work safely. No journalist should be subjected to violence for reporting matters of public interest.”

On March 24, two unidentified men approached and threatened Serhiy, a correspondent with local online media outlet SVOI.Kryvyi Rih, as he entered a store with his family, according to his outlet, media reports, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a local advocacy and trade group, and the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a press freedom group.  

SVOI.Kryvyi Rih founder Oleksiy Taymurzin spoke to CPJ about the incident. The journalist’s name was withheld due to fear of reprisals.

“You are all f–ed. You, and your family, and your entire editorial staff. Watch your backs. You messed with the wrong undertakers,” the individuals reportedly said, according to those sources.

The pair then beat the journalist when he came out of the store to try to talk to them away from his family.

Taymurzin believed the attack to be connected with the outlet’s March 18 report on the mishandling of corpses by a local funeral company. He said the attackers recognized Serhiy in the store. “In the city … you can’t hide anything … and there’s no problem finding out who [is who] and where” they are, he told CPJ.

Serhiy suffered a broken nose, a bruised retina, bruised ribs, and a concussion, Taymurzin told CPJ, and as of March 26, was home in an unstable state, with severe headaches and temporary loss of consciousness.

As of March 26, authorities had identified one of the suspects, charged him with “intended bodily injury of medium gravity,” and put him under house arrest pending investigation, Taymurzin said, adding that the other perpetrator was still at large.

CPJ emailed Kryvyi Rih police for comment but did not immediately receive a response. CPJ called the funeral company, but the person who answered hang up after being asked to comment on the journalist’s beating.

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

“We have taken the difficult decision to temporarily withdraw our @Daily Monitor @ntvuganda journalists from covering the Kawempe North by-election for their safety because they are being targeted and attacked by armed soldiers and undercover security operatives,” Daniel Kalinaki, a general manager at Nation Media Group (NMG), East Africa’s largest independent media company, posted on the social media platform X on March 13.

Two Luganda-language broadcasters, Radio Simba and BBS Terefayina, followed suit, reacting to security agencies’ assault, harassment, and arrest of dozens of journalists reporting on the by-election in the capital Kampala.

In response to Pearl FM’s reports on vote-rigging allegations, the regulatory Uganda Communications Commission suspended the privately owned outlet on March 12 for airing “unsubstantiated statements that were sensational, alarmist, and capable of inciting violence.”

Uganda is due to hold general elections in January 2026, in which 80-year-old President Yoweri Museveni is expected to seek to extend his 38-year rule. Given the country’s history of electoral violence against journalists, events in Kawempe North have triggered anxiety about the 2026 poll.

‘Alarmingly dangerous’ election coverage

“Covering elections has always been an alarmingly dangerous task for Ugandan journalists,” said CPJ Africa Regional Director, Angela Quintal, in New York. “As the January 2026 elections approach, breaking free from this troubling history is essential for the integrity of the democratic process. Ugandan authorities must ensure that those who target journalists are held fully accountable.”

Kawempe North was won by a candidate from the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), a party headed by Robert Kyagulanyi, commonly known as Bobi Wine. In Uganda’s last general election in 2021, at least 50 people died in protests over the pop star-turned-politician’s repeated arrest and Kyagulanyi was severely beaten. Museveni’s previous presidential challenger, Kizza Besigye, who lost to the former soldier four times, is facing the death sentence for treason.

In relation to the Kawempe North by-election, CPJ documented the following incidents:

●      On February 26, Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JAT) officers assaulted Top TV reporter Ibrahim Miracle as he covered the arrest and assault of the NUP nominee. He sustained severe facial injuries.

●      NMG camera operator Stephen Kibwiika told CPJ that JAT officers beat him on March 3 with batons while he was reporting near the NUP headquarters despite wearing a “Press” vest. He said that he sustained ankle injuries and was unable to walk properly for several days.

●      NMG reporter Steven Mbidde told CPJ that on March 4 about eight officers restrained him and dragged him to the ground while he was live reporting the detention of NUP supporters.

●      On March 12, security officers struck Kibwiika on his head with a baton and kicked his groin while he covered allegations of ballot stuffing. Kibwiika told CPJ he was unable to walk, suffered intense headaches, and was hospitalized for three days.

On March 13:

●      Masked soldiers attacked state-owned New Vision newspaper reporter Ibrahim Ruhweza with batons and gun butts before briefly detaining him and his colleague Isaac Nuwagaba in an unmarked vehicle. Ruhweza told CPJ they were forced to delete their footage and photos.

●      Hasifah Nanvuma, a reporter with NMG’s Spark TV, told CPJ that several soldiers beat her on the back and arms while she was reporting from a polling station. At the time, she was wearing a “Press” vest.

●      Soldiers detained NMG’s photojournalist Abubaker Lubowa, camera operator Denis Kabugo, and reporter Raymond Tamale, in an unmarked vehicle for four hours. Lubowa told CPJ that they were blindfolded and beaten on their heads, arms, legs, and ribs. Lubowa told CPJ that the soldiers took their phones and watches and destroyed their cameras.

●      Privately owned NBS TV said security personnel assaulted and intimidated its photojournalist Francis Isano, camera operator Hassan Wasswa, and reporter Hakim Wampamba. Isano had to be carried into a hospital where he was admitted for several days.

●      Unknown assailants struck state-owned Uganda Broadcasting Corporation’s camera operator Jahiem Jamil Ssekajja with electrical wires while he was filming at a polling station. Ssekajja told CPJ he sustained welts on his body and developed a fever.

Acting military spokesperson Chris Magezi said in a statement that the armed forces were investigating reports of assaults and confiscation of journalists’ equipment.

In a March 27 statement to CPJ sent via messaging app, Magezi said a committee had been set up to investigate and make recommendations on “ways to harmonize and collaborate with media players better.”

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango referred CPJ to national police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma to request comment but he did not immediately answer CPJ’s calls.

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

About 1,000 demonstrators threw stones and clashed with police, who responded with water cannons, in the eastern city of Surabaya, over a new law that increases the power of the military.

“It is the Indonesian government’s responsibility to protect, not assault, working journalists who are covering protests,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “These types of assaults on the free press must stop now.”

Rama Indra, a journalist with the local digital outlet Beritajatim, told CNN that several police officers forced him to stop filming them beating protesters and hit his head with their hands and a wooden stick to make him delete his footage. They also confiscated his cell phone, even though he identified himself as a journalist and presented his press ID card.  He reported the incident to the police.

Police also forced Wildan Pratama, a journalist with the local digital outlet Suara Surabaya, to delete his photos of about 25 arrested protesters at the same site.

The military law has triggered protests across Indonesia, with some fearing a return to military rule.

On March 23, at least eight student journalists were assaulted by police and military forces while documenting a similar protest in the East Java city of Malang, according to a local Tempo report.

CPJ’s emailed requests to the Surabaya police and Presidential Communications Office for comment did not receive immediate replies.

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

Ballal, who was freed on Tuesday, was one of four co-directors of “No Other Land” which won this year’s best documentary Academy Award for its portrayal of efforts by Palestinians to stop the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from demolishing their homes in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron.

“The brazen attack on Palestinian documentary filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and arrest by the IDF provides yet more evidence of Israeli authorities’ hostility to a free press,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Israel must end its attacks on journalists and filmmakers at once and hold perpetrators to account.”

At least 15 settlers, some in military uniforms, surrounded and attacked Ballal at his home, vandalized his car, and handed him over to IDF soldiers in Masafer Yatta’s Susya village.

The Israeli military told The Associated Press that it handed over three Palestinians, suspected of hurling rocks at forces, to the police for questioning, and that one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” was evacuated for medical treatment — a claim witnesses interviewed by the news agency disputed.

Co-director Basel Adra, who witnessed the March 24 attack, said the police did not intervene to stop the violence.

“While the soldiers were pointing their weapons at us, the settlers started attacking the houses of the Palestinians,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

In February 2024, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli co-director of “No Other Land” received death threats and his family were threatened following his acceptance speech at the Berlin International Film Festival. Adra was also attacked by masked Israeli settlers.

CPJ’s email to the IDF’s North America Desk inquiring about the reason for Hamdan’s arrest and when he was due to be released did not immediately receive a response.

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

Protests erupted and grew in multiple cities across Turkey following the government crackdown on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was due to be selected as an opposition party presidential nominee on March 23, alongside other politicians and municipal staff last week. Multiple journalists have been placed in police custody, while several have been hurt by the police in the field since March 21.

“Neither the police violence targeting journalists who are covering the street protests, nor the raiding of their homes, is acceptable under any conditions,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and allow the press to operate freely and safely.”

Police in Istanbul took at least five photojournalists into custody while raiding their homes on Monday morning: Yasin Akgül of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Ali Onur Tosun of NOW Haber, along with freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç. Another freelance photojournalist, Murat Kocabaş, was also detained by the police in Izmir on Monday.

Zişan Gür, a reporter for the leftist news website Sendika, was taken into custody by the police while in the field in Istanbul on Sunday evening.

Turkish police have also beaten or used rubber bullets on multiple field reporters since Friday, according to local press freedom advocacy groups, including: Akgül, Egemen İsar of the Nefes newspaper, Hakan Akgün of the state-owned Anadolu Agency, Dilara Şenkaya of Reuters, Ali Dinç of Bianet, Eylül Deniz Yaşar of İlke TV, Yusuf Çelik of Özgür Gelecek, and freelancers Kemal Aslan and Rojda Altıntaş. The journalists also had their equipment damaged by the police, according to those groups.

Meanwhile, Ebubekir Şahin, the government-appointed chair of the media regulator RTÜK, has threatened Turkish TV channels broadcasting the protests and opposition rallies with license cancellations. İlhan Taşçı, an opposition-appointed member of the RTÜK, argued that the regulator has no authority to suppress broadcasts before they air and can only review what has already run.

CPJ emailed RTÜK and the Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, for comment but didn’t receive any replies.

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

“It is concerning that military officers accused of attacking journalists have not been held to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from New York. “Authorities must act to reverse impunity when security forces attack the press, and deliver compensation allocated to those attacked.”

The five journalists, all of whom work for privately owned broadcasters, include:

• Jacob Adu-Baah, a reporter with the local ABC News;
• Akwasi Agyei Annim, correspondent for Channel One TV and Citi FM;
• Henry Fynn Emil a reporter with Angel TV; 
• Tahiru Apiliye Ibrahim, a reporter with Zaa Multimedia;
• and Dokurugu Alhassan, a reporter with Accra.

Ibrahim and Alhassan told CPJ that six military officers beat them on February 12 after they filmed a bus on fire in the northeastern Mamprusi community. The journalists reported the incident to the local police station, but officers said they were unable to intervene with the military. 

Ghana Armed Forces spokesperson Eric Aggrey-Quashie told CPJ by phone that he was aware of the February 12 attack but could not speak about it.

Separately, on February 21, a group of suspected illegal miners attacked Annim, Adu-Baah, Emil and police escorts in western Adomanya forest, Annim and Adu-Baah told CPJ. The attackers twisted Annim’s arm and damaged his phone and camera’s receiver. Adu-Baah and Emil escaped unharmed. 

On March 5, a judge ordered that 37,000 Ghana cedis (USD$ 2,385) of compensation for those attacked be transferred from police to the journalists, but Annim and Adu-Baah said they had not received the money. Another court hearing was scheduled for March 26.

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

An interim government took power in Bangladesh following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August. The groups urged Bangladesh to unequivocally condemn and promptly investigate attacks on journalists and media workers and to ensure that perpetrators are held to account. The groups further called for members of the press to be protected from harassment, intimidation, and violence from state and non-state actors.

Read the full statement here.

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

Between March 12 and 13, armed gangs from the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) coalition attacked independent stations Radio Télévision Caraïbes (RTVC) and Mélodie FM, setting fire to both buildings, which had been previously abandoned due to insecurity in the area. No casualties were reported.

On March 16, heavily armed Viv Ansanm members also ransacked and set fire to the privately owned TV channel Télé Pluriel in the Delmas 19 neighborhood, according to staff members who spoke to CPJ and wished to remain anonymous out of concern for their safety.

Separately, at least 10 journalists were physically attacked and had equipment stolen during a large street demonstration on March 19, according to the Haitian Online Media Association (CMEL).

“Journalists, particularly those in radio broadcasting, have long played a vital role in keeping Haitians informed about what is happening in their communities,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “The arson attacks on these three radio stations are the latest attempt from Haitian gangs to sow chaos and destruction and weaken the media’s ability to work. The security situation in the country must be stabilized to allow journalists, and all citizens, to live without fear of violence.”  

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé called the attack on RTVC “a despicable act” against freedom of expression and issued a statement promising to reinforce security for media institutions.

