The Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan, was jailed in 2013 for reporting on anti-government protests. Today, after almost six years, he was finally released. 'I feel like I am flying,' he said as he was reunited with family and friends
Continue reading...Category Archives: Journalist safety
Life in the shadow of al-Shabaab: ‘If I don’t call, my mother thinks I’m dead’
The extremist group’s enduring influence in Mogadishu makes the Somali capital a dangerous place to live and work
Once every other month, journalist Hassan Dahir, 28, leaves his hostel in central Mogadishu under the cover of darkness to visit his mother in Yaqshid district, north-east of the capital.
He will spend the night with her and return to his rented room before dawn.
Continue reading...Maria Ressa: editor of Rappler news website arrested on ‘cyber-libel’ charges
Philippines president Duterte government accused of shameless persecution
The editor of an online newspaper in the Philippines has been arrested on charges of cyber-libel as part of what the country’s journalists’ union said was a campaign of intimidation against voices critical of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Speaking from the headquarters of news website Rappler on Wednesday before she was taken away by four plainclothes officers, Maria Ressa said she was not intimidated. “These legal acrobatics show how far the government will go to silence journalists, including the pettiness of forcing me to spend the night in jail,” she added.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary condemns attack on BBC cameraman at Trump rally
A man was seen shoving BBC cameraman Ron Skeans before being pulled away, according to a BBC video
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned an attack on a BBC cameraman by a supporter of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas.
Asked whether it was acceptable for Trump to whip up his fans to the point that a cameraman was attacked, Hunt told Sky News: “It is never acceptable when journalists and cameramen are attacked just for doing their job.“
Continue reading...UN executions expert to visit Turkey to lead Khashoggi inquiry
Investigation comes as Saudi efforts to normalise relations with west move on to Davos
A UN expert on executions is to travel to Turkey next week to lead an “independent international inquiry” into the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she would evaluate the circumstances of the crime and “the nature and the extent of states’ and individuals’ responsibilities for the killing”. She will report on the findings from her five-day visit to the UN human rights council in June.
Continue reading...Nicaraguan journalist flees to Costa Rica after police raid newsroom
Carlos Fernando Chamorro goes into exile citing President Ortega’s media crackdown
Nicaragua’s best-known journalist has gone into exile after armed police raided and ransacked his newsroom in what experts called the latest chapter of the country’s slide into autocracy under President Daniel Ortega.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of Confidencial, a combative newsletter and website and a member of one of Nicaragua’s most influential families, announced his decision on Sunday.
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