press freedom - Page 4

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday released its annual report on journalists in prison and found China taking the top spot from Turkey, ending a three-year winning streak. Former world champion oppressor Turkey remained in second place, with Saudi Arabia surging ahead to tie with Egypt for third. Eritrea, Vietnam, Iran, and Russia fought to round out the list of dungeon keepers.

Turkish journalist Can Dundar, onetime editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, on Sunday accused the Turkish government of “hosting ISIS for years” and “releasing their guerrillas” from captivity.

The presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden sent a letter to every major television network, demanding that they keep former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani off the air.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of the Metropolitan police force said that the “relentless” reporting on extremist attacks could be promoting terrorism.

Staffers for the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) reportedly roughed up members of the press during his visit to the Iowa State Fair on Sunday.

Researchers surveying the journalists covering the ongoing Hong Kong protest movement found that upwards of 90 percent of journalists covering the July 28 protest suffered health effects such as difficulty breathing and coughing blood when police fired liberal amounts of tear gas at the crowds, the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported Friday.

LONDON (AP) – A British investigation into the leaking of confidential diplomatic memos is raising press freedom issues with a police warning that UK media might face a criminal inquiry if leaked documents are published.

Tommy Robinson has been re-sentenced to nine months in prison following his reconviction for contempt of court.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party on Wednesday suspended a member of its leader in Sindh province until further notice for physically assaulting a journalist during a live news talk show over the weekend.

Officers of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the Canberra home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst on Tuesday morning, a little over a year after Smethurst published a story that leaked government discussions about enhanced surveillance powers.

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Chief Bill Scott apologized Friday for a raid earlier this month on the home of a journalist who would not reveal his sources — and the local police union is calling for his resignation as a result.

Prominent Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri was arrested on Wednesday on charges of “terrorism and economic sabotage,” in a case that rights groups claim is politically motivated.  

The mainstream media have accused President Donald Trump of endangering journalists and press freedom by criticizing “fake news” — but were largely silent as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) launched an attack on Fox News on Tuesday.

San Francisco authorities have cracked down on journalist Bryan Carmody for refusing to reveal the source or sources who leaked damaging information about the death of a popular public defender.

A former Fox News executive says he will not cooperate with House Democrats’ effort to exercise “oversight” over the network’s editorial decisions.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling on Tuesday that would require the Turkish government to compensate the owner of Ozgur Gundem, a Kurdish newspaper shuttered by government action after the unsuccessful coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the summer of 2016.

American journalist Cody Weddle was released by the Maduro regime and expelled from Venezuela on Wednesday night after spending ten hours in captivity. Weddle said his captors seemed particularly upset about a report he filed about rank-and-file Venezuelan soldiers preparing to switch their allegiance to internationally-recognized interim president Juan Guaido.

Freelance reporter Cody Weddle was reportedly detained on Wednesday by forces loyal to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Weddle’s home was allegedly raided and his Venezuelan colleague Carlos Camacho was arrested as well. U.S. officials noted the report and called on Maduro to release Weddle immediately.

Anchor Jorge Ramos of the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision and his team were deported from Venezuela on Tuesday after being held in detention Monday night and stripped of their equipment. The Univision crew was punished after Ramos asked dictator Nicolas Maduro a question he did not wish to answer.

An appeals court in Turkey on Tuesday upheld prison sentences for 14 reporters and executives from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Socialist tyrant Nicolas Maduro is cracking down hard on Venezuelan media in his bid to retain power, shutting down television stations and yanking radio hosts off the air if they dare to mention any number of banned topics, according to reports surfacing this weekend.

The topic of press freedom is much on the media’s mind as 2018 draws to a close. Much of the U.S. media believes it is suffering through uniquely dark times because President Donald Trump has been fiercely, often hyperbolically, critical of its work.

Press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (known by its French acronym RSF) released on Tuesday the 2018 edition of its annual “Worldwide Round-up of Journalists Killed, Detained, Held Hostage, or Missing in 2018.” The media immediately went crazy with the presence of the United States for the first time ever on the list of five most dangerous countries, even though the slain American journalists in question were killed by a deranged gunman and a falling tree, not agents of the government or a terrorist organization.

The Committee to Protect Journalists published its annual report on imprisoned journalists on Thursday, and perennial champion Turkey once again leads the league.

Time announced its “Person of the Year” award on Tuesday, presenting it to a clumsily-named entity called “The Guardians and the War on Truth.”

Free speech is increasingly imperiled as nations around the world turn to authoritarianism, which comes packaged as everything from iron-fisted dictatorial rule to coercive “progressivism.” One thing every brand of authoritarianism has in common is speech codes. Dissenting ideas dilute authority, so they must be suppressed. We should be thankful for the free speech that remains, and rise from our Thanksgiving tables prepared to fight for it.

Polish President Andrzej Duda slammed German press after being asked about Polish freedom, apparently citing the lack of immediate reporting of the Cologne New Year’s Eve sex attacks of 2015.

Activist and citizen journalist Tommy Robinson’s contempt of court case has been referred to the Attorney General “for a proper and thorough” examination.

Transgender activists have picketed and attacked a newspaper’s offices with smoke bombs after it printed an ad opposed to letting biological men ‘self-identify’ as women.

The Washington Post on Tuesday published the final column submitted by Jamal Khashoggi’s assistant before Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He has not been seen or heard from since.

(AFP) — Britain, France and Germany insisted Sunday that “light must be shed” on the whereabouts of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as they called for a credible investigation into his disappearance.

A bipartisan group of senators wrote to the White House on Wednesday invoking the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to demand an investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and possible sanctions against Saudi Arabia.

Over a dozen Hong Kong lawmakers staged a protest in the legislature on Wednesday, chanting “Protect press freedom!” and holding up placards reading “Free Press, No Persecution,” until security guards escorted them from the chamber.

Ankara – Turkey’s president has demanded Saudi officials prove their claim that missing journalist and Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as the US called for a thorough probe into his disappearance.

Jean-Claude Juncker has said that press freedom should “have limits” and expressed regret that the EU did not “intervene” in the Brexit referendum to make sure “the right questions” entered the debate. 

HONG KONG (AP) – Britain has expressed concern over freedom of speech in its former colony Hong Kong after authorities refused to renew the work visa of a senior editor of the Financial Times.