“The losses were enormous,” Télé Pluriel staff said in a report, adding that they have been unable to access the area due to ongoing violence. Télé Pluriel is owned by Pierre-Louis Opont, a former head of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, and his award-winning journalist wife Marie Lucie Bonhomme. They were each separately abducted and subsequently released in 2023.

RTVC is the oldest radio station in Haiti. Mélodie FM is owned by Marcus Garcia, a renowned Haitian journalist who was exiled during the Duvalier dictatorship in the 1980s.

Violence, instability, and impunity in journalist killings have plagued Haiti since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

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

“Mohamed Abukar Dabashe’s death is devastating. Unfortunately, he joins a long list of Somali journalists killed in Al-Shabaab attacks with impunity,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Somali authorities should investigate the killing of Mohamed Abukar Dabashe and desist from further intimidation and censorship of journalists who are already operating under difficult circumstances.”

Mohamed Abukar’s body was found in a collapsed building, where he is reported to have lived, near the attack site. He worked with Risaala Media Corporation until 2023, and had recently been publishing his journalism on Facebook and the YouTube news channel Sirta Waraka, Risaala’s director Mohamed Abduwahab Abdullahi told CPJ.

Armed police raided Risaala’s offices about 20 minutes after it broadcast footage of the explosion site, ordered its radio and television channels off air, and arrested reporters Ali Abdullahi Ibrahim and Hamda Hassan Ahmed; camera operators Mohamed Said Nur and Abdullahi Sharif Ali; and technician Liban Abdullahi Hassan, according to Mohamed Abduwahab, who is also secretary general of the Somali Media Association, and a statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate rights group.

The journalists were detained for about two hours at a police station, where they were warned not to broadcast such content, and released without charge. Risaala had resumed operations by the evening. 

Police also briefly detained at least 17 other journalists at the attack site and questioned them at a local station about their coverage, three journalists familiar with the incident, who are not being named due to safety concerns, told CPJ.

Police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told CPJ by phone that police were trying to verify the identities of journalists at the site but did not make any arrests and that Risaala staff were asked to leave their office for safety.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from information minister Daud Aweis were not answered.

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

“Security officers brutally attacked journalist Ibrahim Miracle, leaving him with grave injuries, simply because he was doing his job,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, from Nairobi. “Ugandan authorities must break with the culture of violence against journalists by investigating those who carried out the assault and those who commanded the operation, ensuring accountability. Media must be able to cover political events without fear of violence.”

Miracle was covering the arrest and assault of an opposition party nominee in an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Kampala when a JAT officer grabbed his camera and ordered him to stop filming, according to the journalist and a statement from the media rights group Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda. Miracle said that when he protested, another JAT officer struck him in the face with a baton, knocking him into a ditch, where he hit his head.

The journalist sustained severe injuries to his face, including a crack to one of the bones surrounding his eye, and has experienced debilitating headaches, according to Livingstone Matovu, Top TV news editor, and Joseph Miracle Ssebyala, the journalist’s uncle, who spoke with CPJ. Ssebyala told CPJ that Miracle remained hospitalized as of March 4 and had undergone at least two surgeries.

On February 27, lawmakers raised concerns in parliament about the assault, and Uganda’s trade minister, David Bahati, said the government would investigate.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire told CPJ by phone that the police were aware of the incident and waiting to record the victim’s statement. CPJ’s calls to military spokesperson Felix Kulayigye were unanswered.

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

“The attack on Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo is yet another expression of the sense of impunity for those who intimidate and threaten journalists in Cameroon,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Cameroonian authorities must investigate and hold accountable the assailants and ensure a safe working environment for journalists.”

Abena, a regional correspondent for privately owned Equinoxe TV, and Ndongo, a camera operator, were attacked when they went to investigate an agricultural facility owned by Samuel Tony Obam Bikoué, a controversial figure praised by President Paul Biya three days earlier for helping to create “an agricultural industry,” but whose involvement in the banana plantation sector has been criticized by a local prefect.

The journalists were attacked when they entered the facility, according to a statement from the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon and Abena, who told CPJ that one of the attackers asked him why he wanted to harm Bikoué’s business rather than investigating other officials’ interests.

Abena said that the assailants, some armed with clubs, snatched Ndongo’s camera, confiscated the two journalists’ phones, and forced them to sit on the ground while making lynching and death threats, according to Abena, who told CPJ that he had identified himself as a journalist and presented his press card.  

“One of the attackers said he knew me before he said they were going to kill us,” Abena said.  

The two journalists were released after a local official intervened, but Abena said that his computer was damaged and one of the attackers took the memory card from Ndongo’s damaged camera.  

CPJ’s calls and messages to Bikoué and Denis Omgba Bomba, director of the media observatory at Cameroon’s Ministry of Communication, went unanswered

CPJ has documented several physical attacks and acts of intimidation against journalists in recent months in Cameroon, ahead of the country’s elections later this year.

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

“Journalists play a critical democratic role in reporting on elections, yet this duty to inform is jeopardized by attacks on the press that too often occur with impunity in Ghana,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Ghanaian authorities must find out who was behind the assault on five journalists and electoral officers in Ashanti Region and ensure those responsible are ultimately held to account.”

CPJ spoke to the five journalists:

• privately owned GhanaWeb correspondent Gideon Nana Peprah
• privately owned Angel Broadcasting Network reporter Gabriel Kwasi Oppong
• privately owned Lawson TV producer Charles Awuah Mensah
• Oyerepa Radio and TV  reporter Kofi Adede
• privately owned Oseikrom Dawuro newspaper editor Henry Attah Kotei  

The journalists said they were covering electoral officers counting votes when at least 14 unidentified men attacked the officials, destroyed ballot papers, hit and slapped the reporters, seized their phones, and deleted their footage. 

The journalists said police officers attempted to stop the attack without force but failed, and Kotei and Mensah were saved by bystanders who pleaded with the attackers to let them go.

All five journalists received medical treatment at a hospital for their injuries, which included a cut to Peprah’s upper lip and a cut above Mensah’s left eye.

Peprah reported the attack to the police and the Ashanti Regional Police Command said that it will bring those responsible to justice, according to the nonprofit Media Foundation for West Africa. 

National police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi did not reply to CPJ’s calls and text messages requesting comment.

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

Bangladesh’s interim government — established amid high hopes of political and economic reform— has drawn criticism from journalists and media advocates for its January introduction of drafts of two cyber ordinances: the Cyber Protection Ordinance 2025 (CPO) and Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025.

While the government reportedly dropped controversial sections related to defamation and warrantless searches in its update to the CPO, rights groups remain concerned that some of the remaining provisions could be used to target journalists. According to the Global Network Initiative, of which CPJ is a member, the draft gives the government “disproportionate authority” to access user data and impose restrictions on online content. Journalists are also concerned that the proposed data law will give the government “unchecked powers” to access personal data, with minimal opportunity for judicial redress.

“Democracy cannot flourish without robust journalism,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh’s interim government must deliver on its promise to protect journalists and their right to report freely. Authorities should amend proposed laws that could undermine press freedom and hold the perpetrators behind the attacks on the press to account.”

CPJ’s calls and text messages to Nahid Islam, the information, communication, and technology adviser to the interim government, requesting comment on the ordinances did not receive a reply.

Meanwhile, CPJ has documented a recent spate of beatings, criminal investigations, and harassment of journalists for their work.

Attacks

A group of 10 to 12 men attacked Shohag Khan Sujon, a correspondent for daily Samakal newspaper, after he and three other journalists investigated allegations of medical negligence at a hospital in central Shariatpur district on February 3. 

Sujon told CPJ that a clinic owner held the journalist’s legs as the assailants hit his left ear with a hammer and stabbed his back with a knife. The three other correspondents — Nayon Das of Bangla TV, Bidhan Mojumder Oni of News 24 Television, and Saiful Islam Akash of Desh TV — were attacked with hammers when they tried to intervene; the attack ended locals chased the perpetrators away.

Sujon told CPJ he filed a police complaint for attempted murder. Helal Uddin, officer-in-charge of the Palang Model Police Station, told CPJ by text message that the investigation was ongoing.

In a separate incident on the same day, around 10 masked men used bamboo sticks to beat four newspaper correspondents — Md Rafiqul Islam of Khoborer Kagoj, Abdul Malak Nirob of Amar Barta, Md Alauddin of Daily Amar Somoy, and Md Foysal Mahmud of Daily Alokito Sakal — while they traveled to a village in southern Laximpur district to report on a land dispute, Islam told CPJ. 

The attackers stole the journalists’ cameras, mobile phones, and wallets and fired guns towards the group, causing shrapnel injuries to Mahmud’s left ear and leg, Islam said.

Authorities arrested four suspects, two of whom were released on bail on February 10, Islam told CPJ. Laximpur police superintendent Md Akter Hossain told CPJ by phone that authorities were working to apprehend additional suspects.

Threats

Shafiur Rahman, a British freelance documentary filmmaker of Bangladeshi origin, told CPJ he received an influx of threatening emails and social media comments after publishing a January 30 article about a meeting between the leadership of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence and the armed group Rohingya Solidarity Organisation.

Multiple emails warned Rahman to “stop or suffer the consequences” and “back off before it’s too late.” Social media posts included a photo of the journalist with a red target across his forehead and warnings that Rahman would face criminal charges across Bangladesh, leaving Rahman concerned for his safety if he returned to report from Bangladesh’s refugee camps for Rohingya forced to flee Myanmar.

“The nature of these threats suggests an orchestrated campaign to silence me, and I fear potential real-world repercussions if I continue my work on the ground,” Rahman said.

CPJ’s text to Shah Jahan, joint director of the National Security Intelligence, requesting comment about the threats did not receive a reply.

Criminal cases

Four journalists who reported or published material on allegedly illicit business practices and labor violations are facing possible criminal defamation charges after Noor Nahar, director of Tafrid Cotton Mills Limited and wife of the managing director of its sister company, Dhaka Cotton Mills Limited, filed a November 13, 2024, complaint in court against them. If tried and convicted, they could face up to two years in prison.

The four are:
* H. M. Mehidi Hasan, editor and publisher of investigative newspaper The Weekly Agrajatra.

* Kamrul Islam, assignment editor for The Weekly Agrajatra.

* Mohammad Shah Alam Khan, editor of online outlet bdnews999.  

* Al Ehsan, senior reporter for The Daily Post newspaper.

CPJ’s text to Nahar asking for comment did not receive a reply. 

Md Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the Uttara West Police Station, which was ordered to investigate the complaint, told CPJ by phone that he would send the latest case updates but did not respond to subsequent messages.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

An unknown individual shot at public broadcaster RAI1’s reporter Vito Francesco Paglia and camera operators Stefano Currò and Riccardo Nava, and private channel Canale 5 reporter Vincenzo Rubano after they rang the doorbell of a relative of the children in the southern Italian town of Paola, received no answer, and were walking back to their car. No one was injured.

Police swiftly arrived at the scene, secured the area, and took statements from the reporters. They searched the man’s house, where they found an air rifle. An investigation is underway to determine who fired the gun, but no charges have been filed yet.

“We welcome Italian authorities’ quick response to the attack on journalists Vito Francesco Paglia, Stefano Currò, Riccardo Nava, and Vincenzo Rubano. They now must ensure that all responsible are held to account and send a clear message that violence against the press will not be tolerated,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Attacking or intimidating journalists while on assignment is totally unacceptable. Italian authorities must take concrete steps to protect journalists reporting on sensitive issues.”

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, did not receive a response.

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

“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”

Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.

Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.

At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:

• Pro-opposition New Generation Movement NRT TV camera operator Ali Abdulhadi and reporter Shiraz Abdullah were stopped from filming by about seven armed security officers, known in Kurdish as Asayish, according to a video posted by the outlet.

“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.

• Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali collapsed from teargas, a video posted by the privately owned digital outlet showed.

“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.

• An ambulance took pro-PUK digital outlet Zhyan Media’s reporter Mardin Mohammed and camera operator Mohammed Mariwan to a hospital in Koya after they were teargassed.

“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Kurdsat News reporters Gaylan Sabir and Amir Mohammed and camera operators Sirwan Sadiq and Hemn Mohammed were teargassed and their equipment was confiscated, the outlet said.

• Privately owned Westga News said five staff — reporters Omer Ahmed, Shahin Fuad, and Amir Hassan, and camera operators Zanyar Mariwan and Ahmed Shakhawan — were attacked and teargassed. Ahmed told CPJ that a security officer grabbed a camera while they were broadcasting, while Fuad said another camera, microphone, and a livestreaming encoder were also taken and not returned.

• Pro-PUK Slemani News Network reporter Kochar Hamza was carried to safety by protesters after she collapsed due to tear gas, a video by the digital outlet showed. She told CPJ that she and her camera operator Sivar Baban were treated at hospitals twice.

“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.

• A team from Payam TV, a pro-opposition Kurdistan Justice Group satellite channel, required treatment for teargas exposure.

“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.

