Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Friday that broadcasting from those locations without advance, written permission, would be a criminal offense, as Israel seeks to control reporting about its week-old conflict with Iran.

“We are deeply concerned by the Israeli authorities’ escalating efforts to suppress press freedom through censorship and intimidation,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Journalists must be allowed to report on the Iran-Israel conflict without obstruction or fear of retaliation. Silencing the press deprives the world of a clear, unfiltered view of the reality unfolding in the region.”

On Thursday, Israeli police said they stopped international media transmitting live broadcasts from missile landing sites, which revealed their exact locations, including “news agencies through which Al Jazeera was illegally broadcasting.” That same day, the Government Press Office banned live broadcasts from crash sites.

The Union of Journalists in Israel denounced the move and said there were no teams filming in Israel for Al Jazeera, which purchases live broadcasts from other international networks operating legally in Israel. Israel banned Al Jazeera’s operations in the country in May, citing security concerns.

On June 18, IDF military censors issued an order, which CPJ reviewed, requiring anyone seeking to broadcast, including via social media, the aftermath of Iranian rocket and drone attacks on Israel’s military sites to obtain prior approval from the army.

On June 16, Israeli police raided a hotel in the northern port city of Haifa where Palestinian journalists were covering the attacks, confiscated their equipment, and launched an investigation.

CPJ emailed the police, the IDF’s North America Media Desk, and the government spokesperson requesting comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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

During the raid Tuesday morning, the TV station temporarily suspended operations, and employees were barred from entering their offices. According to IvanovoNews, a sister outlet in the same media group, authorities seized a computer case and documents from Kustov´s work office. Kustov returned to work after the raid on his home.

“This latest raid and criminal case against Russian broadcaster Bars and its editor-in-chief, Sergey Kustov, is a blatant act of intimidation and censorship,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Russian authorities must stop using defamation laws and other criminal charges to silence journalists who report on matters of public interest and should immediately return all confiscated materials and stop harassing Kustov.”

The raid was part of a criminal investigation into alleged defamation, which IvanovoNews reported is linked to a February report by Bars on missing Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The case may also relate to the use of the slang term “менты,” a derogatory word for police, in the report, the outlet said.

“This case is directly related to our journalistic work,” Bars’ editorial staff told CPJ.

Kustov, who said he had received threats in the days leading up to the raid, wrote on his Telegram channel Wednesday that he had been “very wrong to take it as just psychological pressure.” He added that “there was no slander in the publication.”

On February 12, Kustov was fined 100,000 rubles (US$1,114) for discrediting the armed forces. In March 2024, he was beaten while covering a plane crash and sent to jail for 10 days on charges of disobeying police orders.

CPJ filled out an online form requesting comment Russia’s Ministry of Interior, but did not immediately receive any reply.

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

“These systematic attacks are clear examples of censorship, media repression, and obstruction of the free flow of information,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “We condemn the Iranian authorities’ ongoing persecution of journalists and media outlets, which creates an environment of fear and intimidation.”

Between April 14 and April 21, six media directors and founders were convicted by political-press courts in Iran, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The convictions involved both private and state-affiliated outlets, including:

• Mehdi Rahmanian, director of the private reformist Shargh Daily on unknown charges
• A director of the state-run Fars News Agency, on charges of disclosing confidential information
• The director of the reformist newspaper Ebtekar, on charges of spreading rumors
• The director of the official state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), on charges of insult, slander, and dissemination of falsehoods
• The director of the independent Eslahat News platform, on charges of publishing false content
• The director of the economic news website Nabze Bazaar, on charges of disseminating fabricated material

The campaign of intimidation by Iranian authorities has continued to escalate. On April 22, security forces in Tehran threatened Kerman-based photojournalist Hassan Abbasi with arrest. Abbasi, the director of the banned news website Ashkan News, was summoned on charges of spreading false information.

On April 27, Karaj-based freelancejournalist and media activist Omid Faraghat, who focuses on political affairs, was also summoned.

That same day, security forces raided the home of journalist Mohammad Parsi, editor-in-chief of Kandoo magazine and director of two other media outlets, and seized his electronic devices. He was charged with offenses that include “propaganda against the state” and “spreading false information.”

In the wake of the April 26 explosion at a port near Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, authorities have aggressively sought to suppress independent reporting, with an aim to control public discourse through the intimidation and censorship of media professionals.

Meanwhile, Nasrin Hassani, a journalist being held at Bojnourd Prison in Iran’s eastern Khorasan province, is enduring inhumane and degrading conditions, according to the recent report by press freedom group Defending Free Flow of Information in Iran (DeFFI). Hassani, a reporter for the state-run local newspaper Etefaghyeh and editor-in-chief of the social media-based outlet East Adventure Press, is serving the 15th month of her 19-month sentence in the general crimes ward, with inadequate access to medical care, poor sanitation, and denial of regular visits with her teenage son.

CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment on the suppression and detention of journalists but did not receive a response.

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

“The Addis Standard raids are the latest moves in the Ethiopian government’s campaign to silence independent media. The confiscation of the outlet’s equipment raises grave concerns about potential misuse of sensitive data,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should drop their investigations into Addis Standard and return its equipment.”

Six plainclothes officers, who identified themselves as police, raided the Addis Standard office on April 17 and took a newsroom manager and HR manager to the capital’s Federal Police Crime Investigation Unit for interrogation, according to the outlet’s publisher and its founder Tsedale Lemma, who spoke to CPJ. 

The police, who said they had warrants but did not produce copies, told staff that they were under investigation on suspicion of preparing to produce a documentary that might incite violence, Tsedale said, adding that the allegation was untrue and outlet does not have the capacity to make documentaries.

Earlier that morning, police raided the home of an Addis Standard IT manager, who was assaulted in front of family members and taken to a police station in the capital’s Woreda 13, Lemi Kura Subcity, Tsedale said. All three employees were released later that day, without charges, she said.

Police confiscated laptops, computers, cell phones, data storage devices, and external processing units, for which they demanded and were given passwords, and told staff not to speak publicly about the raids, Tsedale said.

Addis Standard’s publisher, JAKENN Publishing PLC, expressed concern about how the seized devices might be used in custody. “We cannot guarantee the integrity of any messages or emails sent from the compromised devices,” it said.

On April 22, the police said the devices might be released the following week, Tsedale said.

Federal police spokesperson Jeylan Abdi told CPJ via messaging app that he could not answer queries on a matter “currently pending in court.” Jeylan did not answer CPJ’s follow-up calls or a message requesting clarification on the specific court proceedings, including the charges or when the police referred the matter to court. Tsedale told CPJ that an Addis Standard staffer and the outlet’s legal counsel visited the federal police earlier Tuesday and were not informed of any pending court proceedings.

CPJ did not receive any response to its requests for comment via emails to the justice ministry or via calls to government spokesperson Legesse Tulu.

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.

The companies, Ableton Prestige Global Limited and Amiga Entertainment Limited, operate in the island’s online gambling industry.

Both featured in a Radio Free Asia report last February, which uncovered evidence they were being used for money laundering. The report was the second installment in a three-part investigation that uncovered allegations that the Prince Group, a sprawling conglomerate with deep ties to the Cambodian government, was involved in large-scale money laundering and human trafficking.

The Prince Group has long denied having anything to do with Amiga and Ableton. But corporate records showed that the companies are owned by the group’s chairman, Chen, through a trust. According to insider testimony given to RFA, millions of dollars in likely illicit funds were disguised as invoices paid to Amiga Entertainment before being returned to Southeast Asia.

“[Amiga Entertainment] is the one they used for laundering money,” the person told RFA. “They pumped in all the money through here.”

Wednesday’s raid followed an announcement by the Isle of Man government last Friday that the island statelet of some 80,000 people has been subject to attacks by “transnational organized criminals” from Southeast Asia seeking to “bypass the Island’s controls against financial crime and immigration.”

(Image from Amiga Entertainment website)

Dozens of Chinese nationals working at Amiga and Ableton were stripped of their visas following the raid, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the press.

That law enforcement on the Isle of Man was investigating Amiga and Ableton was first revealed last year. A judgment in their appeal against a production order – a sort of search warrant – was published by the island’s Chancery Court in August, revealing that the companies were under investigation and that property freezing orders had been sought against them.

Ableton held a license from the Isle of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission to operate online casinos from 2018 until April of last year, when it surrendered its license almost half a year prior to its expiry date.

A lawyer for the companies had not responded to a request for comment as of publication.

Prince Group spokesman Gabriel Tan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the conglomerate has previously distanced itself from Amiga and Ableton, despite the group’s chairman having a controlling interest in the trust that owns both. It has also called RFA’s reporting on the group inaccurate.

Confirming the raids to Isle of Man Today newspaper, which broke the news, a spokesman for the Isle of Man’s Constabulary said: “The Isle of Man authorities continue to work in partnership, responding robustly to prevent, identify and disrupt any criminal activity of this nature.

“It is imperative that the Isle of Man authorities and industry across all sectors remain vigilant and mitigate vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jack Adamović Davies for RFA Investigative.

“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.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture accused the outlet of “non-compliance” with regulations and collaboration with an unnamed foreign-based television network. The ministry said it was investigating the broadcaster’s activities but did not specify a date to end the suspension.

The outlet refuted the accusations in a statement, according to a report by London-based broadcaster Afghanistan International.

“The Taliban must immediately rescind its suspension of Radio Begum’s operations and allow the station to resume its reporting without interference,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The forced closure of Radio Begum is part of a broader, systematic assault on women’s rights in Afghanistan, particularly targeting women-led and women-owned media organizations. This practice must end, and the international community must hold the Taliban accountable for these actions.”  

Founded in 2021, just months before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Radio Begum is a women-led media broadcaster in Kabul that also posts on social media, particularly Facebook. In November 2023, its sister channel, Begum TV, was launched in Paris with a grant from the Malala Fund, which advocates for girls’ education globally.

CPJ’s messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid requesting comment did not receive a response.

In March 2023, the Taliban shut down women-run broadcaster Radio Sada e Banowan, citing the airing of music during the holy month of Ramadan. The station was permitted to resume operations on April 7 and continues to report on news about women in the city of Faizabad in northeastern Badakhshan Province.  

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

“The raid on Arezo TV and expulsion of its women journalists shows the Taliban’s troubling commitment to cracking down on Afghan independent media, as it works to silence free voices and restrict the public’s access to information,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban must immediately and unconditionally release the seven detained journalists and media workers and permit the channel to resume broadcasting without further interference.”

The journalist told CPJ that the Taliban accused Arezo TV journalists during the raid of collaborating with and reporting for exiled media outlets operating outside Afghanistan. The current whereabouts of the detained journalists remain unknown.

Saif ul Islam Khyber, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, told media in an audio message that the group sealed Arezo TV’s offices to uphold “Islamic values, prevent misuse of media outlets, and strengthen social order.”

Khyber said Arezo TV was involved in dubbing foreign soap operas, purportedly with the backing of exiled media organizations.

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

“CPJ is deeply alarmed by the British counter-terrorism police raid on journalist Asa Winstanley’s home and the disturbing pattern of weaponizing counter-terrorism laws against reporters,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “These actions have a chilling effect on journalism and public service reporting in the United Kingdom. Authorities must immediately end this practice and return all devices seized back to Winstanley. Instead of endangering the confidentiality of journalistic sources, authorities should implement safeguards to prevent the unlawful investigation of journalists and ensure they can do their work without interference.”

Officers with the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command arrived around 6 a.m. and served Winstanley, associate editor at The Electronic Intifada news site, with a warrant authorizing them to seize his electronic devices. The operation cited potential offenses under sections 1 (Encouragement of Terrorism) and 2 (Dissemination of Terrorist Publications) of the United Kingdom’s 2006 Terrorism Act, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Earlier in August, police detained freelance journalist Richard Medhurst for 24 hours on similar offense, searching and questioning him at Heathrow Airport, and seizing his electronic devices. He told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that he believes he was held due to his reporting on Palestinians. 

CPJ emailed the Metropolitan Police Service’s press department requesting comment on the raid but did not receive a reply.

