New York, October 16, 2025—Ecuadorian authorities should comprehensively and swiftly investigate the shooting of TV journalist Edison Muenala and take decisive actions to ensure that press members can safely report on ongoing anti-government demonstrations, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Tuesday, Muenala, a journalist and producer with the community station APAK TV, was shot...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is renewing its urgent call for Israel to provide immediate, independent, and unrestricted international media access to Gaza. On October 5, 2025, CPJ took a decisive stand for press freedom by filing an amicus brief in support of the Foreign Press Association in Israel’s second petition to the Israeli...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Urgent, unrestricted media access critical to documentation of Israeli attacks on besieged territory 197 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel in two years New York, October 16, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has filed an amicus brief supporting the Foreign Press Association in Israel’s second petition to the Israeli Supreme...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Sulaymaniyah, October 16, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the killing of Saleh Aljafarawi, a 28-year-old freelance Palestinian journalist who gained prominence on social media for his war coverage. He was shot and killed on October 12, 2025, reportedly by members of an armed Palestinian group in Gaza City, just days...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, October 16, 2025—Taliban authorities and the Pakistan government must immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding the killing of Afghan journalist Abdul Ghafor Abed and ensure that journalists covering conflict zones are protected in line with international law, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Abed, a provincial reporter for Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA),...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Istanbul, October 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Turkish authorities to investigate the armed assault on journalist Nafiz Koca and determine whether it was carried out in retaliation for his work. Koca, chair of the Elazığ Press and Media Society and publisher of the local newspapers Günışığı and Yeni Ufuk in the eastern province of Elazığ,...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists and eight partner organizations urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday to raise the issue of the escalating press freedom crisis in the Western Balkans, particularly in Serbia, during her visit to the region this week. The joint statement highlights the severe deterioration of press freedom in...| Committee to Protect Journalists
On the eve of the anniversary of the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, CPJ joins 17 press freedom and journalists’ organizations to call on Malta to set up a national action plan on media freedom and journalist safety. Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack on October 16, 2017....| Committee to Protect Journalists
Istanbul, October 14, 2025—CPJ demands that Turkish authorities conduct a comprehensive investigation into the death of freelance reporter and documentary filmmaker Hakan Tosun to determine whether his killing was in retaliation for his journalism. Istanbul police have arrested two suspects, who have not yet been charged. “The death of filmmaker Hakan Tosun is tragic and must be...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Sulaymaniyah, October 14, 2025 — Israeli authorities have released 14 journalists and others who had been detained, most of them for four days, after sailing aboard the Wijdan (Conscience), a vessel that was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), one of several aid convoys that have attempted to break the blockade on Gaza. The...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, October 1, 2025—In Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur, journalists in El-Fasher are trapped under siege, enduring violence, hunger, and relentless bombardment alongside the people whose lives they report on. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group that evolved from the notorious Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities in earlier Darfur conflicts, have...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Kinshasa, June 26, 2025—A senior military officer of the Congolese armed forces arrested Serge Sindani, a defense reporter and director of the privately owned website Kis24.info, on Tuesday, June 24, for posting a photo of combat aircraft on his X account two days prior. “Authorities in the DRC must not legitimize the detention of journalist...| Committee to Protect Journalists
A new tax law in India that grants authorities sweeping powers to access emails, cloud accounts, and encrypted devices during searches has generated widespread concern among journalists and digital rights advocates, while adding to a raft of tax legislation around the world that could be weaponized against the media. India’s parliament on August 12 passed...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 17 other press freedom and human rights organizations in calling on Turkish authorities to release freelance court reporter Furkan Karabay, who has been in detention for over 100 days. Following his arrest in May, he was indicted on September 5, 2025, on three charges, including “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for which he could face six to...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Istanbul, September 8, 2025—Turkish authorities must drop the charges brought against journalist Furkan Karabay alleging that he “insulted” the president and “made targets of” judicial officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Turkish authorities arrested freelance court reporter Karabay in mid-May. Karabay spent more than 100 days in pretrial detention before being indicted. A court date has yet to...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Kinshasa, September 8, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on government and rebel authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to stop harassing reporter Tuver Wundi, who has been detained twice and dismissed from his job at the national broadcaster in the eastern city of Goma. “Detaining Tuver Wundi without just cause is a...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists and more than 20 partner organizations called on Czech political parties to commit to 10 priority measures to safeguard press freedom in the run-up to parliamentary elections on October 3–4. The recommendations, developed with experts and inspired by the recently adopted European Media Freedom Act, address urgent challenges, including attacks...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Nairobi, September 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopian authorities to unconditionally release Sheger FM radio editor Tigist Zerihun and reporter Mintamir Tsegaw, who were taken into custody on September 3 following the forced removal of Mintamir’s August 29 report on widespread protests over poor working conditions for healthcare workers, according to multiple news outlets. The Ethiopian Media Authority—the regulatory body responsible for...