• Madah Jamal, a reporter with the pro-opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union Speda TV satellite channel, told CPJ that he was also teargassed.

• Pro-PUK digital outlet Xendan’s reporter Shahen Wahab told CPJ that she and camera operator Garmian Omar suffered asthma attacks due to the teargas.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Gali Kurdistan’s reporter Karwan Nazim told CPJ that he had to stop reporting because he couldn’t breathe and asked his office to send additional staff.

“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

Raided and arrested

Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.

“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.

KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”

In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.

“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.

“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.

CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.

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

Protests against the Georgian Dream party’s disputed October election victory and the November suspension of European Union accession talks had diminished in scale in the capital, Tbilisi, for several weeks, but took on new force in early February. Most of the recent attacks on journalists happened at a February 2 protest in Tbilisi, while others were obstructed or attacked at a smaller demonstration calling for the release of jailed journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli on February 4.

Mamuka Andguladze, chair of local rights group Media Advocacy Coalition, told CPJ that authorities have yet to prosecute a single police perpetrator of violence against journalists, pointing to Georgian riot police’s failure to wear individual identifying badges, frequent use of masks, and a “political decision” by the authorities not to prosecute culprits.

“Continued police brutality against journalists in Georgia is sadly predictable given authorities’ failure to hold officers responsible for dozens of similar cases over recent months,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgian authorities must urgently break the cycle of impunity by effectively investigating police attacks on the press and ensuring officers wear badges making them individually identifiable.”

During the February 2 protest in northern Tbilisi, Dea Mamiseishvili, a reporter for independent broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi, was filming police hit protesters with her cell phone when a group of officers repeatedly struck her on the arms, kicked her in the legs, and pushed her, trying to take her phone, according to the journalist and footage of the incident. Mamiseishvili told CPJ that police officers also repeatedly pushed her camera operator, Luka Bachilava, and struck him in the head earlier that evening to stop him filming the arrest of an opposition politician.

On February 4, outside the parliament building, officers threw Vantsent Khabeishvili, chief editor of the independent outlet On.ge, to the curb and grabbed Publika reporter Natia Leverashvili by her hair, according to video footage and a statement by independent trade group Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics.

CPJ has also documented the following incidents of police obstruction on February 2 and one on February 4:

• On February 2, officers grabbed and pushed Diana Chirgadze, a reporter for independent broadcaster TV Pirveli, kicked camera operator George Pataraia and struck his camera, Chirgadze told CPJ.
• Police forcefully pushed Aprili’s photographer Vakho Kareli and reporter Nata Uridia away from the scene after they filmed officers beating and arresting protesters, Uridia told CPJ.
• Officers blocked and grabbed Radio Marneuli camera operator Vladimer Chkhitunidze while he was filming the arrest of an opposition politician and pushed him away from the scene, the journalist told CPJ.
• Mirza Kezevadze, deputy director of the police department that oversees riot police, grabbed the phone of TV Pirveli reporter Khatia Samkharadze after she filmed a car carrying the police department’s director Zviad Kharazishvili away from the protest site. Kezevadze dropped and kicked the phone, damaging it, Samkharadze told CPJ. (Both Kezevadze and Kharazishvili are facing international sanctions for ordering violent responses to protests.) 
• Police officers blocked Ninia Kakabadze, a journalist for media criticism platform Mediachecker, and repeatedly struck her hand to prevent her from filming the same vehicle with her phone, Kakabadze told CPJ.
• Officers tried to grab the microphone of Giorgi Kvizhinadze, a reporter for independent broadcaster Formula TV and struck the outlet’s camera, according to a video, reviewed by CPJ.
• A plainclothes individual struck the camera of Guria News reporter Akaki Sikharulidze while he was filming police beat protesters, the journalist told CPJ.
• On February 4, OC Media reporter Givi Avaliani was filming police arrest protesters with his cell phone when an officer tried to grab his phone.

The violent crackdown on mass protests in Georgia and the brutalization of journalists has led countries including the U.S. and U.K. to sanction Georgia’s minister of internal affairs and police officials in charge of its riot police. In December, the government passed laws extending police powers to crack down on protest and in February proposed amendments dramatically increasing penalties for protest-related offenses.

CPJ emailed Georgian police and the Special Investigation Service for comment but did not immediately receive replies.

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

Tawiah told CPJ he provided police with a written statement about the assault on January 2, 2025, as well as phone numbers and photos of those who led the attackers, which he obtained through his own investigations. No one has been arrested in the case.

“Environmental reporting is an increasingly dangerous beat in Ghana, and it is essential that authorities identify and hold accountable those responsible for attacking journalist Ohemeng Tawiah,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, from New York. “Ghanaian authorities must swiftly and thoroughly conclude their investigation and publicly share their findings. This is crucial to preventing the culture of impunity that often surrounds the targeting of the press in the country.”

Tawiah, assistant news editor at the privately owned Joy News outlet, had reported on allegations of illegal mining at the site earlier in December and told CPJ he obtained permission from police to join and report on their investigations.  

At the site’s entrance, police arrested some suspected illegal miners, Tawiah told CPJ. Armed men then arrived, demanded the release of the men, and then began throwing stones at police, Tawiah, and other civilians waiting inside a police vehicle.

As Tawiah tried to escape, a stone hit his chest, and he fell to the ground, he told CPJ. When the attackers caught up, they attacked him with stones and machetes. They also took the reporters’ phones and money and destroyed Kusi’s camera.

Tawiah said he bled profusely from a major cut to his head, was hospitalized for two days, and was treated for injuries to his head, chest, and fingers, and multiple cuts to his body, including what appeared to be attempts to cut off his leg. He still suffers from severe chest pains and headaches. Kusi was uninjured. 

CPJ’s calls and text messages to police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi asking for updates on the investigation did not receive any replies.

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

These were among the last words that Mozambican blogger Albino Sibia streamed live on Facebook on December 12, 2024, after a police officer shot him twice in the back as he was filming police action against protestors.

Sibia, also known as Mano Shottas, died about four hours later, as he was taken from a local clinic to a hospital.

The police “didn’t let him rest even on hisfuneral,” Sibia’s widow, Vânia Tembe, told CPJ. Police opened fire against mourners, killing two people and injuring reporter Pedro Júnior, who was covering the December 14 funeral .

In a separate incident, another journalist, Arlindo Chissale, went missing on January 7, and several reports, unconfirmed by CPJ, say that he is dead.  Chissale, an opposition politician and the editor of the online outlet Pinnacle News, was taken into custody by a group of men, some of whom were reported to be in military uniform, in the restive Cabo Delgado province.

The attacks on the three journalists, the latest violations against Mozambican media, are symptomatic of the deterioration in conditions for journalists ever since a disputed October 2024 election. All three journalists commented on or reported the nationwide protests that followed the elections, during which security personnel were accused of using excessive force, resulting in the death of at least 300 people.

“Mozambican journalists have paid a heavy price reporting the news amid unrest and a post-election crisis,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, from Nairobi. “Authorities should ensure accountability in the murder of Albino Sibia and the attack on Pedro Júnior, and credibly investigate Arlindo Chissale’s disappearance.”

Thirty-year-old Sibia was filming police tear gassing homes to break up a protest in the border town of Ressano Garcia when an officer shot him. José Chilenge, a protestor, told CPJ he witnessed an officer telling the blogger to stop filming “because there could be no record of what was going to happen next.”

Sibia did not stop filming.

“When the officer realized Shottas continued to film, he shot him once, and a second time when he had already fallen to the ground,” Chilenge said.

Residents of Ressano Garcia were protesting the transportation of chromium, which they believed was contaminating their water. In the weeks before his death, Sibia also covered broader protests in the wake of the elections, in which the ruling Frelimo party claimed victory.

Júnior, a reporter with the local channel SPMTV, told CPJ he was filming police action against mourners when officers started shooting. Júnior and three colleagues –  Egilio Litsure, Wilken Alberto, and Dério Chichava – ran  to a local home for cover. Júnior said that he continued filming the unrest from the home but that police noticed him and shot at him, hitting him on the arm. Júnior said that he and his colleagues were all wearing “Press” vests at the time.

The journalists said they left the home with their arms raised, alongside a friend Abel Timana, to seek medical attention for Júnior. Litsure said that police “showered [them] with bullets” again, killing Timana. Litsure twisted his ankle while trying to get away from the police.

Júnior told CPJ he was hospitalized in neighboring South Africa for about two weeks.

On January 7, Arlindo Chissale left his home in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province, to travel to Nacala, a city in the neighboring Nampula province, his brother Macário Chissale told CPJ. Macário Chissale said that later that day, in the Cabo Delgado village of Silva Macua, witnesses saw eight men, three of whom were in military uniform, stop a minibus in which Arlindo Chissale was traveling. The men, driving an unlicensed white car, forced Arlindo Chissale to come with them, Macário Chissale told CPJ.

Arlindo Chissale is a supporter of the opposition politician Venâncio Mondlane, who also claimed victory in the election. Arlindo Chissale published commentary critical of Frelimo on Pinnacle News and he supported the opposition party Podemos until it broke ranks with Mondlane in December. Podemos has said that many of its members have been murdered or abducted since the elections.

Pinnacle News, which also distributes content on WhatsApp, specializes in covering the Islamic state-linked insurgency in Cabo Delgado. CPJ has documented other attacks against journalists in the region, including the 2020 disappearance of radio presenter Ibraimo Abú Mbaruco, after he texted a colleague that he was surrounded by soldiers. In 2022 Chissale was arrested and detained for six days in Cabo Delgado.

Police spokesperson Leonel Muchina did not respond to CPJ’s calls and messages. On January 16, Noemia João, National Criminal Investigation Service spokesperson in Cabo Delgado, said that no complaint had been filed with the service in connection to the case. Arlindo Chissale’s family filed a complaint with the police about his disappearance on the same day, according to the journalist’s brother. João has not answered CPJ’s calls and messages since then.

The Mozambican chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has recently denounced the “the growing violations of the rights to information and freedom of expression in Mozambique,” warning of “worsening restrictions on fundamental freedoms” including through “attacks on journalists.” MISA has called for an “independent investigation into the abuses committed” during the post-election period.

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

SPECIAL REPORT: By Mariam Barghouti in Jenin for Drop Site News

On December 28, 21-year-old Palestinian journalist Shatha Sabbagh was standing on the stairs of her home on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp when she was shot and killed.

The bullets weren’t fired by Israeli troops but, according to eyewitnesses and forensic evidence, by Palestinian Authority security forces.

The Palestinian Authority has been conducting a large-scale military operation in Jenin since early December, dubbing it “Operation Homeland Protection”.

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A stronghold of Palestinian armed resistance in the occupied West Bank, the city of Jenin and the refugee camp within it have been repeatedly raided, bombed, and besieged by the Israeli military in an attempt to crush the Jenin Brigade — a politically diverse militant group of mostly third-generation refugees who believe armed resistance is key to liberating Palestinian lands from Israeli occupation and annexation.

Over the past 15 months, the Israeli military has killed at least 225 Palestinians in Jenin, making it the deadliest area in the West Bank.

The real aim, residents say, is to crush Palestinian armed resistance at the behest of Israel. Dubbed the “Wasps’ Nest” by Israeli officials, Jenin refugee camp has posed a constant threat to Israel’s settler colonial project.

But the current operation, which is being billed as a campaign to “restore law and order,” is the longest and most lethal assault by Palestinian security forces in recent memory. While the PA claims to be rooting out armed factions and individuals accused of being “Iranian-backed outlaws,” according to multiple residents and eyewitnesses, the operation is a suffocating siege, with indiscriminate violence, mass arrests, and collective punishment.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed so far, with security forces setting up checkpoints around the city and refugee camp, cutting electricity to the area, and engaging in fierce gun battles. Among those killed are six members of the security forces and one resistance fighter, Yazeed Ja’aysa.

Yet the overwhelming majority of those killed have been civilians, including Sabbagh, and at least three children — Majd Zeidan, 16, Qasm Hajj, 14, and Mohammad Al-Amer, 13.

“It’s reached levels I have never seen before. Even journalists aren’t allowed to cover it,” M., 24, a local journalist and resident of Jenin, told Drop Site News on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested or targeted by PA security forces.

Dozens of residents, including journalists, have been arrested from Jenin and across the West Bank by the PA in the past six weeks under the pretext of supporting the so-called Iranian-backed “outlaws.”

PA security forces spokesperson Brigadier-General Anwar Rajab has justified the assault as “in response to the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people, and within the framework of ongoing continued efforts to maintain security and civil peace, establish the rule of law, and eradicate sedition and chaos”.

‘Wasps’ Nest’ threat to Israel’s settler colonial project
But the real aim, residents say, is to crush Palestinian armed resistance at the behest of Israel. Dubbed the “Wasps’ Nest” by Israeli officials, Jenin refugee camp has posed a constant threat to Israel’s settler colonial project.