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

“The detention of journalist Ihsan Naseem under the pretext of public safety highlights the vulnerability of journalists in Pakistan and the oppressive nature of the country’s security apparatus,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Pakistani authorities must immediately release Naseem, drop all investigations against him, and stop their efforts to restrict journalists’ freedom to report the news.”

Naseem, editor-in-chief of local independent newspaper Daily Abbaseen Battagram and a reporter for the independent national TV station Neo News Battagram, was transferred to the central prison in Haripur, according to CPJ’s review of a copy of the raid order signed by Battagram Deputy Commissioner Asif Ali.

The PTM is a mass political movement that aims to boost the rights of the Pashtun people clustered in Pakistan’s western provinces. 

The day he was arrested, Nassem reported on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government’s ban of the PTM and subsequent police raid on the political movement’s supporters. The day before, Naseem interviewed the sisters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan hours before police arrested them in the capital, Islamabad. 

CPJ’s WhatsApp messages to Ali requesting comment on his order to raid and detain Nassem did not receive a reply.

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

“The police raid of JİNNEWS reporter Rabia Önver’s house was completely unjustified for an alleged disinformation investigation and is yet another example of the tactics frequently used in Turkey to intimidate journalists,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should drop the investigation into Önver’s work, stop harassing journalists with house raids, and allow the media to report without worrying about retaliation.”

On September 20, police in the southeastern city of Hakkari raided Önver’s house.

The police had a prosecutor’s order to take the journalist into custody, but the warrant was discontinued after they did not find her at home, Önver’s lawyer Azad Özer told CPJ on Monday. The lawyer also confirmed that Önver was being investigated for “publicly spreading disinformation” due to her reporting on alleged corruption by some authorities involved in a possible narcotics trafficking and prostitution crime ring.  

CPJ emailed the Hakkari chief prosecutor’s office for comment but received no immediate reply.

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

They initially demanded a ransom of one million Sudanese pounds (US$400); after receiving it, they demanded another million and threatened to kill the journalist. Since the war in Sudan started between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF in April 2023, journalists have been killed, injured, harassed, arrested, and displaced.

“CPJ is shocked by the Rapid Support Forces’ kidnapping of Sudanese journalist Aladdin Abu Harba and demands for a ransom,” said CPJ Interim MENA Program Coordinator Yeganeh Rezaian. “The RSF must immediately and unconditionally release Abu Harba, and all parties of the war must ensure his safe return home and stop using journalists as military pawns.”

Local trade union Sudanese Journalists Syndicate condemned Abu Harba’s kidnapping in a Sunday statement and said it held the RSF responsible for the journalist’s safety.

Separately, a group of armed men raided the home of freelance journalist Abdulrahman Haneen in East Nile on August 16, held him at gunpoint, and stole four laptops, mobile phones, 750,000 Sudanese pounds (US$300), and his wife’s gold jewelry.

CPJ’s emails to the RSF and the SAF about Abu Harba’s kidnapping and the robbing of Haneen’s home received no replies.

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

On May 7, 2024, Jordanian security forces stormed the Al-Yarmouk offices in the capital, Amman, confiscated the broadcaster’s equipment, and banned its employees from re-entering the channel’s offices, according to the channel and multiple media reports. Al-Yarmouk is a privately owned channel that has been operating in Jordan for 12 years and is affiliated with the Islamist movement in Jordan.

Those sources reported that the unidentified security agencies were acting on orders from a public prosecutor to close the channel “due to its unauthorized activity and broadcasting from Jordan without obtaining official governmental approvals.”

“CPJ is appalled by the closure of the Al-Yarmouk TV channel in Jordan and the recent spike in persecution of journalists in the country,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “CPJ calls on the Jordanian authorities to allow all journalists and media outlets to do their job freely and without fear of retaliation.”

Al-Yarmouk said in a Facebook statement that it had filed for a Jordanian license that was yet to be approved. The channel said they had faced similar closures in the past and were previously acquitted of similar charges by the Jordanian judiciary.

Al-Yarmouk said it was unclear why they were targeted.

Al-Yarmouk has aired content from the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster Al-Aqsa TV since the French satellite operator Eutelsat stopped the outlet from broadcasting in October 2023, according to a post by the channel.

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

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

This article was produced for ProPublica in partnership with The Frontier. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Additional funding for this story was provided by the Pulitzer Center.

Qiu He remembers sitting handcuffed on her front porch, her two small children huddled next to her, as state anti-drug agents carrying semi-automatic rifles trooped in and out of her house.

Serving a search warrant, the agents had forced open the front door and arrested her after she allegedly resisted them, according to an affidavit. During the raid last April, agents said they found ledgers, bags of marijuana, a loaded .380-caliber pistol and other evidence they collected as part of an investigation alleging that she is a central figure in an illegal scheme involving at least 23 marijuana operations in central Oklahoma.

She spent the night in jail. Almost a year later, authorities have still not charged her with a crime. But a few days after her arrest, a judge signed an order freezing her bank accounts and agents seized almost a million dollars from the accounts as suspected criminal proceeds. She is fighting the state’s action to confiscate the money, saying she did nothing illegal.

The ledgers, He said, were records for her legitimate businesses. Her biggest tenants are marijuana businesses, which deal mostly in cash, as does the clientele of her consulting firm catering to Chinese immigrants. The gun, she said, was legally purchased by her husband.

“At this point, I don’t love Oklahoma,” said He, who also uses the first name Tina. “I don’t feel safe here. I don’t feel secure here.”

On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, she was at the bubble tea shop she owns in Edmond, the upscale suburb of Oklahoma City where she lives. The stylishly dressed 39-year-old wore a fuzzy black baseball cap over her short, burgundy-dyed hair. She was joined by a friend, another entrepreneur in the marijuana business, who asked to be identified only as Sharon, the English name she uses.

The eatery, called Oklaboba, is a cheerful, brightly lit space, and business was brisk. But the conversation at the women’s table was somber. Sharon mentioned the murder in January of an Asian friend: Robbers invaded his marijuana farm in rural Okfuskee County and shot him in the neck. There have been no arrests.

The two women said many Asian immigrants they know invested their life savings in Oklahoma’s marijuana boom only to see their licenses revoked, their crop destroyed and their assets seized when authorities accuse them of operating illegally. They said anti-Asian bias plays a role in the state’s crackdown on marijuana growers and has caused people who are trying to do business legally to lose everything.

Since the number of licensed marijuana farms peaked at more than 9,400 in December 2021, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control have taken a more aggressive approach toward license compliance.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond also formed his office’s own organized crime task force that regularly conducts raids on alleged illegal operations.

“We are sending a clear message to Mexican drug cartels, Chinese crime syndicates and all others who are endangering public safety through these heinous operations,” Drummond said. “And that message is to get the hell out of Oklahoma.”

Jeremiah Ross, an Oklahoma City attorney who worked with He, said he has represented dozens of Asian clients accused of breaking marijuana laws over the past few years. Ross said he sees a distinct anti-Asian bias in marijuana licensing and law enforcement.

“The white folks and the locals aren’t having any problems with their [license] renewals,” Ross said. “They’re not having armed guards show up at their grow facility and chop all their plants down.”

Mark Woodward, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, rejected such allegations. He said the agency “has identified and shut down illegal grows, as well as made arrests on illegal farms tied to organized crime from China, Mexico, Russia, Bulgaria, Armenia and the Italian mob over the last three years, as well as numerous American-owned operations.”

Woodward said he did not have readily available information on He’s case and why she has not been charged.

Porsha Riley, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, said the agency is committed to fairness and equity for all license holders.

“We want to assure the public and the medical marijuana industry that we do not discriminate against any licensee,” Riley said. “Our enforcement and compliance efforts are conducted impartially, without bias or prejudice. We remain dedicated to upholding these principles and ensuring a level playing field for all.”

Sharon, who asked that her full name be withheld because she fears retaliation, said she no longer trusts the state to regulate her marijuana business fairly.

“Tell me it’s not racism, because Asians are absolutely feeling it,” Sharon said. Referring to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, she said, “A lot of people are afraid to poke the bear.”

He’s encounters with law enforcement remind her of the authoritarian regime in her native land, which she left seeking freedom, she said.

“In China, there is one voice and you are not allowed to speak,” she said. “Oklahoma is worse than China.”

Her defiance is atypical in a community that tends to avoid public conflict — and criticism of the Chinese government. ProPublica and The Frontier reported last week that Chinese organized crime has come to dominate the illicit marijuana market in Oklahoma and across the U.S., and that the criminal networks have alleged connections to the Chinese state. He’s story offers a view from inside an immigrant community that she says feels besieged on multiple fronts.

She said she studied business administration and management at Renmin University in Beijing and came to the United States in 2010. In 2020, after years of making good money in commercial real estate development in New York, the economic and cultural disruption of the pandemic made her think it was time for a change, she said.

At the time, she lived in Flushing, a large Chinese immigrant enclave. She was “a city girl” who couldn’t find Oklahoma on the map, she said. But she liked country music and thought a slower-paced life on the plains would let her spend more time with her kids.

“I was thinking I wanted to restart my life,” she said. “So I wanted to go out to see what’s going on.”

She arrived at the peak of Oklahoma’s marijuana boom: a get-rich-quick frenzy of investors, workers, gangsters and money converging from across the country and as far away as China. At first, she said, she wanted to develop ventures serving the burgeoning Chinese population. She opened Oklaboba and bought rental properties in Oklahoma City. Like many other newcomers, she shuttled back and forth with her children to New York, where her husband remained.

She said she got involved in marijuana after helping the owner of a farm who she says had been taken advantage of by a law firm operating a “straw owner” scheme. The 2018 medical marijuana law requires marijuana farms to be 75% owned by residents who have lived in the state at least two years. But some attorneys in the state have paid longtime residents to pose as majority owners to get licenses and buy property. With He’s help, the man was able to get full ownership of the business in his own name and get out from under the straw owner arrangement, she said.

He said she established a consulting firm for investors in the cannabis industry and accumulated hundreds of Chinese clients. Records show she was the registered agent for numerous marijuana and real estate holding companies, and she owned the properties on which many of those companies were located.

She says it was all legitimate. But she soon found herself in the crosshairs of law enforcement. The investigation of a suspected trafficking ring led state anti-drug agents to a New York commercial real estate developer who was an associate of He, court records show. Authorities allege that she was his business partner in marijuana-related activity in Oklahoma, but she said it was only a buyer-seller relationship, as she had bought businesses with active marijuana licenses from him.

Investigators came to suspect that the developer and He were “heavily involved” in the illicit marijuana trade and orchestrating straw owner schemes, court records say. Agents busted a series of illegal grows allegedly linked to He and the developer. When agents raided two sites one morning last April and a tenant called He, she rushed to the property to confront them and demand a search warrant, court records say. What happened next, He said, felt like retaliation for challenging the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

That evening, a well-armed team of agents showed up at her house with another search warrant. The warrant shows it was requested by agents after the confrontation with He at her business and was signed by a judge only minutes before the raid on her house that night.

The raid left her children terrified, her marriage under strain and her house in shambles, she said.

“My house was destroyed,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything. The jail, they were treating me like a criminal.”

Although He said the pistol that agents found was legally owned by her husband, not her, she said she has taken firearms courses and owns a gun for protection in an increasingly dangerous business.

Ross said when he heard that He’s house was being searched, he was surprised. She was a small business owner, someone who helped the Chinese community in Oklahoma City, the mom of two young boys, not some mobster, Ross said.

It was already night when Ross arrived at He’s house to see if she needed help. She and the children were still sitting on the porch as agents continued their search. Ross was denied entry by law enforcement.

The agents “snatched her up, left her kids there, took her to jail and didn’t release her until the following morning. And they never filed a single charge,” Ross said. “Why in God’s name are they going after her? This is out of control.”

Despite her ordeal, He considers herself lucky because other Chinese immigrants don’t have the financial means or the language skills to fight back. Marijuana in Oklahoma has become a “lose-lose” scenario thanks to what she called a byzantine system choked with costly compliance requirements and arbitrary decisions.

“You set up a game and didn’t know how to play it,” she said. “And yet they call me the super game-player.”

