Ethiopia’s historic strides toward democracy and openness have given journalists in the country hope for greater freedom to report the news
World Press Freedom day is celebrated on May 3 each year, but the realities faced by journalists in many parts of the world are increasingly hostile. A new report by an international media watchdog group says press freedoms deteriorated in 2019, fueled in part by increasing aggression toward journalists
The journalists, who were awarded a Pulitzer Prize last week for their Rohingya exposé, were sentenced in September 2018 after a lengthy series of hearings and a trial. They were not present at Tuesday’s hearing in Naypyidaw
The 2019 World Press Freedom Index report, conducted by Reporters Without Borders, said “authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media,” resulting in a “hatred of journalists” that has “degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear.”
Rights groups and diplomats have condemned the sentencing of the the reporters, saying their convictions have dealt a blow to freedom of the press in the developing democracy
Ranked 178th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan is a “black hole from which little news and information emerge and where the few independent journalists risk severe persecution,” the Paris-based media watchdog said
Chimengul Awut, an editor at the Kashgar Publishing House in the XUAR’s Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture, is one of 14 people who worked at the company to be detained at a political “re-education camp” since last year
Veteran Beijing journalist Li Xinde said many “market-oriented” papers are meeting the same fate, while papers under direct party or government control are subsidize by a system of compulsory subscriptions
Officials are charging journalists under Section 505(b) under Myanmar’s Penal Code and Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act, though they should be using the country’s Media Law to pursue complaints, especially for journalists who write about issues related to the government or the military
Soltani was first arrested over his reporting on municipal land deals in September 2016, after former Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and municipal council chairman Mehdi Chamran filed a lawsuit against him