Just one week into the operation, on December 12, PA security forces shot and killed the first civilian, 19-year-old Ribhi Shalabi, and injured his 15-year-old brother in the head. Although the PA initially denied killing Shalabi and claimed he was targeting its security forces with IEDs, video captured by CCTV shows Ribhi being shot execution-style while riding his Vespa.

The PA later admitted to killing Shalabi, saying “the Palestinian National Authority bears full responsibility for his martyrdom, and announces that it is committed to dealing with the repercussions of the incident in a manner consistent with and in accordance with the law, ensuring justice and respect for rights”.

Just two days later, the PA began escalating their attack on Jenin. At approximately 5:00 am on December 14, the Palestinian Authority officially declared the large-scale operation, dubbing it “Himayat Watan” or “Homeland Protection.”

By 8:00 am, Jenin refugee camp was under siege and two more Palestinians had been killed, including prominent Palestinian resistance fighter Yazeed Ja’aisa, and 13-year-old Mohammad Al-Amer. At least two other children were injured with live ammunition.

The roads leading to Jenin are now riddled with Israeli checkpoints while the entrance to the city is surrounded by PA armoured vehicles and security forces brandishing assault rifles, their faces hidden behind black balaclavas.

Eerily reminiscent of past Israeli incursions, snipers fire continuously from within the PA security headquarters toward the refugee camp just to the west, sending the sound of live ammunition echoing through the city. The PA also imposed a curfew on the city of Jenin, warning residents that anyone moving in the streets would be shot.

PA counterterrorism units have also been stationed at the entrance to Jenin’s public hospital, while the National Guard blocked roads with armoured vehicles and personnel carriers, denying entry to journalists.

When I attempted to reach the hospital on December 14 with another journalist to gather information for Drop Site on the injuries sustained during the earlier firefight and follow up on the killing of Al-Amer, the 13-year-old, armed and masked PA security forces claimed the area was a closed security zone. When we attempted to carry out field interviews outside the camp instead, two armed men in civilian clothing who identified themselves as members of the mukhabarat — Palestinian General Intelligence — requested that we leave the area.

“If you stay here, you might get shot by the outlaws,” he warned. Yet, from where we stood between the hospital, the PA security headquarters, and Jenin refugee camp, the only bullets being fired were coming from the direction of the PA headquarters towards the camp.

PA security forces also appear to have been using one of the hospital wards as a makeshift detention center where detainees are being mistreated. While Brigadier-General Rajab, the PA’s spokesperson, denied this; several young men detained by the PA told Drop Site they were taken to the third floor of Jenin public hospital where they were interrogated and beaten.

“They kept asking me about the fighters,” said A., a 31-year-old medical service provider from Jenin refugee camp, who says he was held for hours, blindfolded, and denied legal representation.

“They kept beating me, cursing at me, asking me questions that I don’t have answers for.”

Fear of being arrested, abused again
Since his arbitrary detention, A. has not returned to work out of fear of being arrested and abused again.

According to residents, the PA also stationed snipers in the hospital, firing at the camp from inside the facility. During the past six weeks, according to interviews with several medics in Jenin, PA security forces shot at medics, burned two medical vehicles, beat paramedics, and detained medical workers throughout the siege.

“What exactly are they protecting?” Abu Yasir, 50, asks as he stands outside the hospital, waiting for any news of the security operation to end.

A father of three, Abu Yasir grew up in the Jenin refugee camp. “There are people being killed in the camp just for being there. They didn’t do anything,” he told Drop Site as he burst into tears.

By December 14, with Operation Homeland Protection entering its 10th day, families in the refugee camp had run out of food, the chronically ill needed life-saving medication, and with electricity and water punitively cut from the camp, families found themselves under siege and increasingly desperate.

Women and their children tried to protest in an attempt to break the PA-imposed blockade. They also wanted to challenge the PA’s claim of targeting outlaws. As the women gathered in the dark towards the edge of the camp, several men worked to fix an electricity box to restore power to the camp.

When the lights came on, cheers echoed in the camp — but barely 15 minutes later, PA forces shot at the box, plunging the area into darkness again.

Denying electricity for families
According to residents of the camp, over the course of 10 days, the PA shot at the electric power boxes more than a dozen times, denying families electricity just as temperatures began to plummet.

Elderly women confronted soldiers of the Special Administrative Tasks squad (SAT), a specialised branch of the PA security forces, SAT is trained by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) and is responsible for coordinating operations with the United States and Israel, including joint-operations and intelligence sharing.

“I yelled at them,” said Umm Salamah, 62. “They burst through the door, and at first, I thought they were Israelis’” she told Drop Site, pointing to the destroyed door. “I told them I have children in the house. But they forced their way in.

“I told them we already have the Israeli army constantly raiding us, and now you?”

Not only were homes raided, according to Umm Salameh, but PA security forces also fired at water tanks, effectively cutting water supplies to the camp. Jenin refugee camp had already been severely damaged in the last Israeli invasion, during which Israeli military and border-police bulldozed the city’s civilian infrastructure, turning streets into hills of rubble.

Operation Homeland Protection comes just three months following “Operation Summer Camps,” Israel’s large-scale military operation between August and October.

Under the pretext of targeting “Iran-backed terrorists,” Israeli forces destroyed large swathes of civilian infrastructure in the northern districts of the West Bank, namely Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus and Tubas, and killed more than 150 Palestinians over three months, a fifth of whom were children.

Protest over ‘outlaws’ framing
Outside in the mud-filled streets, the group of women began to chant “Kateebeh!” (Brigade) in support of the Jenin Brigade, and in protest of the PA’s attempt to frame them as “outlaws” and a “threat to national security.”

Within minutes, the SAT unit responded with teargas and stun grenades fired directly at the crowd, which included journalists clearly marked with fluorescent PRESS insignia. While elderly women tripped and fell to the ground, children ran back towards the camp as PA security forces kept lobbing stun grenades at the fleeing crowd.

In an interview with Drop Site that evening, Brigadier-General Rajab affirmed that “this operation comes to achieve its goals which are the reclaiming of safety and security of Palestinians and reclaiming Jenin refugee camp from the outlaws that kidnapped it and spread corruption in it while threatening the lives of civilians.”

Days later, the PA had expanded its operations to Tulkarem, where clashes between resistance fighters and PA security forces erupted on December 19. This came just one day following an Israeli airstrike which killed three Palestinian fighters in Tulkarem refugee camp: Dusam Al-Oufi, Mohammad Al-Oufi, and Mohammad Rahayma.

On December 22, Saher Irheil, a Palestinian officer in the PA’s presidential guard was killed in Jenin, and two others injured.

According to official state media and statements by the PA, Lieutenant Irheil was killed by the “outlaws” of Jenin refugee camp. Brigadier-General Rajab claimed “this heinous crime will only increase [the PA’s] determination to pursue those outside the law and impose the rule of law, in order to preserve the security and safety of our people.”

By military order, speakers from mosques across the West Bank echoed in a public tribute to the fallen officer. The same was not done for those killed by the PA, including Shalabi, the 19-year-old whom the PA dubbed “a martyr of the nation” after being forced to admit they killed him.

That week, PA security forces escalated their attack on the Jenin refugee camp, using rocket-propelled grenades and firing indiscriminately at families sheltering in their own homes. PA security officers even posted photos and videos of themselves online, similar to those taken by Israeli soldiers while invading the camp in August and September.

On December 23, security forces shot and killed 16-year-old Majd Zeidan while he was returning to his home from a nearby corner store. The PA claimed Zeidan was an Iranian-backed saboteur.

Killed teenager had bag of chips
“They killed him, then said he was a 26-year-old Iranian-backed outlaw,” Zeidan’s mother, Yusra, told Drop Site. “Look,” she said while pulling her son’s ID card from her pocket. “My son was 16 years old, killed while returning from the store with a bag of chips.”

According to Yusra, not only was her son killed, but her brother who lives in Nablus, was arrested by the PA a few days later for holding a wake for his slain nephew.

“The Preventative Security are detaining my brother because he was mourning a mukhareb,” she said. The term “mukhareb” which roughly translates to “saboteur” is a term derived from the Israeli term “mekhablim” which is commonly used when arresting Palestinians.

A few days later, on December 28, Shatha Sabbagh, a young journalist, was shot and killed as she stood on the stairs of her home at the edges of the camp. Official PA statements claim that Sabbagh was killed by resistance fighters, not its security forces.

However, accounts by eyewitnesses and the victim’s family belie those claims.

According to testimonies from her family and residents, Sabbagh was killed while holding her 18-month-old nephew; her sister lives nearby, on Mahyoub Street in the refugee camp — the same area PA snipers were targeting. Initial autopsy findings shared with Drop Site show that the bullet that struck her came from the area in which PA snipers were positioned in the camp.

Known for her reliable reporting during both Israeli and PA raids on Jenin, local residents claim that PA loyalists had been inciting against Sabbagh for some time. Further inflaming tensions, Sabbagh’s killing underscored the risks faced by Palestinian journalists in documenting what the PA would rather conceal.

Soon afterward, Brigadier-General Rajab spoke about the killing of Sabbagh in a live interview with Al Jazeera. He turned off his camera and left the interview, however, as soon as Sabbagh’s mother was brought on air. Sabbagh’s mother, Umm Al-Mutasem, was next to her daughter when she was killed.

Two days after Sabbagh’s killing, the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, which is closely affiliated with the PA, released a statement accusing Al Jazeera of incitement, bias and attempts to stir internal discord.

On January 5, the Magistrate Court of Ramallah announced a suspension of Al Jazeera’s broadcasting operations in the West Bank, citing a “failure to meet regulations.” This move followed Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera offices during Operation Summer Camps in September of last year.

100 Palestinians arrested in operation
The Preventative Security, an internal intelligence organisation led by the Minister of Interior, and part of the Palestinian Security Services, arrested more than a hundred Palestinians as part of Operation Homeland Protection, including five journalists in Nablus and Jenin. Palestinians were summoned and interrogated, at times tortured, and detained without legal representation.

The PA not only targeted residents of the camp, but also expanded its repressive campaign to target anyone that would sympathise with the camp or is suspected of having any solidarity with the armed resistance.

Amro Shami, 22, who was arrested by the PA from his home in Jenin on December 25 had markings of torture on his body during his court hearing in the Nablus Court the following day. Shami was reported to have bruising on his body and was unable to lift his arms in court.

Despite appeals by his lawyer, the court denied Amro release on bail. Amro’s lawyer was only able to visit 15 days later when he reported additional torture against Amro, including breaking his leg.

At the very end of December, as the operation stretched into its fifth week, journalists were able to enter the camp at their own risk. With water and electricity cut off, families huddled outside, burning wood and paper in old metal barrels to try and keep warm.

The camp reeked with uncollected trash piled in the alleyways due to the PA cutting all social services from the camp.

Inside the camp, armed resistance fighters patrolled the streets. After confirming our IDs as journalists they helped us move safely in the dark.

“In the beginning there were clashes between the Brigade and the PA, but we told them we are willing to collaborate with anything that does not harm the community,” H., a 26-year-old fighter with the brigade, told Drop Site. The young fighter was referring to the PA’s claims that they are targeting “outlaws”, in which the Jenin Brigade agreed to hand over anyone that is indeed breaking the law.

However, the PA seemed more interested in the resistance fighters.

Spokesmen of the Jenin Brigade have made several public statements informing the PA that as long as the operation was not targeting resistance efforts, they would fully comply and coordinate to ensure law and order.

‘We are with the law . . .  but which law?’
“We are with the law, we are not outside the law. We are with the enforcement of law, but which law? When an Israeli jeep comes into Jenin to kill me, where are you as law enforcement?”

Abu Issam, a spokesman for the Jenin Brigade told Drop Site: “As I speak right now, the PA armoured vehicles and jeeps are parked over our planted IEDs, and we are not detonating them,” he said.

A former member of the PA presidential guard, Abu Issam is no stranger to the PA’s repressive tactics to quell resistance.

“Our compass is clear, it’s against the occupation,” he said. “Come protect us from the Israeli settlers, and by all means here is my gun as a gift. Get them out of our lands, and execute me.

“We were surprised with the demands of the PA. They offered us three choices: to turn ourselves in along with our weapons, offering us jobs for amnesty; to leave the camp and allow the PA to take over; or to confront them.

“We have no choice but to confront,” he says, holding his M16 to his chest. “We want a dignified life, a free life, not a life of security coordination with our oppressors,” H. said.

By the second week of January, not only did the PA expand its security operations to Tulkarem and Tubas, but intensified its violence against Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp as well.

On January 3, PA snipers shot and killed 43-year-old Mahmoud Al-Jaqlamousi and his 14-year-son, Qasm, as they were gathering water. Two days later, PA security forces began burning homes of residents near the Ghubz quarter of the camp.