Many Chinese investors have lost faith in the Oklahoma authorities, fearing they will be the next target, she said. Once her legal problems are resolved, she wants to go somewhere else. Maybe Maryland, which just legalized recreational marijuana. Maybe it’s time to think big, she said: a marijuana Starbucks, a marijuana Uber.

At the same time, she’s not sure it’s worth it.

“I don’t want to do this business anymore,” she said. “I don’t want the pressure.”

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by .

On March 6, dozens of plainclothes police officers in the capital, Baku, raided Toplum TV’s editorial office at around 1:30 pm, confiscated its equipment and the phones of all staff who were present, and took at least 10 of them to Baku City Police Department for questioning, according to news reports and Toplum TV’s chief editor, Khadija Ismayilova, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

All of the journalists were freed at around midnight except for video editor Jabbar, reporter Farid Ismayilov, and social media manager Elmir Abbasov, according to Ismayilova, a multiple award-winning investigative journalist, who was jailed from 2014 to 2016 in retaliation for her work.

The police claim to have found 3,200 euros (US$3,500) in Jabbar’s apartment, 3,100 euros (US$3,390) in Ismayilov’s apartment, and 2,700 euros (US$2,950) in Abbasov’s home, according to the regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot).

On March 8, the Khatai District Court in Baku ordered Jabbar to be detained for four months pending investigation on currency smuggling charges, while Ismayilov and Abbasov were released on bail.

Also on March 8, plainclothes police arrested Toplum TV’s founder Mammadli and took him away in an unmarked vehicle as he left a clinic where he was receiving treatment for suspected cancerous tumours, according to multiple media reports and footage of the arrest.

On March 9, the Khatai District Court ordered Mammadli — who is also the founder of Media Rights Group, a local press freedom NGO — to be detained for four months pending investigation on currency smuggling charges, after police said they found 7,300 euros (US$7,970) in cash in his apartment, those sources said.

The journalists have denied the charges, which are punishable by up to eight years in prison under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s criminal code, and said that the police planted the money in their homes.

“Following similar attacks on Abzas Media and Kanal 13, the raid on Toplum TV and arrest of its journalists indicate that Azerbaijani authorities are intent on eradicating the last vestiges of the country’s independent press. Reports that police detained the outlet’s founder Alasgar Mammadli while he was receiving treatment for suspected cancer are particularly outrageous,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator in New York. “Authorities in Azerbaijan should immediately release Mammadli and Jabbar, drop all charges against Toplum TV staff, and stop retaliating against independent media for their reporting.”

Third media outlet to face smuggling charges

Toplum TV is one of the last significant independent media outlets in the country, reporting on politics, investigations into official corruption, and allegations of voting irregularities during February’s presidential elections, in which President Ilham Aliyev won a fifth term.

It is the third independent news outlet in Azerbaijan to face currency smuggling charges in recent months, as relations decline between Azerbaijan and the West. Since November, six members of anticorruption investigative outlet Abzas Media and two journalists with independent broadcaster Kanal 13 have been detained after authorities accused them of illegally bringing Western donor money into Azerbaijan 

Azerbaijani authorities have not publicly accused Toplum TV of illicit Western funding but the state-affiliated Azerbaijani Press Agency reported that Toplum TV illegally received half a million dollars from Western donors to foment unrest.

Since the initial arrests of Abzas Media staff in November, pro-government media that Ismayilova has said are acting on instructions from Azerbaijani authorities have repeatedly claimed Toplum TV and Ismayilova represent another Western-funded “network of subversion” and were misleading young journalists into anti-state activity ahead of the February elections. 

Shortly after the police raid, Toplum TV’s Instagram account was deleted and its YouTube channel was renamed and all of its content deleted, Ismayilova said, adding that this “shows authorities’ real intention,” which is to “silence any platform where criticism is expressed.” 

Toplum TV’s office remains sealed by police, who have yet to return any of the outlet’s confiscated equipment or journalists’ phones, she said, describing the charges against Toplum staff as “absolutely absurd.” None of the searches of journalists’ homes were conducted with lawyers present as police denied entry to some, Ismayilova told CPJ.

CPJ’s email requesting comment on the case from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which responds on behalf of the police, did not immediately receive a reply.

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

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday called on Turkish authorities to stop harassing the members of the Kurdish media with pointless arrests and trials and allow them to work freely.

“Turkish police took journalists Oktay Candemir, Arif Aslan, and Lokman Gezgin from their homes as if they were dangerous criminals and forced them to needlessly spend days being questioned about their professional work. This is not an isolated incident in Turkey,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “If Turkish authorities care to improve the country’s press freedom record, they must stop the systematic harassment of the critical Kurdish journalists with pointless judicial action that equates reporting to terrorism.”

The February incidents in Turkey include:

• Police raided the homes of local freelance Kurdish journalists Candemir, Aslan, and Gezgin and detained them on Tuesday in the eastern city of Van. On Friday, a prosecutor in Van questioned the journalists about their financial dealings, including payments they received from European outlets for their work and payments made to journalists they employed. The three journalists were released pending investigation and are accused of financing terrorism.

• A court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Thursday released pending trial imprisoned journalist Müftüoğlu, an editor for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency and co-chair of the local press freedom group Dicle Fırat Journalists Association. CPJ joined 18 local and international groups that same day in a joint letter calling for Turkish authorities to immediately release the journalist. She had been in custody for more than 300 days.

• Police raided the homes of five reporters and detained them on February 13 in the western city of Izmir. Three of the reporters were put under house arrest, and the other two were released under judicial control on February 16. Appeals to these measures were rejected by an Izmir court on Thursday.

Another Diyarbakır court on Thursday acquitted Yılmaz, another editor for Mezopotamya, of terrorism charges. Yılmaz was released pending trial on December 14, 2023.

Candemir was detained and charged with “insulting” a deceased sultan in September 2020; the case was dropped in 2021.

CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s office in Van and Diyarbakır for comment but did not receive a reply.

Turkey recently dropped to 10th place as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, but that decline does not signal an improvement, according to press freedom experts.

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

CPJ also calls on Embaló to guarantee that journalists will be allowed to work without state intimidation, as these incidents occurred amid heightened political tension over the past three months. 

On November 30, 2023, soldiers from the country’s national guard, a security unit perceived as loyal to the opposition-controlled parliament, exchanged fire with the military in events that Embaló said were part of an attempted coup. On December 4, Embaló announced he was dissolving parliament. Following the dissolution, armed men raided the offices of the state-owned television and radio stations, and Embaló reportedly ordered government officials to monitor radio broadcasts for “insulting content.”

“It is deeply worrying that Guinea-Bissau’s media have been intimidated through armed raids and public threats at precisely the time when they need to be reporting the news freely and offering the public diverse viewpoints on an unfolding political crisis,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “President Umaro Sissoco Embaló must withdraw his statements threatening the media and desist from abusing state resources to protect himself from criticism. Authorities should also investigate December raids on public media and other attacks on the press.”

Armed raids on state broadcasters

On December 4, about 30 armed men dressed in military uniform raided the state-owned broadcaster TVGB and the state-owned radio station Radiodifusão Nacional (RDN), according to media reports and two journalists who witnessed the events and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. The men, whose faces were covered with hoods, ordered the broadcasting to stop and all the journalists to leave the office.

Both stations remained off the air for a few hours, according to those sources, which said that the men ordered an unknown number of technicians to stay and broadcast music. Later that evening, they ordered the technicians to play an unedited evening news segment on the dissolution of parliament, which included a statement from the council of ministers.

The journalists returned to the station on December 5, when Tcherno Bari, the head of Guinea-Bissau’s presidential guard, arrived at RDN  with three armed military officers and told journalists that the presidency had not been responsible for the raid or the interruption of programming the day before, attributing the incidents to an unspecified “other force,” according to two journalists, who were in the newsroom when Bari visited and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Bari told RDN staffers that they could continue working without fear, according to the journalists.

Bari told CPJ via messaging app that “as head of security of the presidency, he could not offer any comment” when asked about his role with the radio station. In November 2022, Bari was part of a group that reportedly abducted and beat a radio commentator.

Later on December 5, Mama Sané, who served as the RDN director under a past government, went to the radio station’s offices with two police officers, announced that he was taking charge as director once more, and ordered the suspension of that evening’s news programming, according to the journalists.

The following day, he told the station’s heads in a meeting that he was under presidential orders to bar critical voices because of the political situation, which he described as an “atypical context.”

Sané told CPJ that “when I referred to the ‘atypical context,’ I had the safety of journalists in mind” based on his past experience with privately owned radios during political crises, adding that when he returned to RDN, they were “inciting violence through some of the interviews it made that were deviating from what a public medium should do.”

When CPJ asked for details on the interviews, Sané said he didn’t want to give specifics.

Threats by President Embaló

Embaló instructed Guinea-Bissau’s interior ministry to create “brigades to listen to radio programs” and “bring in anyone who insults anyone” so that they can be put in “[their] place” during a January 2 speech, according to two journalists who were present and spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, and Vatican-owned news website Vatican News, which included a recording of the President’s remarks. 

On January 23, Embaló accused journalists of appearing to be part of the “opposition” and vowed to “end the anarchy that has seen anyone become a political commentator” on radio, according to news reports and four journalists who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.

The president’s remarks accentuated the dangers and tension experienced by journalists in Guinea-Bissau, António Nhaga, chair of the local professional association Order of Journalists (OJGB), told CPJ.

“We have people in uniform involved in beatings, and now they have a license from the president to beat journalists. It’s dangerous,” Nhaga said. “The political class already sees journalists as the enemy. Journalists are underpaid, are beaten sometimes, so of course, the media in the country is dying. What do I tell young journalists?”

On February 8, presidential communication advisor Yonhite Tavares barred Fátima Tchuma Camará, a local correspondent with the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, from covering an event at the country’s presidential palace, according to Indira Baldé, an RTP journalist and president of the local union Guinea-Bissau Journalists and Media Technicians (SINJOTECS), and another journalist who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Tavares said she was acting on the orders of the president, who was upset by Camará’s and Baldé’s public remarks during a demonstration by journalists for press freedom, Baldé said.

“I was told by a colleague…that the president said I am also barred from covering events at the Presidential Palace or the airport for the president’s travels while he is president of the country,” Baldé added.

When reached via messaging app, Tavares defended the president’s decision to CPJ by saying that in January, they had more than four incidents of international media outlets “deliberately misrepresent[ing]” the president in “untruthful reports” they “failed to correct.”  “The president has the right to ask for a change in the people covering so that it doesn’t get worse,” Tavares added.

When asked about the deteriorating environment for the media, Tavares said the government has been working to improve relations with journalists for “more than three years” and attributed the problem to journalists who want to “play active politics.”

“We don’t forbid the station from covering the news, but the people who want to go into politics should put down their journalist cards and join their parties instead of misrepresenting information without ethics or deontology,” Tavares told CPJ.

Online harassment

Recent incidents of online harassment against members of the press have further made the media environment “hostile and suffocating” since December 2023, Baldé told CPJ.

On December 2, Olho Clínico Guine-Bissau, a Facebook page with over 6,300 followers that is run by users who claim to support Embaló, posted a rape threat against Baldé, and threatened to assault Waldir Araújo, the head of the RTP bureau in Guinea-Bissau, according to CPJ’s review of the post. 

CPJ counted at least 12 posts published on January 26 on Abel Djassi, another Facebook page run by users who claim to support Embaló with over 3,600 followers, attacking the credibility of Baldé and Camará and denigrating them using sexualized language. A January 27 post on this same page accused Baldé and Camará of being mouthpieces for the opposition. 

Baldé told CPJ she does not plan to report the incidents to police. “There’s no point in pressing charges (about the online harassment) in Guinea-Bissau because crimes against journalists are not investigated,” she told CPJ, pointing to the March 2021 beating of journalist António Aly Silva and February 2022 raid of the offices of Radio Capital FM.

When asked about the accounts and content, Tavares told CPJ that the president and his family suffer daily “vile attacks” online and “on the formal mediums where these ‘political journalists’ work,” adding that the presidency cannot be responsible for the online threats against the journalists.  