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Washington, D.C., September 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Saudi authorities to justify their detention of freelance Yemeni journalist Mujahid Al-Haiqi at Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah airport last month, or immediately release him. “By arresting Mujahid Al-Haiqi without explanation, Saudi authorities show once again that journalists face tremendous perils in the kingdom, even when...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, September 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to free Ukrainian journalist Heorhiy Levchenko, who has been sentenced to 16 years in a high security penal colony for treason and extremism. “After capturing Ukrainian journalist Heorhiy Levchenko two years ago in retaliation for his brave reporting on the war from the occupied...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Editor’s Note: On September 9, Nepal’s government lifted its ban on social media platforms after 19 people were killed in mass protests. New Delhi, September 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists warns that the Nepali government’s decision to block access to social media platforms across the country will seriously hinder journalists’ work and people’s access...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New Delhi, September 4, 2025—Ahead of the eighth anniversary of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Karnataka state government to push for the establishment of a fast-track court to bring her killers to justice. Lankesh, who published and edited Bengaluru-based Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada-language weekly known for its...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, September 3, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijani authorities’ addition of seven new charges against 10 incarcerated journalists in relation to a currency smuggling case against the independent outlet Meydan TV, as well as the arrest of photojournalist Ahmad Mukhtar. “The latest financial crimes charges against the prize-winning Azerbaijani outlet Meydan TV...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s arrest and detention yesterday of two journalists covering land rights protests in northern British Columbia.| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, July 24, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely worried about the safety of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who is being targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign, which he believes is a precursor to his assassination. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee has stepped up his...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif was murdered in a targeted Israeli strike on a tent housing journalists outside the main gate of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The attack killed Al Jazeera’s entire team of four staff journalists in the city, as well as two freelancers, one of whom was working for Al Jazeera.| Committee to Protect Journalists
Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old Palestinian correspondent in northern Gaza for the Qatari-based Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed on March 24, 2025, in an Israeli strike on his car near the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia. | Committee to Protect Journalists
Journalists at El Faro knew the risks when they published a series of interviews with gang members alleging long-standing ties between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and criminal groups. They didn’t know how quickly the crackdown would escalate. Within days of publication last month, sources close to El Salvador’s attorney general’s office warned that arrest warrants...| Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, April 18, 2025—Taliban authorities must immediately release independent journalist Sayed Rashed Kashefi, who was detained April 14 by General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) agents in the capital Kabul, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. “Taliban intelligence must release journalist Sayed Rashed Kashefi immediately and unconditionally,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Istanbul, April 17, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkey to drop charges against five photojournalists, whose trial begins on Friday, for allegedly taking part in protests in Istanbul last month. The journalists could be jailed for up to three years for violating the law on gatherings and demonstrations. In the indictment, reviewed by...| Committee to Protect Journalists
China, Israel, and Myanmar lead the world’s top jailers of journalists New York, January 16, 2024—The number of journalists jailed worldwide reached a near all-time high in 2024, according to a new report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Explore the data from CPJ’s 2021 report on Attacks on the Press worldwide.| Committee to Protect Journalists
Antonio Di Giampaolo has hosted his popular radio news program En el Aire, Spanish for “On the Air,” for nearly 40 years. On May 17, Di Giampaolo planned to broadcast an interview with opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González, but executives at the station Éxitos 93.1 FM in the western city of Maracay nixed the plan with no explanation, according to the journalist. “I had...| Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ defines journalists as people who cover news or comment on public affairs through any medium — including in print, online, via broadcast media, or photographs and video. We take up cases involving staff journalists and freelancers. (Read our FAQs here.) Imprisoned CPJ’s annual census is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Nine years ago this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists took a stand on one of the most polarizing figures in journalism. We wrote President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, urging them not to prosecute Julian Assange.| Committee to Protect Journalists
Video journalist Issam Abdallah died near the southern Lebanese village of Alma Al-Shaab at 6.02 p.m. on October 13, 2023, when two shells fired from Israel killed him and injured six other journalists as they were covering cross-border fire between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. Independent investigations by international news organizations and rights groups found evidence indicating that Israeli forces targeted the reporters – a possible war crim...| Committee to Protect Journalists
Update: As of December 31, 2023, at least 77 journalists and media workers were killed; 70 of them Palestinian. More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year, according to CPJ data. By December 20, 2023, at...| Committee to Protect Journalists
The Israel-Gaza war has killed more journalists over the course of a year than in any other conflict CPJ has documented. Since the beginning of the war, CPJ has stood in solidarity with the affected journalists and their families. Palestinian journalists have continued reporting despite killings, injuries, and arbitrary detention at the hands of Israeli forces,...| Committee to Protect Journalists