“Why burn it? I didn’t build this home in an hour, it was years of work, why burn it?” Issam Abu Ameira asks while standing in front of the charred walls of his home.

The operation, ostensibly intended to restore security and order, has instead brought devastation, raising troubling questions about governance and resistance in the West Bank.

“This is not solely the PA. This is also the United States and Israel’s attempt to crush resistance in the West Bank,” H. said. Like him, other fighters find the timing of the operation to be questionable.

“This is an organisation that negotiated with the occupation for more than 30 years, but can’t sit and talk with the Jenin refugee camp for 30 hours?” Abu Al-Nathmi, a spokesperson for the Jenin Brigade, said as he huddled inside the camp while fighters patrolled around us and live ammunition fired continuously in the area.

‘PA acting like group of gangs’
“The PA is acting like a group of gangs, each trying to prove their power and dominance at the expense of Jenin refugee camp,” Abu Al-Nathmi tells Drop Site. “Right now the PA is trying to prove itself to the United States to take over Gaza, but there was no position taken to defend Gaza.”

Last week, the PA requested an additional US$680 million from the US for security assistance. “What the PA is doing now is destroying the homeland, and breaking the law” Abu Al-Nathmi said.

While the PA continued its attack on Jenin refugee camp, the Israeli military waged military operations on the neighboring villages of Jenin, as well as Tubas and Tulkarem where 11 Palestinians were killed in the first week of January, three of whom were children.

In the 39 days since the PA launched Operation Homeland Protection, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank, including six children. Over that same time period, Israeli courts have issued confiscation orders for thousands of hectares of land belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank.

The PA is failing to provide protection to the Palestinian people against continuous settler expansion and amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza, residents of the Jenin refugee camp say.

“The PA is claiming they don’t want what happened to Gaza to happen here, but here we are dying a hundred times,” Abu Amjad, 50, told Drop Site. Huddled near a fire outside the rubble of his home, he cries “we are being humiliated, attacked, beaten, and told there’s nothing we can do about it. In this way, it’s better to die.”

Mariam Barghouti is a writer and a journalist based in the West Bank. She is a member of the Marie Colvin Journalist Network. This article was first published by Drop News.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

“Sri Lankan authorities must take immediate steps to ensure the safety of journalist Murukaiya Thamilselvan and his family,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “The recently elected Sri Lankan government must put an end to the longstanding impunity surrounding the harassment and assaults on Tamil journalists.”

Thamilselvan told CPJ that he was traveling home in northern Kilinochchi town when a black pickup truck, which had been following him for around 500 meters, intercepted his motorcycle.

Two men emerged from the car and asked, “Do you know who we are?” before hitting Thamilselvan, pushing him into their vehicle, and threatening to kill him, the journalist said. His leg caught in the vehicle door, preventing the attackers from closing it, and they fled as passersby stopped to watch.

He received treatment at a local hospital for chest, neck, and back pain.

Thamilselvan identified the assailants in a statement to police, following which authorities arrested two suspects on December 27. Although Thamilselvan identified the suspects in court on December 30, they were released on bail later that day, the journalist told CPJ.

Thamilselvan said that he believed the attack was in retaliation for his reporting, reviewed by CPJ, on alleged drug trafficking and sand smuggling for Tamil-language daily newspapers Uthayan and Thinakaran. The journalist said he feared for his safety and that of his family following the incident.

CPJ has documented persistent impunity for attacks on the Tamil press. Most of the journalists killed during Sri Lanka’s 1983 to 2009 civil war were Tamil. The conflict ended with the government’s defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Sarath Samaravikrama, officer-in-charge of the Kilinochchi police, told CPJ via messaging app that he was unable to immediately comment.

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

A freelance journalist, Jean lacked financial support from the outlets he worked for to cover his steep medical bills. CPJ stepped in to cover the cost of the journalist’s hospital stay, surgery, a new glass eye and, eventually, glasses, so he could continue reporting.

Jean is one of more than 600 journalists who received a combined $1 million in financial grants in 2024 from CPJ’s Gene Roberts Emergency Fund. In addition to medical care, the funds can be used to cover costs associated with exile, legal fees, and basic living supplies in prison. Overall, CPJ drastically stepped up its assistance work last year, helping more than 3,000 journalists with financial grants, safety training, and other kinds of support amid rising threats to the media and declining press freedom.

Here are five other ways CPJ’s Emergencies department helped journalists in 2024:

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Supporting journalists in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon to cover and survive war

The Israel-Gaza war continues to be one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists since CPJ began keeping records in 1992. Israeli military operations have killed 152 journalists in Gaza and six in Lebanon; Hamas killed two Israeli journalists in its October 7, 2023 attack. As Israel conducts what rights groups call ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, the country continues to forbid foreign journalists from accessing the territory without military accompaniment, leaving the coverage to the beleaguered local press.

In February, CPJ gave $300,000 to three organizations supporting Gaza’s journalists: the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, and Filastiniyat. Through these grants, journalists were able to access food, basic necessities like blankets and tents for shelter, and journalistic equipment including cameras, phones, and laptops so they can continue to be the world’s eyes and ears on Gaza.

“We keep hitting what feels like rock bottom, only to discover even deeper levels of suffering and loss,” Hoda Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, told CPJ. “Yet Palestinian journalists persist. Their resilience cannot be overstated, and their work is essential—especially with foreign journalists barred from entering Gaza—but it is utterly unsustainable without continuous and significant support.”

As the war spread to Lebanon, CPJ provided grants to Lebanese freedom of expression groups the Maharat Foundation and the Samir Kassir Foundation to help journalists who were forced to flee their homes temporarily due to Israeli bombardment.

Providing resiliency and mental health workshops to journalists in Ukraine

Journalists living through and reporting on active conflict can face acute mental health challenges. Last year, CPJ partnered with Hannah Storm, a specialist in journalism safety and mental health and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine to provide resiliency and mental health workshops for Ukrainian journalists experiencing anxiety and stress due to their coverage of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, now about to enter its fourth year.

In 2024, CPJ helped to host three online mental health workshops attended by 160 Ukrainian journalists, who learned how to prevent burnout when working in a war zone, how to remain calm while reporting during air raids and explosions, and how to work effectively under shelling.

“Despite the challenging and uncertain times they are living through, participants shared their insights and experiences, enabling a real sense of solidarity which I hope can be sustained,” Storm, the trainer, told CPJ.

Distributing VPNs to journalists covering civil unrest in Venezuela and Senegal

Journalists covering civil unrest around the globe in 2024 had to contend with threats to their physical safety and obstructions to their work, including internet shutdowns in countries with repressive regimes.

After Senegal postponed the February 2024 election, prompting mass protests in which more than two dozen journalists were attacked, Senegalese authorities censored news and information by shutting down mobile internet. In response, CPJ partnered with virtual private network (VPN) provider TunnelBear to distribute VPNs to 27 journalists reporting in and on Senegal, which helped them to continue working in the event of future online blocking.

Across the world in Venezuela, CPJ provided 25 journalists with VPNs to continue their coverage after authorities repeatedly imposed digital shutdowns as protests erupted over President Nicolás Maduro’s widely disputed claim to have won the country’s July 28 presidential election. Ongoing suppression by the Venezuelan government had far-reaching consequences throughout the rest of 2024; CPJ supported three Venezuelan journalists with exile support and trained 30 Venezuelan journalists on their digital, physical, and psychological safety in partnership with local network Reporte Ya.

“The use of a VPN is an essential tool for practicing journalism in Venezuela,” a Venezuelan journalist who received a VPN from CPJ said. “This is especially important in an environment where surveillance and censorship are constant concerns. By encrypting the connection, a VPN allows you to research and communicate with confidential sources with greater confidence.”

Helping U.S. journalists safely cover the 2024 election

Elections and times of political transition pose special risks to journalists. In a year that saw around half the world’s population go to the polls, the 2024 U.S. presidential election was no exception. Ahead of the election, CPJ trained more than 740 journalists reporting on the U.S. on physical and digital safety, and provided U.S.-based journalists with resiliency and know-your-rights advice through a summer webinar series with partner organizations.

Jon Laurence, Supervising Executive Producer at AJ+, told CPJ that the training was “invaluable.” “Many of our staff members who were deployed to cover the conventions were able to attend the training and felt much better resourced as a result.”  

Reporters covered the November 5 election against a backdrop of retaliatory violence, legal threats, police attacks, and the specter of the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection. To make sure that journalists were as prepared as possible, CPJ reissued its legal rights guide for U.S.-based journalists, and distributed an updated election safety kit.

Providing grants to incarcerated journalists around the globe

Last year, CPJ provided a record 53 journalists with prison support in the form of a financial grant to help them access basic necessities behind bars, like food, water, and hygiene products. The grant can also be used by family members or lawyers to visit the journalist in prison, and to provide much-needed connection and emotional support. Recipients included journalists jailed in Myanmar, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Cameroon. For the first time, CPJ was also able to provide support to almost every imprisoned journalist in Belarus. Families of the 23 journalists helped by this grant were able to give care packages, consisting of items like stationery and medicine, to their loved ones. Some of the Belarusian journalists CPJ helped have since been released, and CPJ will keep fighting – and supporting – the hundreds who remain behind bars for their work.

For more information about CPJ’s journalist safety and emergency assistance work, visit CPJ’s Journalist Safety and Emergencies page. If you’re a journalist in need of assistance, please email emergencies@cpj.org.

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

The journalists were attacked around 11 a.m. Tuesday as they waited for Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe Blema to reopen a wing of the hospital, which was closed following a gang attack earlier this year.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is appalled by this tragic attack on reporters doing their jobs,” a CPJ spokesperson said in New York on Tuesday. “We send deepest condolences to the families of those killed and call on Haitian authorities to swiftly bring these killers to justice.”

A local gang leader, Johnson ‘Izo’ André, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on WhatsApp, saying the Viv Ansanm gang coalition had not authorized the reopening.

The journalists’ bodies were later shown on social media and identified by colleagues as Jimmy Jean, a reporter with online outlet Moun Afe Bon, and Marckendy Natoux, who worked for Voice of America in Haiti.

Witnesses said a police officer was also killed in the gunfire.

“They shot at us. Some went down. They were hit by the bullets,” Jephte Bazil, one of the journalists who saw the attack, told CPJ by phone outside another nearby hospital where the injured were taken. 

“Some of us were at the entrance and others were inside with the staff,” said Bazil, a reporter for an online media outlet, Machann Zen Haïti.

According to the United Nations, more than 5,350 people have been killed in gang-related violence in 2024 and another 2,155 injured.

The Haitian government issued a statement on Tuesday saying “this heinous act constitutes an unacceptable assault on the very foundations of our society” and pledging its “unfailing commitment to restoring order and bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

“It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza.

Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an “act of annihilation” of the Palestinian people, reports Middle East Eye.

Dr Bartov said that not only had Israeli forces been moving displaced Palestinians around the Gaza Strip but they had also been strategically bombing mosques, museums, hospitals, and anything that served the health or culture of a people — in an attempt to cleanse the entire area of Palestinians.

• READ MORE: Israeli attacks kill 21 Palestinians in Gaza in past 24 hours
• Other war on Gaza reports

Al Jazeera reports that an Israeli drone attack on the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza targeted a group of people gathered at a phone charging and internet distribution point, killing three people.

According to a witness, this was the only point in the refugee camp where people trapped in the area charge their phones and connect to the internet to be in touch with family members who are displaced in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

This was not the first time that the Israeli military has carried out deliberate attacks on such connectivity points.

Houthis ballistic missile wounds 14
Meanwhile, a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen has broken through Israeli defences above and below the Earth’s atmosphere before slamming into Tel Aviv, reports Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

It said interceptors from the Arrow missile defence system were launched into the upper atmosphere after detecting the missile, but missed the target and failed to stop it before it entered Israeli territory.

As captured in numerous videos, two more interceptors were then fired in the lower atmosphere, also failing to shoot down the missile.

At least 14 people were wounded after a failed interception of the ballistic missile.

This was the third incident of its kind just this week. The Israeli army says it was now investigating why it was not intercepted and why this was such a significant failure.

Since the start of the war, the Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles, and more than 170 drones in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis have said they would continue the attacks until Israel ends its war in the besieged enclave.

In July, there was a drone that evaded all Israeli air defences, no siren sounded, and it was able to detonate in the middle of Tel Aviv and kill one person.

This time, it was just one minute from the time the sirens rang until the moment of impact.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“It’s been more than three days since armed men abducted journalist Habib Marouane Camara, and we are very concerned about his fate and well-being,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ Africa in New York. “We urge the judicial police to promptly investigate, hold those responsible accountable, and ensure that Camara is returned unharmed without delay.”

On the evening of December 3, 2024, several men in gendarme uniforms stopped Habib Marouane Camara, the administrator of the private online news site Le Révélateur 224, as he drove to meet a businessman in Conakry, according to the news site, which cited local residents who witnessed the scene. The men broke the front windshield of Camara’s car and hit him with batons before taking him to an unknown destination, the site reported.