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

Around 2 p.m. on February 5, security forces raided the newsroom of the privately owned multimedia economic news website FardayeEghtesad in Argentina Square in the capital, Tehran, detained all 30 staff inside the building, searched the newsroom, and confiscated everyone’s cellphones and other electronic devices, such as laptops.

The families of the journalists gathered outside the building shortly after as authorities kept the journalists incommunicado. After 14 hours, the security forces released most of the staff, according to those sources, which said authorities did not provide any explanation for the detention.

Five journalists were detained in the newsroom for four days.

Ali Mirzakhani, editor-in-chief of FardayeEghtesad, was released on February 9. The other four journalists—deputy editor Behzad Bahman-Nejad and video journalists Ali Tasnimi, Mehrdad Asgari, and Nikan Khabazi—were transferred on February 9 to an undisclosed location.

As of February 13, the four journalists were detained in Shapoor Police Department in downtown Tehran, according to news reports, which said the journalists were taken to their newsroom multiple times and were questioned for long hours while security forces repeatedly searched the newsroom.

The journalists have been denied access to legal representation, and their families have not been told the reason for their arrest, according to those reports. CPJ was unable to determine whether the journalists had been formally charged.

“Iranian authorities must free journalists Behzad Bahman-Nejad, Ali Tasnimi, Mehrdad Asgari, and Nikan Khabazi immediately and unconditionally and cease the practice of arbitrarily locking up members of the press,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Such group detentions show, shamefully, that authorities do not find it necessary to disclose even a minimum of details about why these reporters have been arrested. Authorities must answer for the raid on the outlet and mass detention of 30 journalists.”

CPJ’s review of FardayeEghtesad shows that although authorities have not suspended the news website, its content hasn’t been updated since February 4.

Iran was the world’s sixth-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s most recent annual prison census, with 17 imprisoned journalists as of December 1, 2023.

CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment on the case but did not receive any response.

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

On January 24, security forces arrested Rasouli and took him to a prison work camp in the northern city of Kelardasht to serve a prison term of six months, according to local news reports. Rasouli works as a freelance commentator, journalist, and writer, focusing on coverage of domestic political policies for various publications.

In 2023, Rasouli was found guilty of “insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran” in an article published in the state-run newspaper Kayhan and sentenced to six months in prison. The Tonekabon Appeals Court and the Supreme Court rejected Rasouli’s appeals, and authorities took the journalist into custody when he responded to a summons from the revolutionary court in Nowshahr city in the northern province of Mazandaran to begin serving his sentence, according to those reports.

Separately, Islamic Republic authorities continued placing legal pressure on several journalists throughout the country in late December 2023 and January 2024.

“CPJ is closely monitoring what is becoming an epidemic of arresting journalists in Iran. This trend is resulting in the criminalization of all forms of journalism,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Arsalan Rasouli Amarlooi and halt the intimidation and harassment of all Iranian journalists.”

CPJ has documented the following incidents of raids and legal action against Iranian journalists in recent weeks:

• Authorities filed a lawsuit against Shahrzad Hemati, the social desk editor at the moderate state-run Shargh Daily, on January 30 for a post on her personal Instagram account condemning the January 29 execution of four Kurdish citizens in the country. CPJ was unable to confirm further details about the lawsuit, and no court date has been set yet.

• On January 26, Karaj Revolutionary Court sentenced Parisa Salehi, an economic reporter at the state-run financial newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad, to one year in prison, a two-year ban on leaving the country, two years of internal exile, and a two-year ban on any activities on social media platforms, after convicting her on charges of “spreading propaganda against the system” for her reporting, although no specific report was mentioned.

• On January 22, security forces raided the home of Elahe Ramezanpour in the central city of Gorgan in Golestan province after an order issued by the office of Gorgan’s prosecutor and confiscated her cell phone, laptop, and notes. According to those reports, Ramezanpour, a health reporter for the local news website Golestanrasa.ir, was earlier threatened by the prosecutor’s office after publishing several critical articles.

• On December 30, 2023, eight security forces raided the family home of Ebrahim Rashidi, a freelance Iranian-Azeri journalist, in a village in Meshginshahr county in the northwestern province of Ardabil, and arrested the journalist without providing any warrant. The agents also confiscated Rashidi’s personal devices, including a laptop, cell phone, and some books, and transferred him to an undisclosed location. On January 16, Rashidi was able to make a brief call to let his family know that he was being held in Ardabil central prison. Authorities have yet to publicly announce any charges against Rashidi.

CPJ’s email to Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York asking for comment on these cases did not receive any reply.

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

“The arrest of NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha and the raids on NewsClick and the homes of at least 12 of its former and current journalists are an act of sheer harassment and intimidation,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Frankfurt, Germany. “This is the latest attack on press freedom in India. We urge the Indian government to immediately cease these actions as journalists must be allowed to work without fear of intimidation or reprisal.”

On Tuesday, Delhi police arrested Purkayastha and NewsClick’s head of human resources, Amit Chakravarty, as part of an investigation into suspected foreign funding of the media outlet, a charge that NewsClick denies.

Earlier in the day, police searched the office of NewsClick and the homes of several of its staff and contributing journalists and seized several electronic devices, including laptops and phones.

The homes of the following journalists were searched; the six names marked with an asterisk were also questioned by the Delhi Police Special Cell, a unit of Delhi Police that investigates cases of terrorism and organized crime:

• Purkayastha*
• Subodh Varma, an editor
• Satyam Tiwari*, a reporter
• Paranjoy Guha Thakurta*, a contributor  
• Abhisar Sharma*, a contributor  
• Urmilesh*, a contributor  
• Aunindyo Chakraborty*, a contributor
• Bhasha Singh, a contributor
• Anuradha Raman, a contributor
• Aditi Nigam, an editor
• Sumedha Pal, a contributor
• Irfan K., a cartoonist

Independent non-profit news website The Wire reported that Delhi Police’s Special Cell initiated an investigation into NewsClick in August, alleging violations of five sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, including raising funds for terrorist acts and conspiracy, as well as two sections of the Indian Penal Code, including promoting enmity between different groups based on various factors.

In 2021, the Enforcement Directorate searched NewsClick premises and the residences of four members of senior management as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering linked to foreign funding.

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

Local law enforcement executed a search warrant on the home of the owners and editor/publisher of the Marion County Record on Aug. 11, 2023. A simultaneous raid on the Kansas newspaper’s offices and equipment seizure jeopardized its ability to publish its upcoming weekly edition.

A copy of one of the search warrants, obtained by the Kansas Reflector, shows that the searches were undertaken as part of an investigation into alleged unlawful use of a computer and identity theft.

According to the Record, however, when a reporter requested a copy of the probable cause affidavit that summarizes the circumstances and evidence supporting the warrant, the district court issued a signed statement that there wasn’t one on file.

The Record reported that during an Aug. 7 city council meeting a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, had accused the newspaper of illegally obtaining information that she had a prior DUI conviction and had driven without a license, as well as supplying the information to Marion Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel.

In an article responding to the allegations, Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer said that a source had reached out with the information via Facebook, and had independently sent it to Herbel as well. The Record had verified the allegations through a public website but decided not to publish it, instead alerting the Marion Police Department that the source may have obtained the information illegally.

The morning of Aug. 11, Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed search warrants for the newsroom and Meyer’s home — where he lives with his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, a co-owner and correspondent for the Record. According to the Reflector, Marion Police Department officers and Marion County sheriff’s deputies executed the warrants within hours.

Joan Meyer passed away the following day, which the Record attributed in part to the stress of the raid. According to the Record and other sources, officers seized at least one computer and router from the home, as well as Eric Meyer’s cellphone.

Meyer, a veteran reporter from the Milwaukee Journal and former journalism professor at the University of Illinois, told The Kansas City Star following the raid that the Record had also been investigating Cody’s background and allegations of wrongdoing.

Cody, who did not immediately respond to a request for further information, told the Star that the lack of an article about the allegations shows they had no basis. “If it was true, they would’ve printed it,” Cody said.

On Aug. 14, a coalition of more than 30 press freedom organizations sent a letter to Cody condemning the raids and calling for the return of the newspaper’s equipment and reporting materials.

Freedom of the Press Foundation, which operates the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, called the raid “alarming.”

“Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency,” said Director of Advocacy Seth Stern. “Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.”

In a statement released on Facebook, Cody defended the legality of the raid and said that the Marion Police Department had received assistance from local and state investigators.

“It is true that in most cases, [the federal Privacy Protection Act] requires police to use subpoenas, rather than search warrants, to search the premises of journalists unless they themselves are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search,” Cody wrote.

Meyer, who could not immediately be reached for comment, told the Record that while the paper’s attorneys are working to have the equipment returned, they also plan to file a federal lawsuit to ensure that such a raid never happens again.

“Our first priority is to be able to publish next week,” Meyer said, “but we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today. We will be seeking the maximum sanctions possible under law.”

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

On May 5, police arrested Zamora while she traveled on a bus with her two children in the capital city of Managua, according to multiple news reports. Later that day, police raided Zamora’s house in the eastern coastal city of Bluefields and confiscated her computer, according to those reports and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. 

Authorities charged Zamora with spreading false news and released her around midnight, according to those sources. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison. 

“With the recent detentions of multiple journalists, the Nicaraguan government is showing once again that it has zero respect for the freedom of the press,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Authorities must halt their absurd campaign to threaten the press and immediately drop any criminal case against journalist Hazel Zamora.”

On May 6, authorities transported Zamora to Bluefields, where they released her on the condition that she report to the police daily.  

Zamora has worked as a journalist for 16 years, covering the Caribbean coastal region for privately owned TV broadcaster Canal 10 and posting news about the region on her Facebook page Doce Noticias including social issues, crime, and the cost of living, according to a person familiar with her case.

Previously, on May 3, authorities also arrested and freelance journalist William Aragon and charged him with spreading false news; he is also required to report to the police daily.

Separately, on April 6, police arrested Canal 10 reporter Victor Ticay for broadcasting a Catholic Holy Week procession on Facebook. He remains imprisoned without charge.

CPJ’s email to the Nicaraguan national police did not immediately receive a response.

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

RNZ Pacific

A meeting has been held in Auckland between the New Zealand government and those who lived through dawn raids past and present.

The meeting attended by the Immigration Minister, six Pacific MPs and community leaders was sparked by revelations of a case last week where a Pasifika overstayer was detained after a dawn raid.

His lawyer said police showed up at his home just after 5am, scaring his children and taking him into custody.

• READ MORE: ‘We stand with you’ – Pacific overstayers called to speak out
• Other Dawn Raids era reports

Less than two years ago, then prime minister Jacinda Ardern officially apologised on behalf of the government for the infamous early morning Dawn Raids of the 1970s which she said left Pacific communities feeling “targeted and terrorised”.

Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua opened Saturday’s meeting in an impassioned plea for the government to listen.

He told a packed room, “we are crying for our dawn raiders, we are still being dawn raided” — and asked how that was still happening after the apology

An overstayer at the meeting, who cannot be named to protect his identity, shared his story directly with the Immigration Minister.

Speaker’s tears flowed
Tears poured as he spoke, saying “I ask the minister for some grace to help us”.

“If you grant us a piece of paper then we will work hard for New Zealand and we will never forget that,” he said.

Former Pacific minister Aupito William Sio, who led the Dawn Raids apology, called on Pasifika leaders not to disrespect and disregard the historic apology for them.

But Pakilau Manase Lua said that was not good enough.

“The apology was for me, my father who’s passed away, all of the overstayers that were passed away for the Dawn Raids. How dare you come and tell me off on my marae.”

Immigration Minister Michael Wood told the packed room he was shocked to find out what had happened recently and committed to change.

Woods said the government was considering an amnesty for overstayers, but he could not say when a decision would be made.

‘Significant issue for us’
“This is a very significant issue for us to consider, the last time there was an amnesty in New Zealand was over 20 years ago, we have the advice in front of us now.

“I don’t want to give a date and set up a false expectation and raise hopes, I’ve given a very clear undertaking to people here today it will be soon.”

