CPJ Press Freedom

Dakar, August 21, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on Togolese authorities to drop the charges against French journalists Sebastian Perez Pezzani and Gaël Mocaër, and their Togolese fixer, Komi Mawufemo Vedomey, and to release Mocaër and Vedomey who have spent 26 days in detention since they were arrested July 27 while filming a documentary in northern Togo. On August 20, 2026, an investigative judge in Lomé, the Togolese capital, p

New York, August 21, 2026 – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined 67 other civil society organizations in calling on the UN Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan (FFM) for two years and provide it with adequate resources to investigate grave violations and support accountability. Ahead of the Council’s 63rd session, the groups urged states to strengthen the FFM’s ability to investigate abuses, identify perpet

Ahead of this month’s parliamentary election, independent journalists in Kazakhstan have faced “unprecedented” pressure, ranging from criminal prosecutions to professional bans, and this crackdown warrants heightened international scrutiny to ensure the country upholds its obligations on media freedom. Voters go to the polls on August 23 to elect a unicameral parliament established under a new constitution passed in a March referendum. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev says the constitution all

The Committee to Protect Journalists and partner organizations issued a joint letter on Wednesday urging members of the United States Congress to act on new visa restrictions for international correspondents. Under a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) final rule that will take effect on September 15, I visas for foreign media representatives will be limited to up to 240 days, or 90 days for Chinese nationals. This replaces the open-ended “duration of status” framework that has governed the

New York, August 19, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked by the eight-year prison sentence handed down to Gulnara Bazhkenova, former editor-in-chief of independent outlet Orda, in Kazakhstan on August 18, and warns that this latest prosecution appears to be part of an escalating crackdown on the media ahead of elections this month. An Almaty court convicted Bazhkenova, who has been under house arrest since December last year, on charges of criminal dissemination of false

Miami, August 18, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to ensure that Mexican journalist and TikTok streamer Carlitos Ricardo Parias receives adequate medical care after spending 300 days in immigration detention at California’s Adelanto Detention Facility. Parias, 45, who reports independently under TikTok handle Richard Noticias LA, was shot in the left arm by federal agents during an immigration enforcement arrest in Los An

New Delhi, August 18, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Bangladeshi authorities to drop their new crimes against humanity case against journalists Shyamal Dutta, Mozammel Babu, and Farzana Rupa, and stop criminalizing news reporting.  Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday ordered prison authorities to produce the journalists, who have been detained since 2024 on separate charges, before the domestic war crimes court on August 24, according to news re

Kinshasa, August 17, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to restore mobile telecommunications and internet services that have been cut off for more than a month in the Fizi Territory, which includes the city of Baraka, in the eastern province of South Kivu. “The intensification of the war in South Kivu province must under no circumstances serve as a pretext for blocking mobile and internet access, depriving local populations o

The Committee to Protect Journalists and nine other international and local organizations, as part of the Brazilian Coalition in Defense of Journalism, in a joint statement condemned the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) for its decision to violate a journalist’s constitutional right of source confidentiality. “Like any other citizen, journalists are subject to the law and may be investigated for any crimes they have committed. However, it is unacceptable to reverse the investigative proc

Dakar, August 14, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to release George Atabong Lekeaka, who has been held incommunicado since Monday for publishing a photo of security officers on patrol during clashes with separatist fighters. “George Atabong Lekeaka should not have been arrested for attempting to provide the public with security information, let alone secretly detained without access to a lawyer or his family, in violation of his rights,” said Moussa

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined eight local and international press freedom and human rights groups on Friday in expressing deep concern over escalating pressure on independent journalists in Kazakhstan ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for August 23. The groups’ joint statement details how, in the weeks leading up to the vote – the first to be held for a new unicameral parliament established under a new constitution passed earlier this year – the authorities have arreste

New York, August 14, 2026—Five years on from the Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the group to halt its brutal repression of the press — particularly women journalists — and lift sweeping restrictions that have cut access to independent information and allowed a propaganda ecosystem to flourish. After capturing Kabul on August 15, 2021, Taliban authorities immediately began their attack on the media, barring female journalists from working at the

São Paulo, August 14, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court has decided personal allegations are a reason to break source confidentiality, a right guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution, in journalist Luís Pablo Conceição Almeida’s reporting. Brazilian Supreme Federal (STF) Judge Flávio Dino accused Luís Pablo of “stalking” him last year after the journalist published three blog posts reporting that Dino’s family regularl

Nairobi, August 13, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopian authorities to immediately release five journalists who have been in detention for three years awaiting trial, instead of pressuring them to admit to, and apologize for, taking part in a deadly insurgency in exchange for their freedom. Gobeze Sisay, Meskerem Abera, Genet Asmamaw, Dawit Begashaw, and Abay Zewdu have refused to write such apology letters, which they regard as “self-incriminating,” their lawyer, Sol

Dakar, August 13, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Gabonese authorities to reinstate the privately owned news site Info241, which was suspended by the country’s media regulator for relaying comments by an influencer about President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema and his entourage. “Deciding to shut down a 13-year-old media outlet is more an act of censorship than of regulation and deprives the Gabonese public of a major source of information,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’

The Committee to Protect Journalists and six other international and local organizations submitted a shadow report on freedom of expression and press freedom in Venezuela to the United Nations that will be examined during the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), at the 54th session of the UPR Working Group, scheduled for January–February 2027 in Geneva, Switzerland. The report’s findings point to a worsening hostility against the independent press in Venezuela. The risks assoc

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined partner organizations on Wednesday to strongly condemn the arrest and enforced disappearance of at least 36 Shi’a Muslims in Egypt, including journalist Haidar Qandil, and called for their immediate release. Qandil was arrested on June 22, 2026, outside the offices of Al-Dostor newspaper in Giza, Greater Cairo, and taken to an undisclosed location — just hours after he had spent the day documenting the arrests of Egyptian Shi’a Muslims a

Berlin, August 12, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Russian authorities to swiftly clarify the circumstances surrounding the prosecution of journalist Vasilisa Shishkina on treason charges and her subsequent sentencing in May to 12 years in prison amid reports that she was targeted because of her work. Shishkina, an editor at the regional outlet Nomer Odin in Russia’s eastern Republic of Buryatia, was sentenced on May 21 by the Supreme Court of Buryatia, her lawyer Vasily Dubko

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined #KeepItOn Coalition partners in urging Zambian authorities and telecommunication providers to ensure free and open internet access before, during, and after the country’s general election on August 13. In the letter, the coalition highlighted Zambia’s 2021 internet shutdown, when access to major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, was cut off on the election day, August 12, and the following day.  The Ministry o

Washington, D.C., August 11, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kuwaiti authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Kuwaiti political commentator Mohammed Saleh al-Sabti.  Al-Sabti was arrested in July after taking part in an interview on Saudi-owned channel Al-Arabiya, according to the independent media outlet Newsroom, as well as a Kuwaiti blogger and a rights activist who confirmed his arrest to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. In the i