Salif Béavogui, Camara’s lawyer, said at a press conference that Camara’s whereabouts remained unknown, despite efforts to find him by the prosecutor of the Dixinn community court in Conakry, where Camara lives, and by other law enforcement agencies.

On November 28, Camara posted on Facebook that a “commando was on his heels.” A person close to Camara who declined to be named for security reasons told CPJ that Camara regularly received alerts about a possible kidnapping and he had subsequently made several Facebook posts about a stampede at a local stadium in Conakry that left more than 50 people dead.

Separate from Le Révélateur 224, Camara worked for Djoma media press group, which was included in at least six media that had their licenses revoked by the Guinean authorities in May. Guinea’s media regulator suspended Camara in March for three months after a minister accused him of making defamatory remarks.

Ansoumane Toumani Camara, the Armed Forces Public Relations Director, told CPJ that he had been informed of Camara’s case “only through the press” and he had no information.

CPJ’s calls to government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo went unanswered.

In a December 6 statement the Dixinn prosecutor said that Camara’s arrest was made outside the law and without an order from the constituted authorities, and an investigation had been launched.

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

“The protection of journalists is a hallmark of democratic societies. Georgian authorities’ failure to address the extensive and shocking police violence against journalists covering ongoing mass protests signals a clear departure from democratic values,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgian authorities must hold police officers to account for brutalizing members of the press and publicly commit to uphold journalist safety during the protests.”

Since November 28, CPJ has documented the following incidents of police violence and detentions of journalists:

• Guram Rogava, a reporter with pro-opposition broadcaster Formula TV, was repeatedly punched in the head and knocked to the curb by a riot police officer on November 28. The journalist face and neck bones were fractured in the attack and he was hospitalized.
• Three or four riot police also beat Aleksandre Keshelashvili, a reporter with independent news website Publika, for several minutes. They repeatedly struck him in the head, kicked him when he fell, and took his two cameras, the journalist told CPJ. Police detained Keshelashvili at the Tbilisi police station around three hours before allowing him to go to hospital, where he underwent an operation for a broken nose.
• Davit Tsagareli, a reporter with the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Georgian service, was reporting live when an officer punched him in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground.
• Nanuka Kajaia, a reporter with pro-opposition broadcaster TV Pirveli, was conducting a live interview a short distance from the protests when police appeared to target her camera crew with a water cannon.
• Police reportedly pushed George Tchumburidze, a camera operator with the RFE/RL-affiliated Current Time TV, from a ledge as he was filming them detain protesters.
• Police officers grabbed Giorgi Shetsiruli, a camera operator with TV Pirveli and one of them elbowed him forcefully in the neck, knocking him to the ground, according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.
• An officer grabbed Publika journalist Natia Amiranashvili’s cell phone while she was filming police arrest protesters and stomped on it.
• Around 10 officers struck, kicked, and pushed Aka Zarkua, a journalist with the RealPolitika news site, on November 29, according to video footage of the incident and a Facebook post by the journalist.
• A riot police officer threw Publika journalist Ana Mskhaladze’s cell phone to the ground, punched her in the head and fled with her phone.
• Giorgi Gamgebeli, a freelance photographer, told CPJ that riot police repeatedly beat, dragged, and kicked him over the course of several minutes and took his camera. Gamgebeli sustained a severely sprained leg and a split lip in the attack.
• Officers chased and struck Formula TV reporter Nutsa Bakhutashvili on the back on November 30. 
• Police arrested Giorgi Chagelishvili, a reporter for the independent news outlet Mautskebeli, while he was reporting on protests on December 1. Police detained Chagelishvili for around 48 hours and a court fined him 2000 lari ($700) on December 3 for allegedly disobeying police, which he denies, Mautskebeli co-founder Giorgi Arobelidze told CPJ.
• An officer shoved Amiranashvili forcefully against a wall as she was running to film police chase protesters, according to footage of the incident shared by the journalist with CPJ.
• Nino Ramishvili, a journalist for independent investigative outlet Studio Monitor, was filming police beat a protester on December 2 when officers demanded that she delete her footage and then confiscated her phone.

Additionally, Mariam Gaprindashvili, a reporter for TV Pirveli, was struck on the head by an unknown object on November 29, sustaining a cut to her forehead. Gaprindashvili told CPJ she was hospitalized for over 24 hours, received six stitches and was diagnosed with a concussion.

Georgia has seen protracted mass protests since the ruling Georgian Dream party declared a  victory in the October 26 elections, which opposition parties deny. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s November 28 announcement that Georgia was suspending EU accession talks sparked even more demonstrations and a police crackdown, with local press freedom groups alleging “systematic, planned and intentional” police aggression against journalists.

Georgia’s Special Investigation Service, a government body responsible for investigating alleged crimes by law enforcement officers and crimes against journalists, stated on November 30 that it was investigating reports of police violence against protesters and members of the media.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and sent a message via Facebook to the Special Investigation Service for comment but did not receive any replies.

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

“We welcome Serbian authorities’ quick response to recent physical attacks on reporters covering protests and call on them to swiftly bring those responsible to justice,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “The environment for journalists in Serbia is increasingly hostile, and effective measures must be taken so journalists can do their jobs without fear of intimidation or violence.”  

Journalist Jelena Mirković, with the private news channel N1, was hit in the shoulder, causing minor injuries, and had her microphone struck from her hand while covering a November 27 demonstration, in which protestors hurled insults at her crew. Reporter Aleksandar Cvrkutić’s camera was also struck as he documented the scene.

On November 22, Ana Marković, a reporter with Nova, a private news portal and TV channel, also was physically attacked while covering a demonstration demanding accountability in the fatal Novi Sad railway station roof collapse on November 1, which claimed 15 lives. Marković suffered light injuries as her phone was struck from her hand while reporting.

The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) said that the number of threats and attacks on journalists has risen in November due to the hostile rhetoric of government and ruling party representatives.

In May, Serbian journalists told CPJ that they have felt increasingly targeted by public officials, pro-government media and its supporters since the country’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, scored a sweeping parliamentary victory last December.

A survey in April by IJAS and University of Novi Sad found that 90% of journalists think that authorities have inadequately responded to threats against the press. 

CPJ emailed questions to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees police, but received no reply.

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

RCMP Program Director Diallo Kambale Ombeni told CPJ that Kambere, a reporter and presenter with RCMP, was heading to retrieve belongings from home when he was killed. CPJ was unable to confirm whether the attackers knew he was a journalist.

“The killing of journalist Yoshua Kambere Machozi is a tragedy, and the attack on the Mpety community radio station is an outrage,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program head, in New York. “Media outlets and journalists have too often become victims of the conflict in eastern DRC. It’s a pattern that must end.”

Since resuming their offensive at the end of 2021, M23 rebels have advanced towards mining areas rich in gold and coltan in North Kivu. They have occupied much of the region and extended their hold on five of six territories in the eastern DRC.

A village resident who was present during the attack and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity said that they saw M23 rebels cut Kambere’s throat with a knife and throw his body into the nearby Mweso River. Kambere’s body was found on November 6 on the banks of another river about four kilometers (2.5 miles) away.

Mwami Ntandu Kindi, a traditional chief of Mpety village, similarly told CPJ that M23 rebels killed Kambere and looted the Mpety community radio.

M23 rebels seized broadcasting equipment from the station, including two computers, a solar panel kit, dictaphones, microphones, and a transmitter, Kambale told CPJ. 

Since mid-November, CPJ spoke to M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka by messaging app and over the phone, but he did not provide comment on the incidents by the time of publication.

M23 rebels vandalized and seized broadcasting equipment from the private Mweso Community Radio (RCM) station, also in North Kivu province, on September 23, 2024.

Separately, in May, soldiers with the DRC military threatened to kill Parfait Katoto, director of the Radio Communautaire Amkeni Biakato (RCAB), over his criticism of insecurity in the country’s northeastern Ituri province.

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

“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Israel must be held accountable for its actions and the international community must act to ensure that journalist murders are not allowed to go unpunished.”

On November 25, investigations by Human Rights Watch and Britain’s The Guardian newspaper revealed that Israel’s October 25 airstrike in south Lebanon was carried out using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced bomb guidance kit.

Two journalists and a media worker — Ghassan Najjar, Mohammed Reda, and Wissam Kassem — were killed and three more journalists were injured by the 3 a.m. strike on a compound in the southern town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists had been staying for several weeks.

The investigations, which included site visits, interviews with survivors and legal experts, and analysis of munitions remnants, video, photo, and satellite images, found no evidence of military activity, forces, or infrastructure in the area. Human Rights Watch concluded that the Israeli military “knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building.”

The New York-based rights group further said that U.S. officials “may be complicit in war crimes” because of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel whose military has carried out “repeated, unlawful attacks on civilians.”

Last month, a CPJ report called for accountability for Israel’s killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah and wounding of six other journalists in an October 13, 2023, tank strike on a hillside in south Lebanon.

Prior to the Israel-Gaza war, in May 2023, CPJ’s “Deadly Pattern” report found that Israel had never held its military to account for 20 journalist killings over 22 years. 

Immediately after the October 25 strike, Israel’s military said it had struck a “Hezbollah military structure” and that “terrorists were located inside the structure.” A few hours later, the army said the incident was “under review.”

CPJ did not immediately receive a response to its email to the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking whether they’d reviewed the circumstances of the strike, whether they knew there were journalists in the targeted location, and if they were targeted for being journalists.

At a November 25 press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he was aware of the Human Rights Watch report and department officials “generally do take these reports very seriously,” but said he did not have any “further assessment, either to the type of weapon that was used or to the nature of the strike itself.”

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

In a separate attack, suspected gang members burned the home of Lookens Jean-Baptiste, a reporter with radio Tropic FM, on November 5 in Port-au-Prince’s Fort National district. “They found out I was a journalist, and they think we all have connections with the police,” Jean-Baptiste told CPJ.

“We are concerned by the surge in gang violence in Haiti and general instability following the collapse of Prime Minister Garry Conille’s government, which have both made the already tenuous situation in Haiti all the more dangerous for the country’s reporters,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, from New York. “We are concerned by the recent attack against journalist Wandy Charles and the burning of the home of reporter Lookens Jean-Baptiste. Journalists must be able to report on the recent surge in violence without fear of gang retaliation.”

Charles, editor-in-chief of the independent local media outlet Vent Bef, told CPJ that he was wearing his flak jacket marked “Press,” but he quickly removed it, fearing the shooters were targeting him for his work as a journalist.

“The gangs don’t want us to criticize them or give a voice to the victims, or the police, or the government,” Charles told CPJ. “The bandits have their own propaganda organ, and the press often goes against what they say — it bothers them.”

His brother was treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds to the arm and leg, Charles told CPJ, adding that his brother was given a blood transfusion and is now in stable condition.

Local media reported that the shooters were members of the Kraze Baryè gang led by Vitel’homme Innocent, who is wanted by the FBI for kidnapping and murder.

Charles told CPJ that gangs have attacked his family at least four other times, most recently in March when their home was ransacked, looted, and then set on fire.

In recent years, the unrest in Haiti has made it one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Haiti ranked No. 1 in CPJ’s 2024 impunity index, a ranking of nations where journalists’ murderers are most likely to go free.

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

News reports and statements by human rights groups show that journalists covering the post-election crackdown have not been spared from the violence, which has left at least 45 dead. 

Authorities have assaulted or arrested at least nine journalists and expelled at least two foreign correspondents. The government has imposed several Internet disruptions, further hindering news gathering and reporting.

Journalism has become “too risky and often impossible,” Gervásio Nhampulo, a journalist in northern Niassa province, told CPJ. “We have families to consider if something happens to us.”

Since the elections, CPJ documented the following press freedom violations:

Journalists detained

• Police arrested Bongani Siziba and Sbonelo Mkhasibe, South African journalists with the Nigerian media outlet News Central, and Charles Mangwiro, a local reporter with the state-owned Radio Moçambique, on November 14 in the capital, Maputo. The journalists said officers took them to a police station before armed, masked men transferred them to a second location that Siziba told CPJ “looked like barracks.” Siziba and Mkhasibe told CPJ they were held blindfolded, questioned several times, and accused of being spies who wanted to portray Mozambique in a grim light. They were released the following day.

Siziba told CPJ she heard shots fired in an adjoining room and the cries of people who appeared to have been beaten. “We couldn’t sleep. We didn’t know if we were next,” she said. 

Mkhasibe told CPJ the men refused to give him his blood pressure and diabetes medication while detained. 