Amnesties were a complex issue and official advice needed to be carefully considered, he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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

On Monday, February 13, police raided and searched the home of Boutar, the director of the local independent radio station and news website Mosaique FM, in the capital Tunis, and arrested him, according to a statement by the outlet and news reports. Authorities questioned Boutar about the outlet’s operations, including about who chooses guests and oversees the radio station’s program hosts. 

As of Tuesday evening, authorities have not filed any charges or disclosed the reason for Boutar’s arrest, according to Hajer Tlili, a Mosaique FM reporter who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. He is detained at the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist National Brigade in el-Gorjani district in Tunis.

“The recent arrest of journalist Noureddine Boutar is a clear attack on the press sector in Tunisia,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Tunisian authorities should immediately release Boutar without charge and end the culture of harassment that plagues the country’s journalists and media outlets.”  

Tunisian police also arrested two prominent opponents of President Kais Saied on Monday as part of a surge in arrests of government critics. Mosaique FM frequently criticizes the president during its programs, according to the outlet’s statement.

Since Saied dismissed the prime minister and froze parliament on July 25, 2021, there has been a significant increase in the number of journalists arrested on charges unrelated to the country’s media laws, according to a joint 2022 report to the United Nations by CPJ, the D.C.-based rights group Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, and the local trade union National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists. 

CPJ emailed the Tunisian Ministry of Interior for comment but did not receive any response.

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

On Tuesday morning, police officers in the southwestern city of Freiburg searched the newsroom of Radio Dreyeckland and the homes of managing editor Andreas Reimann and editor Fabian Kienert, and seized devices and documents relating to the station’s reporting, according to media reports, a report by the station, and Reimann, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Authorities are investigating the station and its editors over an article published in summer 2022 on the outlet’s website covering legal proceedings against Linksunten.Indymedia, a banned far-left group, according to those sources.

Prosecutors allege that the broadcaster had disseminated the ideology of a banned group by including a link in that article to a publicly available archive affiliated with Linksunten.Indymedia, as well as an image depicting graffiti voicing support for the organization, according to the station’s report and a joint statement by the Freiburg police and the Karlsruhe prosecutor’s office.

Reimann told CPJ that he and Kienert deny any wrongdoing. If charged and convicted, the editors could face up to three years in prison or a fine under the Section 85 of the German criminal code.

“German authorities must immediately stop harassing Andreas Reimann and Fabian Kienert of Radio Dreyeckland, drop any investigation into their work, and return all documents and equipment seized from the journalists,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Furthermore, authorities should investigate how German police committed such shocking actions and provide a public explanation for this harassment, which has no place in Germany or any EU member state.”

The search was conducted under a warrant issued by the public prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Karlsruhe, and approved by a Karlsruhe court, according to the joint statement.

Reimann told CPJ that police searched his and Kienert’s homes at about 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17, and confiscated documents, a desktop computer, laptops, and phones, as well as multiple digital storage devices that held information relating to the journalists’ private lives and Radio Dreyeckland’s work and finances.

During the apartment searches, officers questioned both journalists about the authorship of that 2022 article and the broadcaster’s editorial process, Reimann said. Police then searched the station’s offices and requested access to its computer system; at that point, Kienert told them that he had authored that article, and police stopped their search, Reimann told CPJ.

Reimann said that he and Kienert filed a complaint against the investigation, calling for police to immediately return all items seized from their homes and to stop examining the journalists’ documents. He said that the search was a “shocking and serious attack on the protection of journalistic sources and press freedom.”

CPJ emailed the prosecutor’s office in Karsruhe the Frieberg police for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

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

On December 31, a group of about 10 people who identified themselves as UPND supporters raided the privately owned Kokoliko FM radio station in the city of Chingola, while it aired a sponsored program by Tayali, according to a statement by the Zambian chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a Facebook post by station director Charles Mubonda, and radio station staffers who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

UPND supporters shoved station manager Eunice Phiri and used abusive language against the other journalists there, according to the staff and the MISA statement.

After the station complied with their demands and ended the interview, the UPND supporters ordered Tayali to leave the studio and get into his car, and then they got into their own vehicles and escorted him out of Chingola, according to the MISA statement and a video shared on Tayali’s personal Facebook page. 

Police later warned two of those UPND supporters about their disruption of the radio program, according to news reports, which said Mubonda planned to file charges against the supporters for trespassing, harming his business, and making threats.

On January 1, a group of about 25 UPND supporters, led by acting youth UPND chairperson Kennedy Sikazwe, surrounded the privately owned Mafken FM radio station in the neighboring town of Mufulira and made their way into the studios, where they threatened to burn down the station if they broadcast a sponsored radio program featuring Tayali, according to a video posted on the station’s Facebook page and station manager Nchimunya Chilwalo and presenter Barnabas Chisha, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

“It was Mr. Sikazwe who made the threats about burning down the radio station,” Chilwalo told CPJ. “He even boasted to say, ‘Even if you inform the police, nothing will happen because those are our people.’”

As UPND supporters surrounded the radio station to block Tayali, Sikazwe and others remained inside until they all left the premises about four hours later, Chilwalo added. 

When CPJ called Sikazwe for comment on January 9, he promised to return CPJ’s call, but did not do so and did not answer follow-up calls.

“When I asked in what capacity they were stopping us from running the program, they said in their capacity as UPND youths, and that they have the right to stop the program,” Chisha said. 

On January 2, UPND National Youth Chairman Gilbert Liswaniso apologized to the radio stations during a media briefing and told his cadres to stop harassing journalists.

CPJ repeatedly called and texted Liswaniso for comment but did not receive any replies.

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

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Miami Herald. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Florida’s long-troubled compensation fund for infants born with catastrophic brain injuries has resolved one of its thorniest disputes: the claim that it avoided hundreds of millions in health care costs by raiding the safety net for impoverished Floridians.

The Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association, or NICA, settled a three-year-old whistleblower complaint that alleged the program grew assets of nearly $1.7 billion partly by dumping health care and caregiving costs onto Medicaid, the state-federal insurer for poverty-stricken and disabled Floridians.

Under the settlement, announced Monday by the U.S. Justice Department, NICA agreed to pay $51 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act. NICA’s board of directors, ushered in last year as part of a far-reaching reform, already had voted to cease the program’s reliance on Medicaid.

Beginning in April 2021, the Miami Herald, in partnership with ProPublica, published a series of stories showing NICA withheld and delayed care to many families, focusing on stockpiling assets instead.

Administrators reduced costs, the Herald reported, partly by funneling families into Medicaid — a program already so poorly funded that a federal judge in late 2014 accused the state of rationing care and maintaining an unconstitutionally inadequate system of care for children in poverty.

Monday’s settlement amount is more than twice what was paid by the administrators of a Virginia compensation program to resolve a similar lawsuit — but also far less than the $140 million that Florida health administrators estimated was diverted by NICA from the state’s chronically underfunded Medicaid program.

“The Medicaid program provides a safety net for our most vulnerable populations that do not have access to traditional healthcare coverage,” U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez, who heads the DOJ’s Southern District of Florida, said in a prepared statement.

He added: “The misuse of Medicaid funds will not be tolerated.”

NICA denied wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

Florida lawmakers created NICA in 1988, responding to dire warnings — critics called them exaggerated — that obstetricians would flee the state to avoid rising medical malpractice premiums. Under the law, the parents of children born with a certain type of brain injury were precluded from filing malpractice suits. In return, NICA was to provide medical care, therapy, medication and in-home caregiving for the life of the injured child.

Most children accepted into NICA either were deprived of oxygen at birth — sometimes as the result of a constricted umbilical cord — or suffered other brain damage or spinal injury. The program is no-fault, meaning parents need not prove their doctor or hospital acted recklessly.

This year, the state Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA, which oversees Florida’s Medicaid program, estimated in a report that it had spent more than $140 million over the previous 33 years to cover hospital stays, in-home nursing and other medical needs for children covered by NICA.

NICA’s reliance on Medicaid dollars frustrated and, at times, infuriated parents who depended on the program. Parents complained bitterly that they were forced to exhaust all efforts and appeals for Medicaid reimbursement — a process that could take months, if not years — before NICA would consider paying, even for such necessary items as wheelchairs and medications.

The Herald series led to sweeping changes: NICA’s long-standing executive director stepped down. The program’s board of directors resigned en masse. And the Florida Legislature approved a massive overhaul, including increased payments to parents and fewer restrictions on benefits. Lawmakers also required the program to include a NICA parent and an advocate for children with disabilities on the board.

Jim DeBeaugrine, a former head of the state’s disabilities agency, gained oversight of NICA as board chairman following the previous board’s resignation. He said Monday the settlement helps the program sustain its ongoing reform.

“I think we are all glad to have this behind us,” DeBeaugrine said. “We will focus on continuing to do what we were all appointed to do. That’s improve the way this program serves the families. … It’s important to get this behind us.”

“My main disappointment,” he added, “is that the money we are paying comes from dollars that otherwise would serve our families.”

The path to reforming NICA’s dependence on Medicaid was cleared by a Virginia couple who filed a whistleblower suit in July 2015 challenging the legality of that state’s compensation program for infants born with profound brain damage. Florida NICA was modeled after the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program.

The Virginia program settled that lawsuit by paying $20.7 million to the U.S. government and agreeing to stop shifting costs to Medicaid. The parents of Cody Arven, a severely disabled boy on whose behalf the suit was filed, received $4.1 million of that settlement.

Veronica and Theodore Arven, the latter now deceased, also filed a whistleblower complaint against Florida NICA. Though the DOJ chose not to intervene in the Florida case, the department’s attorneys investigated the claims and helped negotiate the settlement.

The settlement set aside $12.7 million for Veronica Arven and the estate of Theodore Arven for their role in spearheading the litigation. “We are pleased that this whistleblower lawsuit has resulted in a resolution that ultimately benefits all NICA families and provides relief to a long-overburdened Florida Medicaid program,” said Scott Austin, a Virginia attorney who acted as lead counsel in the litigation.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald.

Early Tuesday morning, Turkish police simultaneously raided several homes and one newsroom in the cities of Ankara, Diyarbakır, Istanbul, Mardin, Urfa, and Van, as part of an investigation of the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office. The raids resulted in at least 11 journalists in police custody, multiple news reports said, detailing a secret investigation.

“Turkish authorities once again deprived several journalists of their freedoms under a court-ordered secret investigation. These journalists behind bars are unaware of what they are accused of, just like the journalists who were arrested in Diyarbakır in June who remain detained and uninformed,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Turkish authorities must immediately release the journalists in custody, return their confiscated property, and stop harassing the Kurdish media in Turkey with baseless charges that typically end up being related to their journalism.”

Diren Yurtsever, news editor for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency (MA); MA reporters Emrullah Acar, Zemo Ağgöz, Berivan Altan, Selman Güzelyüz, Deniz Nazlım, Ceylan Şahinli, and Hakan Yalçın; and pro-Kurdish website Jin News reporters Öznur Değer and Habibe Erenare among the journalists in custody, according to those same reports, which said the detainees will be transported from other cities to Ankara. The police confiscated several cameras, computers, and other equipment while detaining the journalists, the reports said.

The 11th journalist in police custody was Mehmet Günhan, a former reporting intern at the MA’s Ankara newsroom, who was apprehended in the western city of Manisa.

The journalists will not be allowed to see a lawyer for 24 hours.

Police raided the MA newsroom in Ankara, entering the office with a lock pick during early morning hours with nobody from the outlet initially present and searched the office for six hours, MA reported. Police confiscated five computers, two hard drives, physical archives of print newspapers, notebooks with journalism notes, and several books.

In an unrelated case, Derya Ren, another reporter from Jin News, was taken from a house in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır by the police and sent to prison on Tuesday, her employer reported. CPJ could not immediately determine if Ren’s case is related to her journalism.

In June, a court in Diyarbakır ordered 15 journalists and a media worker from pro-Kurdish outlets to be held in pretrial custody as part of another secret investigation. These journalists remain jailed without being charged.

CPJ emailed the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not receive any reply.

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

The Monywa District-based Battalion-13 PDF, nicknamed the Aung San Generation, were in Shwe Hlan village when junta troops raided it at 4:00 a.m. on Friday, dressed in plain clothes to blend in with locals and local PDF members, who don’t wear uniforms.

“After returning from a battle, they [the PDF] spent the night in the village. The junta troops raided the houses where they were staying. They were shot dead while they were asleep without having time to defend themselves,” a Shwe Hlan resident told RFA.

“Four of them were injured, the rest are free except for Ye and Mi Nge, who were arrested.”

Ye is 24-years-old and Mi Nge is 21. The dead PDF members were aged between 18 and 27.

Residents said the arrested men were taken away in a Mil Mi-24 military attack helicopter on Friday evening but they did not know where they were headed.

There are nearly 200 houses with more than 500 residents in Shwe Hlan village and eight were burned down by junta forces, forcing residents to flee to safety.

Calls to Sagaing region State Administration Council spokesman, Aye Hlaing have gone unanswered. The SAC has not released any statement on the attack.

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

On Wednesday, October 5, IDF soldiers shot and injured photojournalists Louay Samhan and Mahmoud Fawzy while they reported on a raid in the village of Deir al-Hatab near the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus for the Palestinian National Authority-funded broadcaster Palestine TV, according to multiple news reports. A 21-year-old Palestinian man, Alaa Zaghal, was killed in the incident.

IDF soldiers shot one of the journalists in his hand, and the other was injured in his leg, arm, and hand, according to those reports, a video of the incident, and a statement by the journalists’ employer. CPJ was unable to verify further details about the injuries. However, both journalists received medical treatment and are in stable condition, according to a CNN report quoting the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The journalists were wearing helmets and blue vests that read “Press” on the front and back when they were attacked. According to the reports, IDF soldiers injured four other people during the raid.

In May 2022, IDF soldiers shot and killed Al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh while she was reporting on an IDF raid in Jenin. Israeli authorities initially denied that IDF soldiers shot her, despite eyewitness accounts and investigations, before saying in September that Abu Akleh was likely killed by unintentional IDF fire.

“Even after Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing generated outrage worldwide, the Israel Defense Forces have again fired on clearly marked journalists while they do their jobs,” said Justin Shilad, CPJ’s senior Middle East and North Africa researcher. “Israeli authorities must investigate this shooting immediately and implement procedures to ensure that journalists are not targets.”

According to the news reports, the IDF was raiding the home of Salman Amran, whom IDF said it suspected of working with Hamas militants. Amran barricaded himself in the house and returned fire on IDF but was ultimately arrested, according to those reports.

The shootings of Samhan and Fawzy come as the IDF has conducted near-daily raids of Palestinian homes, towns, and villages since March, according to news reports. CPJ’s email to IDF’s North American Media Desk was acknowledged, and a spokesperson promised to respond further but had not done so by the time of publication.

Editors’ Note: The headline was corrected to fix a typo.

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

Around 9 p.m. on September 12, four armed men in uniforms resembling those of the Congolese army forced their way into the office of the privately owned faith-based radio station in Oicha, the capital of the Beni territory in North Kivu province, threatened two technicians, beat one on the back with the butt of a gun, and seized three computers, a recording device, and two mobile phones belonging to the technicians, according to media reports and Faustin Saumbire, the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. The station stopped broadcasting after the attack and equipment seizures.

In May 2021, the Congolese government imposed military governance known as the “state of siege” over the country’s eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces; repeated attacks and harassment of journalists in those regions have followed.

“Congolese authorities should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the attack on the office of Radio Evangélique Butembo-Oicha, ensure those responsible are held to account, and work to bring the broadcaster back on air,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, in Nairobi. “Attacks on the press in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by armed men in government military uniforms are far too frequent. They are grim indicators for freedom of the press in the country.”

Saumbire said the technicians, Delphin Sibaminya and Ishara Siwako, told him that the armed men broke down the office door and threatened to harm them if they tried to stop the attackers from seizing the broadcaster’s equipment. They also confiscated their phones to prevent them from contacting others. When Sibaminya objected, the armed men hit him on the back with the butt of a gun and then began taking the equipment. Saumbire said Sibaminya received treatment at a local hospital the next day for a small wound on his back. Siwako was not physically injured in the incident.

As their phones were taken in the incident and the station is not operating, CPJ has been unable to reach Sibaminya or Siwako.  

Station director Caleb Wanzire, told CPJ by phone that he filed a complaint about the incident on Thursday, September 15, on behalf of the radio station, to the offices of Charles Ehuta Omeonga, military administrator of the Beni territory, and Nicolas Kambale Kikuku, mayor of Oicha.

Contacted by CPJ via messaging app, Ehuta said he heard about the attack but had not received a complaint. He said he would investigate as soon as the complaint was received.

Reached by phone, Kambale told CPJ that the incident was deplorable and was discussed in a security meeting of Oicha officials held on Thursday, September 15. “I condemn this attack and during (the) security meeting, we deplored and analyzed this situation by seeking effective solutions to stem general insecurity in Oicha and above all to discipline the soldiers,” Kambale told CPJ. “Investigations are ongoing to find out more.”

Pascal Mapenzi, media coordinator for Beni territory, told CPJ by phone that, in solidarity with the station, Beni journalists gave local authorities 48 hours to find the armed men and return the materials taken from the broadcaster. However, that deadline expired and there were “days without information” on Saturday, September 17, and Monday, September 19, according to Mapenzi and a local Radio Oasis report.

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

Hajji began to laugh, saying the scene reminded him of a 2005 CPJ mission to Tunisia, when “plainclothes security officers were following our every move in their car.” He added: “It’s like we’re going back in time!”

CPJ could not meet with Hajji at the Al-Jazeera office because it has remained closed since police raided the bureau on July 26, 2021, confiscating all broadcasting equipment and forcing all staff to leave the building. The raid came less than 24 hours after Tunisia President Kais Saied fired Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament, granting himself sole executive power. A new constitution, approved by a largely boycotted voter referendum nearly a year later, on July 25, 2022, codified Saied’s nearly unchecked power, upending the checks and balances between the president, prime minister, and parliament provided by the 2014 constitution.

Saied’s decision to shut down Al-Jazeera’s office on the heels of his power grab “symbolizes the state of press freedom under his regime,” Malek Khadhraoui, co-founder and publication director of local independent news website Inkyfada, told CPJ. Over the ensuing 14 months, at least four journalists have been arrested, and two were sentenced to several months in prison by military courts. Many others have been attacked by security forces while covering protests.

“We found that 2022 was one of the worst years in terms of press freedom violations since we began monitoring them six years ago,” Khawla Chabbeh, coordinator of the documentation and monitoring unit at the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), a local trade union, told CPJ in a meeting. On July 25, 2022, the day of the constitutional referendum, “we monitored the most violations against journalists that has occurred in a single day,” said Chabbeh.

The Tunisian Ministry of Interior did not respond to CPJ’s email request for comment about the state of press freedom in Tunisia, or about whether plainclothes security officers had followed CPJ and its local partners in 2005 or this year.

Dismantling independent constitutional commissions

Following the constitutional referendum on July 25, Tunisia approved the new constitution, replacing what was considered one of the most progressive in the Arab world. The new document is missing many of the articles that had guaranteed the protection of rights and freedoms. It eliminates several constitutional commissions created under the 2014 constitution, such as the Human Rights Commission, which investigated human rights violations, and the Independent High Commission for Audiovisual Communication, the country’s media regulatory body.

Saied’s crackdown on Tunisia’s independent constitutional bodies began even before the new constitution was formally adopted. On August 21, 2021, police shut down the headquarters of the National Anti-Corruption Authority without providing a reason. On February 6, 2022, Saied dissolved the High Judicial Council, which was mandated to ensure the independence of the judicial system and to act as a check on presidential powers, in a move United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described as a “clear violation” of international human rights law. These changes have implications for press freedom, local journalists told CPJ.  

“The 2014 constitution protected the freedom of the press, publication, and expression. However, the new constitution does not mention anything on the independence of the judicial system, which is one of the few things that could guarantee fair trials when violations against journalists or the press occur,” Mohamed Yassine Jelassi, president of the SNJT, told CPJ in a meeting. “And now, with the lack of independent constitutional bodies, we are going to start dealing again with a Ministry of Communications that takes its orders straight from authorities.”

Jelassi said Tunisia’s executive authority is now concentrated almost exclusively in the hands of the president, adding that Saied now has the power to propose and pass decrees and to appoint the members of the judiciary and the constitutional court.

“So even if the president passes a decree related to press freedom, and it gets approved by the parliament, in the past, we had the right to appeal the constitutionality of these decrees,” said Jelassi. “But now, since the president alone has the upper hand in hiring judges, this right is no longer guaranteed. Whatever freedom the new constitution provides with one hand, the law can take it away with the other.”

Jelassi told CPJ that the new constitution further diminishes the protection of journalists and the freedom of publication by using vague language that could lead to the conviction of journalists on charges unrelated to journalism. Under the 2014 constitution, authorities were prohibited from interfering with any journalistic content, since it would violate the freedom of publication. By contrast, the new constitution protects the freedom of publication only if it does not harm “national security,” “public morals,” or “public health,” which are all defined by the law.

Over the past year, authorities arrested journalists Amer Ayad, a talk show host for privately owned channel Zaytouna TV, Khalifa Guesmi, a correspondent at local independent radio station and news website Mosaique FM, Ghassen Ben Khelifa, editor-in-chief of local independent newspaper Inhiyez, and Salah Attia, founder and editor-in-chief of local independent news website Al-Ray al-Jadid, on anti-state charges. Military courts sentenced Attia to three months in prison and handed down a four-month sentence to Ayad.

“This is the first time in years that we see civilians being tried in military courts, let alone journalists,” Chabbeh said. “We consider this a clear indication to where press freedom is headed in the next few years, and it is not a positive one.”

Losing access to information

The 2014 constitution guaranteed journalists’ rights to information through the creation of the National Authority for Access of Information, an independent body responsible for providing information regarding official decisions to the media. Even though that right remains in place with the new constitution, and the National Authority for Access of Information is nominally still operating, Khadhraoui and other journalists said that in practice, government bodies are not providing journalists with the information they need to do their jobs. For example, while the National Authority for Access of Information is supposed to have an office in every ministry, its office in the Interior Ministry has shut down, several journalists told CPJ.

“Today, decrees get written, issued, and applied overnight and they [authorities] inform citizens and journalists of these new laws at the same time. This is problematic because Tunisian citizens are used to receiving transparent journalistic coverage of these topics. That was possible through the office of Access of Information in the Ministry of Interior, which is now closed,” Khadhraoui said, adding that journalists requesting information from the ministry now face bureaucratic obstacles and must sign many forms that often don’t get approved.

Obtaining press accreditations also has become increasingly difficult. Chabbeh showed CPJ its unpublished research on hundreds of local and foreign journalists who had applied for press accreditations to cover the July 25 referendum. While authorities provided them with a written document allowing them to cover the vote, most security officers at the polls did not accept the documents and prevented many journalists from reporting or taking pictures, she said.

Hajji told CPJ that he and his colleagues at Al-Jazeera had been able to renew their press accreditations without problem every year for the past 11 years, but that authorities told them in January that they couldn’t be renewed because of the office closure.

“Since this reason didn’t make sense, the syndicate got involved and helped us get our press accreditations,” said Hajji, adding that they still had to wait six months before they were able to renew special accreditations for camera crews, which used to be renewed automatically with the press credentials.

Hajji also said that while Al-Jazeera has all its paperwork, licenses, and taxes in order, the office remains closed. As of early September, police were still heavily present in front of the bureau’s building, he said.

“It is a mystery to me that they are giving us press accreditations and allowing us to work, yet they’re not allowing us into our office, and they’re not even telling us the reason for shutting it down in the first place,” Hajji said. “It’s been a year now, and we still have no idea why this happened.”

Targeting foreign funding

Khadhraoui, Hajji, and Jelassi told CPJ that local journalists and rights advocates working for independent organizations that receive foreign funding fear that their organizations could be shut down. In a speech on February 24, 2022, Saied said he planned to prohibit foreign funding to local civil society organizations in order to stop foreign intervention in the country. Saied had not issued such a decree by mid-September, but the journalists have told CPJ that they would not be surprised if it happened at any time.