Journalists shot at, attacked

• Aboutfive plainclothes security agents chased and shot at Cesar Rafael and Valdimiro Amisse, reporters of Catholic Church-owned Radio TV Encontro, after the journalists refused to delete footage of a demonstration in northern Nampula province on November 13. Amisse told CPJ they initially escaped but later ran into the same officers who beat them with sticks, threw rocks at them, and tried to take their camera until members of the public intervened.
• Police fired a rubber bullet at Paulo Julião, head of the Mozambican office of the Portuguese news agency Lusa, hitting him on the back on November 4 in Maputo. 
• Police officers assaulted and briefly detained Nuno Alberto, a reporter with the community Radio Monte Gilé, while he was covering protests on October 25 in Gilé, a town in the central Zambézia province. Alberto told CPJ that an officer grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground, and others kicked him, slapped him, and beat him with batons. The officers took him to a police station, where they beat him again and forced the journalist to wear a mask and hold a protest placard as officers took pictures of him. He was released after two hours without charge.
• Police fired tear gas at several journalists covering opposition protests in Maputo on October 21. TV Gloria camera operator Bruno Marrengula told CPJ that he was hospitalized for two days with a broken tibia after a police officer hit him with a tear gas canister. 
• Police fired tear gas at a group of journalists covering a press conference by opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane in a separate incident later on October 21. Gaspar Chirinda, a reporter with the private news network STV, said a tear gas canister was fired near his legs, hitting and injuring him. 

Expelled from the country

• Immigration officers confiscated the passports of Alfredo Leite and Marc Silva, Portuguese reporters with TV networks CMTV and NOW TV, on November 1 on allegations of working in Mozambique on tourist visas. Leite told CPJ they were expelled from Mozambique on November 3.

Equipment confiscated

• Intelligence agents confiscated the phones of Nhampulo and Jaime Joaquim, local journalists with the privately owned TV Amaramba, and Nunes Rafael, a reporter with Radio Esperança, a station owned by the religious group Church Assembly God Alfa and Omega, while they were reporting on protests in Niassa on October 26. The journalists told CPJ their devices were returned after two hours. 

In an October 22 press conference, spokesperson of the Mozambican Council of Ministers Filimão Swaze said police did not target journalists, and they were attacked while covering protests on October 21 because they were “in a place where there were also protestors.”

CPJ did not receive responses to calls and messages to Maputo police spokesperson Leonel Muchina, Mozambique police general commandant Bernardino Rafael, and Swaze.

In recent years, Mozambican authorities have harassed, beaten, and charged several journalists. Authorities have yet to credibly account for the 2020 disappearance of radio journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco.

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

One man grabbed Raičković, editor for online newspaper Pobjeda, by her throat and threatened her and her family with physical violence and death; another grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against the car door. Raičković filed a report with police the night of the attack, and police arrested three suspects. 

“It is a welcome development that Montenegrin authorities acted swiftly in response to the physical attack against journalist Ana Raičković. They must now ensure that all those responsible are held accountable,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Threatening or attacking a journalist because of their reporting is completely unacceptable. Montenegrin authorities must send a clear signal that violence against journalists will not be tolerated.”

Pobjeda reported that the attack was in response to Raičković’s reporting and TV appearances. about the business owner’s dealings and court cases.  

She was treated in an emergency room for neck bruising, head lacerations, and a swollen arm. 

The independent trade group Trade Union of Media of Montenegro said the business owner has a “history of aggression towards journalists” and that the police investigation of previous threats he made against a journalist in 2019 ended without “criminal or misdemeanor responsibility.”

CPJ’s email to the press department of the Ministry of the Interior in Podgorica did not receive a reply.

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

“We are appalled by the brutal attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq, which left him with severe injuries to his abdomen and head,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “The Kurdistan Regional Government and its Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs must deliver justice for this vicious assault.”

The attack took place on November 4, hours after Abdulkhaliq, a reporter for the online outlet Bwar Media, published a report on allegations that an official had blocked the implementation of a local electricity and water project, according to multiple news outlets and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ. The report said the unnamed official was part of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, which is the defense ministry in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

Abdulkhaliq told CPJ and a news conference that he was in his orchard when the official’s nephew and bodyguard approached, and the bodyguard aimed a gun at him.

“I quickly grabbed his hand and pushed him back to prevent him from shooting. The nephew tried to shoot but misfired,” Abdulkhaliq told CPJ. “The nephew stabbed me deeply in the abdomen with a combat knife. Then the bodyguard prepared to shoot again but he [the nephew] stopped him, saying, ‘Let’s not shoot him; he’s already wounded and will die.’”

Bwar Media’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim Ali told CPJ that the assailants also punctured Abdulkhaliq’s tires. He said doctors told him that the journalist was stable after receiving 21 stitches in the hospital.

“Two assailants along with a military official have been arrested. We are committed to ensuring that justice is served,” Ramak Ramazan, mayor of Chamchamal District where the incident took place, told CPJ via phone, without providing further details.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin were not answered.

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

“Serbian authorities must bring all those responsible for the attack on a journalist and camera operators for N1 TV and Euronews to justice,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Journalists must be able to report on demonstrations without fear of intimidation or violence. Authorities need to send a clear message that such attacks will not be tolerated.”

The demonstration on November 5 was seeking accountability for the infrastructure collapse at a Novi Sad railway station that killed 14 people on November 1. According to news reports, a group of masked individuals threw stones, sticks, and flares at the City Hall building during the event.

The individuals shouted insults at N1 TV reporter Žaklina Tatalović and her cameraperson, Nikola Popović, and another protester struck Popović’s hand, causing him to drop and damage his camera. Later a man hit and knocked Euronews camera operator Mirko Todorović to the ground. No injuries were reported.

SafeJournalists, a regional press freedom group, said that the incidents were reported to the authorities, but that police at the scene did not respond and instead “observe[d] the events silently”.

CPJ emailed questions to the press department of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the police, but did not receive a response.

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

On October 26, protesters blocking a highway nearthe central Bolivian town of Melga threatened to hang Guzmán and briefly confiscated his crew’s TV camera. One of the protesters then tied a noose around Guzmán’s neck and tightened it, according to the Bolivian National Press Association (ANP) and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

 “The right to protest cannot be turned into aggression against other civilians, including journalists,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “CPJ hopes that the Bolivian authorities will identify and bring to justice those responsible for the attack on Jurgen Guzmán.”

Guzmán told CPJ that the attackers held the rope around his neck for at least 10 seconds, adding, “I put my hand under the twine to avoid being asphyxiated.”

Guzmán said the protesters then released him, returned the camera, and allowed his three-person crew to leave the area. 

The incident was one of several violent attacks against journalists covering anti-government protests and highway blockages, which began last month after authorities issued an arrest warrant for former President Evo Morales on charges of human trafficking and statutory rape. Many Morales supporters view mainstream journalists as allies of President Luis Arce, a fierce critic of Morales, Guzmán told CPJ.

On October 25, Red UNO TV reporter Romer Castedo and camera operator Ricardo Pedraza were assaulted and had equipment stolen. On October 29, Unitel journalist Josué Chubé was attacked by Morales supporters and detained for almost five hours. On November 1, a dynamite explosion during a protest knocked over Spanish news agency EFE photographer Jorge Ábrego, who also suffered a heart attack. He was treated at a hospital and released on November 5.

CPJ called and left messages with the Bolivia Attorney General’s office to inquire about investigations into recent attacks on journalists, but there was no answer.

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

“Greek authorities must conduct a swift and transparent investigation into the circumstances of riot police’s attack and arrest on journalist Giorgos Androutsou and hold those responsible accountable,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must ensure that police officers give protection to journalists while they cover protests, rather than harassing and detaining them.”

The October 31 clashes broke out when riot police used tear gas to end a sit-in by the firefighters, who were demanding permanent job contracts, at the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection. Video footage showed Androutsou, a journalist for the Communist Party of Greece’s newspaper Rizospastis, being assaulted by police as he and nearby protesters shouted out that he was a journalist. He was handcuffed and detained for several hours before being released without charge on November 1.

Androutsou reported that he sustained minor injuries, including abrasions to his hand, and had filed a complaint against the police.

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Hellenic Police did not receive a response.

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

“Harassment and threats against journalists covering Bulgaria’s elections are deeply concerning,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Bulgarian authorities must send a clear message that violence against and intimidation of the press will not be tolerated, especially during elections when the public’s access to information is paramount.”

Two men repeatedly hit Petar Kartulev, a camera operator for the private station bTV, while he was documenting voting in the southern city of Haskovo, causing minor injuries. Police detained two suspects at the scene.

A local official threatened journalist Diyana Zhelyazkova of the online outlets Za istinata (For the Truth) and Radian.bg as she was investigating allegations that the official was violating election law by preventing secret  voting in the northern village of Vulnari. The official twice warned her to “be very careful,” the outlets reported, adding that Zhelyazkova filed a complaint to the police.

Three men prevented reporter Damiana Veleva of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from entering a polling station or taking photos in the southern village of Dolno Osenovo. One official told her that he did not want her “writing nonsense” and another man threatened to take her phone, which she was using to make an audio recording.  

A man insulted and threatened reporter Zdravka Maslyankova of the public broadcaster Bulgarian National Radio as she was investigating alleged vote-buying at a polling station in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo. Police asked the man to leave the area.

Bulgaria’s seventh parliamentary election in four years was won by the center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which will now seek to form a coalition government.

CPJ’s emails requesting comment from the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, did not receive any reply.

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

“The deliberate destruction of North Macedonian journalist Blagoj Sersemov’s property is clearly meant to silence him and intimidate other reporters into silence,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must ensure that journalists can cover critical issues safely, without fear of reprisal, or intimidation for doing their job.”

Sersemov, who serves as editor of the local television and online media outlet M-Net, is facing a defamation lawsuit in connection with his reporting in which the legal team of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia, an independent trade union, is representing him in the Basic Court in Štip. Ivan Breshkovski, a lawyer with the legal team, told CPJ in an email that following Sersemov’s reporting on Facebook, “a debt collector company, one of the largest quick-loan providers in the country” sued him for defamation and damages, which the association considers baseless. Sersemov told local media that he considers the damage to his vehicle “a direct attack on all media, not just on me personally.”

CPJ emailed questions to the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, but did not receive a reply.

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

“It is a welcome development that Slovak authorities responded quickly to the physical attack against reporter Kristína Kövešová. They now must ensure that all those responsible are held to account and send a clear message that violence against the press will not be tolerated,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Attacking or intimidating journalists reporting on public interest issues is totally unacceptable. Slovak authorities must implement concrete measures to ensure journalists’ safety.”

While Kövešová was filming a report, a group approached her. One member of the group assaulted Kövešová, resulting in serious injuries that required hospitalization, including a broken nose, concussion, and spinal trauma.

Kövešová was working on an ongoing investigation into a recent wave of gang-related violence in the region, including attacks, threats, and beatings, many of which have targeted women and the elderly. In a video from the hospital, she vowed to continue her reporting, while her employer announced plans to air the full investigation she was working on.

Trnava regional police launched an investigation and detained a suspect in connection with the incident.

The press office of Slovakia’s Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, told CPJ via email that they charged a 25-year-old man with the attack but did not give any further details.

During a CPJ mission to Slovakia in May, journalists said they were facing an “orchestrated pattern” of abuse, with politicians verbally attacking reporters in public and online, which their supporters would then amplify on social media. Several journalists feared that such insults could easily escalate into physical violence again, as happened with the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

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

On October 20, at least 10 armed security guards working for Edelmetallum Resources Limited, a mining company operating in Ghana, detained and beat journalist Erastus Asare Donkor, camera technician Edward Suantah, drone pilot Majid Alidu, and driver Arko Edward as they reported on alleged environmental degradation associated with one of the company’s mines, according to Donkor and Edward, who spoke with CPJ.

“Authorities in Ghana must swiftly investigate and hold accountable the security guards of Edelmetallum Resources Limited responsible for attacking journalists and media workers Erastus Asare Donkor, Edward Suantah, Majid Alidu, and Arko Edward,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, in Johannesburg. “Reporting on environmental degradation is a matter of public interest, and too often no one is held accountable when the press in Ghana is attacked.”

The guards seized at least five phones, five drone batteries, a Lenovo tablet, a branded press jacket, and a headset, Donkor and Edward told CPJ. After forcing the crew to drive away with them, the guards deleted all information on at least two phones and made them delete their images. They also beat the media workers with their hands for at least 30 minutes. The guards later returned only the phones.

After the attack, Donkor had difficulty using his right eye, Edward had a swollen face, and Suantah and Alidu had ringing in their ears, according to Donkor and Edward.

The crew reported the attack to police and led them to the site, but the guards refused to go to the police station, Donkor said. Police later announced that three of the attackers had surrendered and were granted bail, he said.

CPJ’s calls to police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi for comment on the investigation went unanswered.

Edelmetallum’s managing director, Philip Edem Kutsienyo, said by phone that he did not want to speak with CPJ.