“Most private [and non-profit] news organizations are partially funded by foreign groups or governments,” said Khadhraoui. “Without these funds, it will be impossible to pay staff salaries, and therefore there won’t be any independent press sector in Tunisia.”

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

And why not?

It is clear that the Trump residence Mar-a-Lago raid was not about a bunch of documents that he may have taken with him from the White House. It was about much more. And it is not over yet. US Attorney General Merrick Garland, has intimidated that never before in the Justice Department’s 152-year history, was such an extensive investigation of a former President carried out.

These are dark times for our nation,” former President Trump declared in response to the FBI’s  Monday morning raid on his Mar-a-Lago private residence. He compared the event to “an assault” that “could only take place in broken, Third-World countries.”

The President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute, Paul du Quenoy, calls the The Mar-a-Lago Raid “a Desperate Act of a Corrupt Establishment.”

The former President remains a political force to be reckoned with, as he claims the 2020 elections were stolen and he allegedly has proof that it was. Yet, the documented proof was not even admitted to be examined in any of the State Courts, to which he presented it, nor by the Supreme Court.

Whether Trump’s case was right or wrong is of lesser importance. The outright rejection of looking at a case presented by a former President is so unusual that it raises a myriad of questions.

Donald Trump’s 2016 election win took many by surprise. How can the public elect such a clown was the general mainstream reaction. Throughout his Presidency – and even before – he was lambasted in the US and around the world in ways no former US President was dealt with by international diplomacy and media.

Is it because Mr. Trump, against all odds and against the past and present wannabe world trend, is not a globalist, but a staunch nationalist?

It is the times of the Globalists. There is no more left and right, socialism and communism, Democrats and Republicans. There are only globalists and anti-globalists.

The World Economic Forum, or WEF-driven global agenda under the Great Reset and UN Agenda 2030, drives towards a One World Order (OWO), run by a small elite.

The WEF’s eternal CEO, Klaus Schwab, has made it clear during the last WEF Conference in May 2022 in Davos that “We have the Means to Improve the State of the World.” What he really meant to say is that, we this small but important group of people in this room, have the power to impose the shape of the world. See this.

This concept of taking full control of the world is one of the corporate financial giants of the sorts of BlackRock, Vanguard, StateStreet and more of Wall Street banking titans and private billionaire oligarchs. The WEF, generously funded by them, represents their extremely powerful interests around the globe. See WEF Leadership and Governance, Board of Trustees and more.

This One World Globalist concept is diametrically opposed to the world vision of Donald Trump. He is a nationalist à la “Make America Great Again” and wants the US to continue in a leading role in the world. But contrary to what the media have been indoctrinating the world at large with, not as a sole empire, but rather as a key player in a multi-polar world.

During the Seventy-fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020, Mr. Trump called upon the leaders of all countries, recommending to them to do likewise for their countries — make them strong, independent, as autonomous sovereign nations. This is not precisely a globalist view. But it is a view liked by most countries, and even more so by the people around the world.

By now, most everybody knows that a One World Order would be equal to a One World Tyranny, an OWT.  For that reason, in the hearts of people and many politicians in the US and around the world, Mr. Trump is very popular.

Of course, most of them don’t dare to say so, because the media has slandered Trump and his, as well as any non-globalist views, to such an extent that openly admitting a sovereign nationalist opinion would be looked at as utterly shameful.

It is therefore no coincidence that last Wednesday, 10 August 2022, just two days after the FBI raid on his residence, the former President was subpoenaed to appear before the New York State Attorney General (AG), Letitia James, for a six-hour deposition on his Real Estate company’s business practices. Except for stating his name, Trump repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Other than that, not much transpired to the public from this deposition.

What is interesting is not the deposition in itself, but the two apparently independent parallel events against a former President, the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, and the six-hour questioning by the New York State AG.

These legal actions against the former President will be blown out of proportion by the media, so as to diminish his power and chances to run again for President in 2024; and they are also aiming at preventing the Republicans – most of whom support Trump — to take over both the House and the Senate in the Mid-Term Elections this coming fall.

Although Trump said he would announce in September 2022 whether he plans to run for President in 2024, this recent video looks like “candidate” Trump is already on his campaign trail – on Telegram channel, sounding like a Trump Comeback Speech. .

If elections were held today, Trump would beat Biden by a landslide of 45 to 32, or by a margin of 40%. See Newsweek poll

It is clear these legal fiascos – and there may be more to come – are last-ditch efforts to prevent the WEF’s Globalists House of Cards Would-be-Empire from further disintegrating. The crumbling Globalist Cult will do whatever they can to prevent Donald Trump from running for President in 2024.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Peter Koenig.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said in a lengthy statement Monday that Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida, was "under siege, raided, and occupied" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Trump claimed the "unannounced raid" was "prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the justice system, and an attack by radical left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for president in 2024."

The twice-impeached ex-president—who was reportedly at Trump Tower in New York City during the raid in Palm Beach—said of the FBI, "They even broke into my safe!"

"The FBI and U.S. attorney's offices in Washington, D.C., and for the Southern District of Florida didn't immediately respond to requests for comment," according to Politico. Spokespeople at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to comment.

"The Secret Service and Palm Beach Police Department deferred comment to the FBI," Politico added. "Two sources familiar with the matter said top Biden White House officials were not given advance notice of the raid."

The outlet reported that "two sources familiar with the search said it was related to allegations that Trump allies improperly removed boxes of presidential records from the White House after leaving office—including some that may have included classified information. One of those sources said the raid took 'hours.'"

The DOJ and a congressional select committee are also both investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump's speech that day—which featured his "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen—led to his historic second impeachment.

Read Trump's full statement:

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Common Dreams staff.

Before dawn on Tuesday, July 19, Israel Defense Forces soldiers arrested Abu Arafa, a correspondent for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, at his home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to reports by Quds Press, the Palestinian Authority-owned WAFA news agency, and the Hamas-affiliated news agency Shehab News.

About 30 soldiers arrived in four military vehicles, blindfolded and handcuffed Abu Arafa, raided his home, and then detained him, his wife Safaa al-Hroub told Shehab News. She said IDF forces also seized 24,000 shekels (US$6,980) during the raid.

CPJ could not immediately determine where Abu Arafa was being held or why he was detained.

“Instead of taking steps toward accountability and respecting press freedom, Israeli authorities have doubled down on repression by tossing another Palestinian journalist into detention,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Israeli authorities should release Amer Abu Arafa immediately and stop silencing Palestinian journalists.”

According to that Quds Press News Agency report, Abu Arafa covers the southern West Bank for that outlet and other Palestinian news organizations. He has recently reported on local politics, Israeli policies toward Palestinians in Jerusalem, and the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Starting in 2011, Israeli authorities detained Abu Arafa for nearly two years without charge after he reported on Israeli forces’ arrests of 120 Hamas members, as CPJ documented at the time. He was also detained by Palestinian Authority forces in 2017.

When contacted for comment, a representative from the IDF’s North American Media Desk told CPJ via email that the organization was looking into the matter, but did not respond with further details by the time of publication.

WAFA reported that Abu Arafa’s arrest was part of a larger campaign of Israeli raids in the West Bank on Tuesday. IDF soldiers have conducted near-daily raids in Palestinian cities and towns since a series of attacks by Palestinian suspects on Israelis earlier this year, according to The Associated Press.

Abu Akleh, a correspondent for Al-Jazeera Arabic, was fatally shot in the head on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin. A U.S. forensic investigation found that the IDF was “likely responsible” for shooting and killing Abu Akleh, but that there was “no reason to believe that this was intentional.”

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

German police on Tuesday raided Deutsche Bank headquarters and the offices of asset manager DWS—which is 80% owned by Deutsche Bank—as part of an investigation into whether the firms have presented investments and products as more climate-friendly than they really are, a notorious practice known as "greenwashing."

The Frankfurt public prosecutors' office said in a statement that the raid—which reportedly involved around 50 law enforcement officials—was "triggered by reports in the international and national media that the asset manager DWS, when marketing so-called 'green financial products,' had sold these financial products as 'greener' or 'more sustainable' than they actually were."

"Investing in fossil fuels is a dead end. No amount of greenwashing or spin can change that."

"After examination, sufficient factual evidence has emerged that, contrary to the statements made in the sales prospectuses of DWS funds, [environmental, social, and governance factors] were not taken into account at all in a large number of investments," the statement continued.

DWS said in response to the raid that it is cooperating with authorities and regulators.

While Deutsche Bank and DWS have both committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, both have been accused of misleading clients about the sustainability of their business practices.

Last year, Desiree Fixler—a former environmental, social, and governance (ESG) officer with DWS—accused the asset management firm of greenwashing in its 2020 annual report, prompting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the German regulator BaFin to investigate.

"This incident with DWS has rippled through the market and is a wake-up call to approach ESG more accurately and scientifically and dial down the propaganda and rhetoric," Fixler told Financial News in September.

Fixler went further in an interview with the Financial Times last month, saying, "ESG today is meaningless."

According to a recent study led by Oil Change International, Deutsche Bank provided $85.95 billion in financing for the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021.

"We still see funding for coal and fossil fuels from some of the biggest names in finance, hedge funds, and private equity," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said over the weekend. "Investing in fossil fuels is a dead end—economically and environmentally. No amount of greenwashing or spin can change that."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

Around 6 p.m. on May 10, Maung Myo, a contributor to the local Mekong News Agency, was traveling by train to report on recent armed clashes between the military and anti-junta people’s defense forces when military authorities arrested him, according to news reports and the news agency’s editor Nyan Linn Htet, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.

The reporter, who is also known as Myo Myint Oo, was arrested at the Salween River bridge checkpoint near the town of Hpa-an in eastern Kayin state after officials discovered he had shared Mekong News Agency reports on his personal Facebook page, according to Nyan Linn Htet, who told CPJ that the news publication had been banned by the military junta regime that seized power in the February 1, 2021 coup.

Maung Myo has since been charged under section 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, which carries a maximum of seven years in prison, according to Nyan Linn Htet. Since his arrest, the journalist has been held at Hpa-an Prison.

“Myanmar authorities must free journalist Maung Maung Myo and drop any charges pending against him,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Myanmar’s junta must cease leveling outrageous terrorism-related charges against journalists who are merely doing their jobs as reporters.”

Maung Myo has reported for Mekong News Agency since June 2020 and has covered various political topics, including Myanmar’s COVID-19 situation, anti-coup protests, and clashes between the military government and different armed resistance groups.

Nyan Linn Htet told CPJ that military authorities raided Mekong News Agency’s office and his residence on two occasions after the 2021 coup, and the publication had to close its bureau in the Shan state town of Tachiliek on April 15, 2021, due to threats from security forces.

Nyan Linn Htet added that he is in hiding from an arrest warrant issued against him on March 6, 2021, under section 505(a) of the penal code, a vague anti-state provision that penalizes incitement and the dissemination of “false news.” 

Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Maung Myo’s arrest and detention.

CPJ’s latest prison census published in December ranked Myanmar as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists. Myanmar authorities have killed at least three journalists since the military seized power on February 1, 2021, according to CPJ documentation.

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

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir arrested Abdul Aala Fazili, a former contributor to privately owned news portal The Kashmir Walla, on Sunday, April 17, in relation to a November 2011 opinion article, according to news reports. The SIA and Kashmir police also raided The Kashmir Walla office, the home of editor Fahad Shah—who was arrested in March—and Fazili’s home, seizing electronic devices including laptops.

According to the Indian Express, the SIA claimed that Fazili’s 2011 opinion piece supporting Kashmir’s separation from the Indian state was “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest” and written to propagate “the false narrative which is essential to sustain [a] secessionist cum terrorist campaign aimed at breaking the territorial integrity of India.” The SIA did not give any information as to why it was acting now on the article.

“The Jammu and Kashmir authorities’ vindictive campaign against journalists has reached the point of absurdity with the arrest of former Kashmir Walla contributor Abdul Aala Fazili and the opening of another investigation into editor Fahad Shah over an 11-year-old article,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, from Washington, D.C. “Indian authorities must drop its investigation into Fazili and Shah and immediately release them.”

Fazili is a former contributor to The Kashmir Walla who is currently a research scholar at Kashmir University, according to those news reports.

According to a statement by The Kashmir Walla, the SIA and Kashmir police raided Shah’s home and the outlet’s office for three hours on April 17. According to the outlet, officials seized two reporters laptops, a computer from the multimedia department, six hard drives, and five CDs. Officials also searched reporting notebooks and phones of two reporters who were present in the office during the raid.

The SIA accused Fazili and Shah of violating four sections of the Indian penal code, including criminal conspiracy, waging or attempting to wage war against the Indian government, sedition, and making assertions prejudicial to national integration, and two sections of the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for unlawful activities and terrorism, according to The Kashmir Walla.

Under the UAPA, Fazili and Shah could face up to seven years imprisonment. If found guilty of violating the four sections of the penal code, they face a life sentence.

CPJ was unable to confirm Fazili’s current whereabouts. Shah is currently in preventive custody in Kupwara District Jail after he was granted bail in two investigations where he has been accused of violating the UAPA and other Indian laws, as CPJ documented and news reports.

Dilbag Singh, the director-general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ could not locate contact information for the SIA’s spokesperson.

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

On the afternoon of March 10, a group of armed police and military officers raided the offices of The Alternative Digitalk, arresting the nine and confiscating equipment, including cameras, laptops, and books, according to media reports, a statement by the local press rights group Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-U), as well as police and court documents reviewed by CPJ.

The journalists arrested that day are Norman Tumuhimbise, The Alternative Digitalk’s executive director who is also an activist and a published author; programs director Arnold Mukose; TV host Faridah Bikobere; producer Jeremiah Mukiibi; presenters Lilian Luwedde, Teddy Teangle Nabukeera, Tumusiime Kato, and Rogers Tulyahabwe; and an intern, Jacob Jeje Wabyona, according to Tumuhimbise’s brother Innocent Ainebyona, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and the HRNJ-U statement.

On March 15 and 16, seven of the journalists were released on police bond, but are still under investigation on charges of sedition and cyberstalking, according to human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza and the HRNJ-U-appointed lawyer Geoffrey Turyamusima, both of whom are working on the case and spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Two journalists, Tumuhimbise and Bikobere, remain in jail, and were charged with cyberstalking and “offensive communication,” during a court hearing in the capital Kampala on March 16, according to Turyamusima and court documents reviewed by CPJ. During the hearing, Bikobere and Tumuhimbise told the court they had been severely physically abused while in state custody, Ainebyona and Turyamusima told CPJ.

“Authorities should unconditionally release Norman Tumuhimbise and Faridah Bikobere, drop all charges against them, end all investigations against other The Alternative Digitalk journalists, and return their confiscated equipment. Allegations that these journalists have been severely physically abused should be investigated credibly, holding anyone responsible to account,” said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo. “President Yoweri Museveni, whose name has been invoked in these proceedings, should also declare that he is against arbitrary detentions of the press and condemn acts of abuse by security personnel.”

Cyberstalking and “offensive communication” can carry prison terms of up to five and two years respectively under Uganda’s Computer Misuse law. Sedition can carry up to seven years, according to the penal code.

Kiiza and Ainebyona told CPJ that The Alternative Digitalk is an offshoot of Alternative Uganda, an activist group headed by Tumuhimbise and of which Ainebyona is also a member, which campaigns for better governance in Uganda. On its social media accounts, the group defines itself as a “non partisan (sic) and non-violent social movement” campaigning for “youth led change.”

CPJ’s review of The Alternative Uganda’s YouTube channel, where it has about 2,700 followers, and Facebook page, with over 24,300 followers, shows that it publishes The Alternative Digitalk’s programming, such as interviews, including with politicians and government officials, analysis of current affairs as well as entertainment and lifestyle programming.

In the court documents, police allege the offenses were committed by the journalists between January 2020 and March 9, 2022, against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the form of content published by The Alternative Digitalk about two of Tumuhimbisi’s recently published books. The books, “The Komanyoko Politics: Unsowing the Mustard Seed” and “Liars and Accomplices,”are sharply critical of the Museveni government, according to media reports, Kiiza, and CPJ’s review of “The Komanyoko Politics.” [Editor’s note: Komanyoko is a vulgar insult originally from Kiswahili.]

In several YouTube and Facebook posts in late February and early March made by The Alternative Uganda, which streams The Alternative Digitalk’s content, The Alternative Digitalk advertised Tumuhimbise’s books and announced the planned March 30 launch event in Kampala. On March 1, the outlet published an hour-long interview with a retired judge who wrote the foreword to “The Komanyoko Politics.”

In that book, excerpts of which CPJ reviewed, Tumuhimbise’s commentary describes Uganda’s political culture as “vulgar” and full of “malice, fights, insults, greed.” He also alleges that the president “only tells the truth by mistake” and criticizes government appointments for Museveni’s family, including his son, Lieutenant General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and wife, Janet Museveni.

Copies of this book were among those confiscated by the security officers who raided the media outlet’s offices, according to a police search certificate, a document outlining how the search was carried out and listing those who witnessed it, reviewed by CPJ. The officers also confiscated four cameras, microphones, several laptops, hard disks, as well as CDs and a company vehicle, according to that same document.

On March 16 and 17, when seven of the journalists were released on bond from the police’s Special Investigation Division in Kireka, a suburb of Kampala, two of them were limping, Ainebyona told CPJ. CPJ was unable to immediately communicate with the released journalists, whose phones were confiscated when they were arrested.

During the March 16 court hearing, Bikobere said she needed medical attention because she had been beaten by officers and was passing blood in her urine, according to Turyamusima. A video clip posted on YouTube shows part of Bikobere’s testimony in which she says she feels pain in her stomach, back, and chest; has bruises all over her body; and offers to “undress” so that her injuries can be put on record.

Tumuhimbise also told the court that he had been beaten, saying he was punched in the head and forced to drink and unknown substance, according Ainebyona and Turyamusima. Both journalists were remanded to Luzira Prison in Kampala until their next hearing on March 21.

Uganda military spokesperson Brigadier General Felix Kulayigye told CPJ by phone that the military’s involvement in the raid on The Alternative Digitalk was in support of a police operation and referred CPJ to the police for comment. Kulayigye declined to answer questions on allegations of torture, saying the journalists had not been in the army’s custody.

Calls and text messages to Uganda police spokesperson Fred Enanga and President Museveni’s senior press secretary Nabusayi Lindah Wamboka were unanswered.

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

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 3, the privately owned TV and radio broadcaster Next TV’s accounts on Facebook and Telegram published posts covering claims by a former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence agency that Kyrgyzstan had secretly agreed to provide military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At about 7:30 p.m. that evening, plainclothes officers with the State Committee of National Security (SCNS), the country’s internal security agency, raided the station’s office in Bishkek, the capital, confiscated its broadcasting equipment, sealed the outlet’s studio and journalists’ offices, and detained Duishenbiev, according to news reports and Next TV journalist Perizat Saitburkhan, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

The SCNS said that it had opened a criminal investigation into the outlet for “inciting interethnic hatred,” according to news reports and a SCNS press release reviewed by CPJ.

In a closed court hearing on Saturday, the Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek ordered Duishenbiev to be held until May 3 on charges of inciting interethnic hatred “by a group of persons by prior conspiracy,” according to those sources. If convicted, he could face five to seven years in prison, according to the country’s criminal code.

“As their attacks on the independent press intensify, Kyrgyz authorities appear to be resorting to any legal means, however spurious, to clamp down on critical outlets,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities must immediately release Taalaibek Duishenbiev, drop the investigation into Next TV, and allow the station to resume broadcasting without interference.”

The Facebook and Telegram posts by Next TV cited the Ukrainian outlet Ukraine Now, and Kyrgyzstan’s Defense Ministry later denied the allegations, which had been reported by a number of Ukrainian news outlets.

In its press release, the SCNS accused the broadcaster of spreading “false information” that “misleads the population of the Kyrgyz Republic and other countries and acts as a catalyzer for inciting interethnic strife.”

Duishenbiev’s lawyer Akmat Alagushev told CPJ in a phone interview that Duishenbiev denied the charges and they would appeal the decision to keep him in custody, as well as the sealing of the outlet’s studio and workspace, which he said investigators had carried out unlawfully.

Alagushev added that, as authorities had opened an investigation for alleged group conspiracy, charges could also be filed against other Next TV employees. He told CPJ that the charges against Duishenbiev were illegitimate not only because Next TV had simply republished allegations reported by another outlet, and that the information posed no threat to interethnic relations, but also because Next TV’s social media accounts were not legally related to the television station and were not verified accounts, so the outlet’s director and staffers should not be held responsible.

SCNS officers detained technical engineer Taalai Beishenbaev during the office raid, interrogated him without a lawyer present, confiscated his phone, and released him at about 3 a.m. on Friday, according to Saitburkhan.

Also on Friday, investigators summoned and questioned Saitburkhan and a producer at the outlet, and on Monday questioned another four employees, Saitburkhan said.

Saitburkhan told CPJ that the charges were a “mere pretext” to shutter Next TV, and that the outlet had been targeted due to its critical reporting and the fact that Next TV rebroadcasts material from U.S. Congress-funded RFE/RL’s local service Radio Azattyk across the country, which she said current Kyrgyz leadership “strongly dislikes.”

Next TV is reportedly controlled by opposition politician and former presidential candidate Ravshan Jeenbekov, who has twice been jailed and remains under investigation by the authorities. Jeenbekov wrote on Facebook following the raid that the SCNS had been pressuring him “for several months” to close the broadcaster.

The station has over 254,000 followers on Instagram and 153,000 followers on Facebook.

Previously, on February 1, the prosecutor general’s office placed independent news website Kaktus.media under investigation for alleged “propaganda of war” after the outlet reprinted an article from a Tajik news site about a clash at the disputed border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as CPJ documented at the time.

CPJ emailed the State Committee for National Security for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

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

On Wednesday, February 23, the Tehran home of Ronaghi Maleki, a freelance blogger and freedom of expression activist who posts reporting critical of the government on social media, was raided by unidentified security forces who took him to an unknown location, according to news reports and sources familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to the fear of reprisal.

The actions follow a Tuesday Twitter thread by Ronaghi Maleki, posted in both Farsi and English, which condemned the passing of the “User Protection Bill,” a controversial piece of legislation that restricts Iranians’ access to the internet and was ratified by parliament earlier that day.

Authorities have not officially accepted any responsibility for Ronaghi Maleki’s arrest, no charges have been formally announced, and CPJ was unable to confirm where the blogger is being held, the reasons for his arrest, or which branch of the security forces arrested him.

“With the arrest of Seyed Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, the Iranian government is seemingly continuing its absurd practice of arbitrarily detaining journalists without charge,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Authorities must release Ronaghi Maleki immediately or at least reveal his location and any charges against him and allow all Iranians to freely access the internet.”

At 11 a.m. on February 23, Ronaghi Maleki called his parents to say he was going to work, according to Reza Ronaghi, the blogger’s father, who spoke to the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Farda, adding that his son had received several threatening calls in recent weeks and told his family that he might be arrested again soon.

When Ronaghi Maleki’s family was unable to get in touch with him, they went to his apartment later that evening where they found the home ransacked and noted that his computer, laptop, hard drives, and several notebooks were missing, according to Hassan Ronaghi, the blogger’s brother, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

“Hossein’s life is at risk because he suffers from several health conditions including kidney, lungs, blood, and digestive issues and we don’t know if the kidnappers will give him his medicine,” Hassan Ronaghi said, adding that the blogger’s family asked the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence about Ronaghi Maleki’s arrest and status, but they have not received a response yet.

CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment on Ronaghi Maleki’s arrest but did not receive a response. Ronaghi Maleki, also known as Babak Khoramddin, was previously arrested on December 13, 2009, and sentenced to 15 years in prison after discussing politics in a series of critical blogs that were eventually blocked by the government, according to CPJ research. He suffered multiple health issues, undergoing several kidney surgeries, which eventually led to his unconditional release in 2019.

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