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

“CPJ is alarmed by the recent attack on Radio BIP/Média 25’s headquarters, which follows a disturbing pattern of harassment against this media outlet over the past two years,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Such attacks not only threaten the physical safety of journalists but also create a climate of fear that can severely impact independent reporting. French authorities must take this attack seriously, bring all perpetrators to justice, and implement measures to ensure that journalists can report on issues of public interest safely and without fear of reprisal.”

On the evening of October 21, unidentified individuals wearing gloves kicked the front door and attempted to forcibly enter the premises of Radio BIP/Média 25’s headquarters in Besançon, eastern France. They triggered the station’s security alarm, damaging the door and lock before fleeing.

Radio BIP/Média 25, a media outlet known for its reporting on local far-right groups in Besançon, has experienced a series of incidents over the past two years. In May 2022, unknown individuals broke into and entered its premises, robbing equipment; in another incident that same month, its garage door window was broken and an advertising banner was ripped off—followed by successive incidents in which the station received a bomb threat, had its garage door was damaged overnight, and was vandalized with painted swastikas.

CPJ emailed the Besançon police department requesting comment on the ongoing investigation but did not receive a reply.

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

At about 3 a.m. on October 25, an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in Hasbaya, a town in southern Lebanon. The strike killed pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar, broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda, and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.

According to the BBC, the IDF said it struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya where “terrorists were operating.” The IDF said it received reports “several hours after the strike” that journalists had been hit, adding that “the incident is under review.” 

Lebanon filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council on Monday, October 28, over the strike. 

Israeli strikes have killed at least three additional journalists while on assignment and injured at least 11 in Lebanon since the Israel Defense Forces and Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October 2023. Israel escalated tensions on October 1, 2024, when they launched a ground invasion into Lebanon. 

CPJ is investigating another five killings of journalists and media workers in Lebanon by Israel since September 23 to determine if they were killed in relation to their work. 

“Journalists are civilians, and the international community has an obligation to protect them by making it clear to Israel that their long-standing record of aggression and impunity in journalist killings will not be tolerated,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “International bodies must be given access to conduct independent investigations into these killings. Deadly attacks on journalists, who are protected under international humanitarian law, and obstructions to reporting must immediately stop.”

CPJ has documented the following obstructions to journalism in Lebanon since the September escalation: 

Israeli strikes on media facilities 

• Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the outlet offices of the Hezbollah-affiliated religious TV channel Al-Sirat in the southern district of the capital, Beirut, on September 30. No casualties were reported. 

• Israeli forces bombed a building in the southern city of Tyre on October 20, which housed the Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hasan and local radio station Sawt Al Farah. Workers evacuated the building, and no casualties were reported in the destruction of the 34-year-old station — one of the oldest in south Lebanon. Reports said the station’s broadcast was stopped by the bombing. Sawt Al Farah’s website continues to operate. 

• Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the Beirut office of the Hezbollah-affiliated broadcaster Al-Mayadeen in the Jnah neighborhood of Beirut on October 23. The two missile strikes killed one person and injured five others, none of whom have been identified. The channel said it had previously evacuated its offices and “holds Israel responsible for the attack.”

The IDF responded to CPJ in New York’s email inquiring about these strikes on October 28; the IDF said its operations in Lebanon since October 8 have been “in accordance with its obligations under international law,” and the IDF “directs its strikes towards military targets and military operatives only, and does not target civilian objects and civilians.”

The IDF told CPJ it was unaware of a strike on October 20 in Tyre, Lebanon, and that they could better answer CPJ’s questions with specific coordinates and times of the attacks, information that CPJ has no access to provide.

Displacement and lack of PPE

• Journalists who resided in southern Lebanon, including Beqaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburb, told CPJ they face displacement because of Israeli strikes in this area. At least 15 journalists were displaced and received housing aid from local press freedom groups Skeyes and the Alternative Press Syndicate.

• Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been an issue for many in the country, journalists told CPJ, adding that many press members do not own any and are working as freelancers, without an outlet’s direct support. Skeyes and Alternative Press Syndicate have loaned PPE to at least 100 journalists in the last month, with many more still on the waiting list.  

Attacked while reporting

• A group of around 20 men, some of whom were armed, beat two Belgian journalists with broadcaster VTM News while they reported on an Israeli airstrike that hit the Islamic Health Organization building in the Bashoura neighborhood of Beirut on October 3. Journalist Robin Ramaekers told CPJ he was treated at a hospital for facial fractures, and camera operator Stijn De Smet was treated for gunshot wounds to his leg. 

• A man chased and attacked two Italian journalists, reporter Lucia Goracci and camera operator Marco Nicois, with broadcaster RAI TG3 and tried to steal and break their cameras on October 8 in Jiyeh, a town south of Beirut. Their driver, Ahmad Akil Hamzeh, was trying to de-escalate the situation when he collapsed and later died of a heart attack. 

• A group of men attacked and insulted Mahmoud Shokor, a reporter with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya, while he was reporting live on October 15 in Beqaa, a valley near the central town of Chtoura.

Several local and international journalists spoke to CPJ about being beaten or witnessing other journalists being attacked on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation as they continue to report on the war. CPJ is investigating at least six additional incidents of journalists being attacked while reporting in various areas in Beirut between October 10 and October 22. 

A journalist detained

• Police detained Alia Mansour, a Lebanese Syrian journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of privately owned Now Lebanon, for several hours on October 19 after a social media account impersonating the journalist appeared to be in communication with Israeli social media accounts. 

Restricted access

Multiple journalists who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said that journalists working in Lebanon must now get accreditation from multiple parties before filming in any area, given the high risks of attacks. This includes the Lebanese Ministry of Information, political parties, and other groups influential in certain parts of the country. 

Multiple reporters told CPJ that authorities have also regularly restricted journalists’ access to bombed areas.  

On several occasions since September 2024, unidentified individuals have asked reporters from local and regional TV stations to leave or stop filming during live feeds of the bombings in Lebanon, according to reporters who spoke to CPJ and CPJ’s review of the news feeds. CPJ was unable to confirm the individuals’ affiliations.

Anti-media rhetoric

In October, Hezbollah’s media division accused several local and international media outlets, especially those that embedded reporters with the Israel Defense Forces in southern Lebanon, of “aiding Israel,” inciting violence, and “justification of Israeli crimes.” 

Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations official, repeated these accusations in an October 22 press conference, adding that “freedom of the press does not give you immunity from incitement or complicity in murder.”

CPJ reviewed dozens of social media posts by unknown individuals in the last month containing calls to ban outlets, burn studios, or obstruct journalists working with the local privately owned Lebanese broadcaster MTV, the Saudi broadcasters Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya, and the UAE-owned TV broadcaster Sky News Arabia. 

Outlets threatened

• Qatari-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera evacuated its studios in Beirut on October 17 over multiple bomb threats later determined to be fake by unnamed security sources. 

• NBN, a TV channel affiliated with the Shia political party Amal, part of Lebanon’s ruling coalition, evacuated its studios and paused broadcasting on October 22 after a staffer received a phoned threat that authorities later determined to be fake. 

CPJ’s texts to Hezbollah media spokesperson Rana Sahili and Lebanese Minister of Information Ziad Makari requesting comment on obstructions and attacks on the press and any official steps to protect them did not receive a response. A Lebanese Ministry of Interior media spokesperson told CPJ that the ministry declined to comment. 

The IDF’s North America Desk responded to CPJ in New York’s email requesting comment on the rest of these incidents on October 24; the IDF asked for an unspecified extension and coordinates of the attacks, information that CPJ, in response, said it has no access to provide.

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

At about 3 a.m. on October 25, an airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in south Lebanon’s Hasbaya area, killing pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar, broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda, and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.

The three injured were reported to be camera operator Hassan Hoteit and assistant camera operator Zakaria Fadel of the media production company Isol and Al Jazeera camera operator Ali Mortada.

“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time hitting a compound hosting 18 members of the press in south Lebanon,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account.”

The journalists had moved to Hasbaya from Marjayoun, which is further south and had been hit by Israeli strikes.

Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib said in a video aired by his outlet that the Israeli military knew that the area that was struck housed journalists of different media organizations, The Associated Press reported

The privately owned local news station Al Jadeed aired footage showing collapsed buildings and cars marked “Press” strewn with dust and rubble and its correspondent Mohammed Farhat posted a video showing his bed covered in rubble.

Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary described the attack as a “war crime.”

“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists in the place representing seven media institutions,” he said.

CPJ has confirmed that Israeli strikes have killed three journalists on assignment and injured at least seven in Lebanon since the IDF and Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October 2023.

CPJ in New York emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking if its forces were aware that there were journalists in the compound but did not immediately receive a response.

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

“The brazen shooting at the offices of El Debate not only underscores the ongoing crisis of violence against the press in Mexico but is a stark reminder of the urgent need for the recently appointed government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to investigate this attack and take all appropriate steps to provide El Debate’s staff with protection,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “As long as authorities continue to stand by, impunity in crimes against the press will continue to be the norm, and any pretense of respect for press freedom will ring hollow.”

El Debate is one of Culiacán’s oldest and most widely circulated regional dailies and has extensively reported on the rising criminal violence in the state. 

The Institute for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which operates under supervision of the Sinaloa state government, and Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya condemned the attack in separate statements on Friday. Moya also ordered an investigation. 

CPJ’s several calls to El Debate and the state public prosecutor’s office (FGE) requesting comment about the investigation were not answered. 

An official who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, as they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which operates under supervision of the federal Interior Ministry in Mexico City, is establishing contact with the newspaper and Sinaloa state authorities to evaluate the need for state-sponsored protection.

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

“German authorities must ensure the security guards working for the concert venue who insulted and beat Adonis Alkhaled are brought to justice,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Journalists must be able to carry out their work without fear of verbal abuse, intimidation, or violence.”

On October 12, security guards made homophobic comments and derogatory remarks about DW while Alkhaled and a colleague were interviewing the Syrian musician Al Shami. After the journalists stopped the interview due to security concerns, a security guard pushed Alkhaled into a backyard and beat him several times. He was taken to hospital for emergency treatment.

Alkhaled has filed a criminal complaint. Al Shami’s press spokesperson told DW that the attack took place after their team had parted ways with the journalists and offered full cooperation with the investigation.

The Düsseldorf police press department confirmed in an email to CPJ that an investigation was underway but declined to give further details as it was ongoing.

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

“We are concerned by Minister Ivan Šipić’s rhetoric targeting columnist Ante Tomić and other journalists and media in Croatia,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative, in Berlin. “Such hostile language from a top government official can have a chilling effect on press freedom and may put the safety of journalists at risk. We call on Croatian authorities to publicly denounce these attacks and reaffirm their commitment to protecting journalists.”

Šipić alleged journalists were “semi-literate” and “paid journalists” in a Facebook post following critical reporting on his ministry appointing four advisers with high salaries, a topic Tomić also covered in his column. 

He singled out Tomić, a columnist with the Jutarnji list daily newspaper, in response to Tomić’s editorial criticism of the minister. Šipić called Tomić a “communist militant” and a “bucket journalist,” referencing a 2014 attack in which an assailant poured a bucket of feces over Tomić while he was seated at a café.

CPJ emailed the press department of the Minister of Demography and Immigration for comment but received no reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Rebecca Redelmeier and Elena Rodina/CPJ Staff.

“CPJ condemns the intimidation of journalists Yuriy Leskiv, Elmira Shagabuddinova, and Olena Hnitetska, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to ensure timely investigations,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must hold the perpetrators to account and ensure that journalists can work safely. No journalist should be subjected to violence for reporting matters of public interest.”

On September 26, in the western city of Sambir, two unidentified men in the street cursed Leskiv, a freelance journalist, attempted to physically attack him, and said that he should stop writing about the activities of the mayor and other local officials, according to a Facebook post by the journalist and a post by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a local advocacy and trade group. The police have identified the two individuals, according to another Facebook post by Leskiv, who regularly reports on alleged corruption and wrongdoings involving local officials.

Separately, on September 29, in the southeast city of Zaporizhzhia, an unspecified number of individuals obstructed Shagabuddinova, a journalist with the local news website 061.ua, while she was reporting on the aftermath of a Russian strike on a residential area, according to the Ukrainian press freedom group Institute of Mass Information (IMI). A woman tried to snatch Shagabuddinova’s phone from her hands and demanded she delete the pictures she had taken. Shagabuddinova filed a complaint with the police.

On September 30, in the southeastern city of Kherson, an unidentified man assaulted Hnitetska, a journalist with the online news outlet MOST, while she was reporting on the construction of underground schools in the city, according to IMI and a Facebook post by the Kherson police, who are investigating the assault. The man prevented Hnitetska from filming the construction site, snatched her phone from her hands, and threw it into a construction pit.

CPJ emailed Ukraine’s national police for comment on the three cases but did not immediately receive a response.

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