Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 68 journalists and media workers killed since 7 October

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict.

The New York-based CPJ said at least 68 journalists and other media workers had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon since the Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

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Russian American journalist Masha Gessen put on Kremlin’s wanted list

Prominent journalist – who lives in the US – was placed on the list after discussing atrocities committed in Ukraine by Russian forces

Russian police have put prominent Russian American journalist and author Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.

It is the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown against dissent in Russia that has intensified since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine more than 21 months ago, on 24 February 2022.

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Almost 100 journalists killed and 400 imprisoned in 2023, says report

International Federation of Journalists says 68 killed covering Israel-Hamas war, more than in any other conflict in over 30 years

A leading organisation representing journalists worldwide has expressed deep concern at the number of media professionals killed around the globe doing their jobs in 2023, with more journalists killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years.

In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned.

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Fears raised after Hong Kong journalist fails to return from China trip

Minnie Chan has reportedly been out of contact since travelling to Xiangshan Forum a month ago

Friends and colleagues of a Hong Kong journalist have raised concerns after she failed to return from a defence and security forum in Beijing a month ago.

Minnie Chan, a reporter for the South China Morning Post, has not been in contact since she went to the Xiangshan Forum, Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Thursday. Chan filed several stories from the forum, the most recent of which was published on 2 November.

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Nine men to be tried for murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries

Hearing to start in January in case of journalist shot in the street in 2021 who was adviser to a witness in trial of a Dutch drug baron

Nine men suspected of the murder of prominent Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries will go on trial in January, a Dutch court has announced, with a verdict expected by the summer.

De Vries was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street on 6 July 2021, shortly after leaving a TV studio where he had appeared as a guest on a programme.

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Five Mexican journalists shot and injured in one day as violence deepens

Four photojournalists shot in Guerrero state and reporter in Michoacán, where battles between cartels and local gangs rage

Five Mexican journalists have been shot and wounded in a single day, in the worst day of violence against the country’s press in more than 10 years.

In one of the attacks on Tuesday, four photojournalists were shot near a military barracks in the southern Guerrero state after they returned from a crime scene. They had been covering one of the many homicides that occur on a near-daily basis in the city of Chilpancingo. State prosecutors said they consider it a case of attempted murder.

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Kidnappers free two of three journalists taken in Mexico, group says

Silvia Arce and Alberto Sánchez, who were kidnapped on Wednesday, freed unharmed

Two of three journalists recently kidnapped in southern Mexico have been freed unharmed, the journalists’ international free-speech group Article 19 said in a statement on Saturday.

Silvia Arce and Alberto Sánchez, who lead the digital RedSiete platform, were released during the early hours of the morning, the organisation said.

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Israel-Hamas war is deadliest conflict on record for reporters, says watchdog

The IDF’s offensive in Gaza has killed 48 members of the press and caused a ‘news blackout’, says Committee to Protect Journalists

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has produced the deadliest month for journalists since statistics began more than three decades ago, and created a news blackout in the embattled territory, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

The reporters’ watchdog has recorded the deaths of 48 reporters since Hamas embarked on a murderous killing spree in Israel on 7 October, triggering a concerted Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response.

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Photographer shot dead in fifth journalist killing in Mexico in 2023

Body of Ismael Villagómez found in a car as the Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the killing to be investigated

A photographer for a newspaper in the notoriously violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was found shot dead in the driver’s seat of a car, prosecutors said, in the fifth killing of a journalist in the country so far in 2023.

The body of Ismael Villagómez was found just after midnight Thursday. The newspaper he worked for, the Heraldo de Juarez, said the news photographer was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. In Mexico, many journalists take work outside the profession to pay the bills.

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Philippines radio journalist shot dead during live broadcast

Killer of Juan Jumalon, 57, pretended to be a listener to enter home studio in Misamis Occidental province

A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook.

The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news broadcaster known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province, police said.

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Al Jazeera journalist who lost his family in Gaza airstrike returns to work

Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, children and grandson were killed in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Tuesday

Israel and Hamas at war – live updates

An Al Jazeera correspondent has returned to work just days after his entire immediate family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in the strike late on Tuesday. They had moved to a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza following Israel’s warning on 13 October.

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Al Jazeera says Israeli airstrike killed the family of its Gaza correspondent

The wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael al-Dahdouh, the bureau chief in Gaza, were targeted at a relief camp, outlet says

An Al Jazeera correspondent is mourning the loss of his entire immediate family after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

The family of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, had moved to a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza after Israel’s warning on 13 October to those in the northern half of the territory to leave.

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Russian-American journalist detained in Russia for violating foreign agents law

Alsu Kurmasheva reportedly detained due to Radio Free Europe coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for Ukraine invasion

A Russian-American journalist has been detained in Russia on charges of violating its foreign agents law, reportedly due to her coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for its invasion of Ukraine.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s (RFE-RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, was detained on Wednesday by masked Russian law enforcement agents.

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Shelling on south Lebanon border kills one journalist and injures six

Shell, reportedly Israeli, struck group of international journalists covering clashes at border

A group of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon have been hit by shelling, with one killed and six injured. The Associated Press and Al Jazeera said the weapon was an Israeli shell.

Reuters said: “We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer Issam Abdallah has been killed. Issam was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon who was providing a live signal. Our thoughts are with their families at this terrible time.”

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Delhi police search journalists’ homes in latest raids on media

Search also carried out on office of news website under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China

Police have carried out early morning raids on a news portal office and the homes of almost 50 journalists, activists and comedians across India under anti-terrorism laws, deepening concerns over a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.

Delhi police carried out the searches on numerous locations on Tuesday morning. Several journalists were detained, with their phones and laptops confiscated, and some were taken in for questioning. Delhi police confirmed that two journalists had been arrested in the case.

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Trial of Chinese #MeToo journalist and labour rights activist begins in secret

Huang Xueqin, a feminist who was due to move to UK, and Wang Jianbing charged with ‘inciting subversion of state power’

The trial of two prominent activists detained since 2021 has begun in secret in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, in a case that has attracted widespread attention to Beijing’s repression of civil society.

Huang Xueqin, a feminist activist and journalist who covered China’s #MeToo movement, and Wang Jianbing, a labour rights activist, were detained in Guangzhou in September 2021, shortly before Huang was due to move to the UK to study at the University of Sussex. The pair were charged with “inciting subversion of state power” the following month. The charge normally carries a sentence of up to five years, although terms can be longer in cases deemed severe.

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Eastern Libya orders journalists out of flood-hit Derna after protests

Media crackdown follows reports that police officers had detained and questioned Libyan reporters

Libya’s eastern government has ordered journalists to leave Derna after angry protests against the authorities a week after a flood killed thousands of residents.

Hundreds of people gathered on Monday outside Sahaba mosque in the city, chanting slogans. Some sat on its gold-domed roof. Later in the evening, a crowd set fire to the house of the man who was Derna’s mayor at the time of the disaster, Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi.

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Iran jails two female journalists over ‘conspiracy and collusion’

Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi receive three-year sentences but will spend about a month in prison

Two female Iranian journalists will spend about a month in prison as part of a three-year partly suspended sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported on Sunday.

Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi will serve one-fortieth of the term, or less than a month, in prison, their lawyer, Amir Raisian, told the reformist Ham Mihan daily newspaper, where Mohammadi works.

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Secret inquiry looking at police spying claims on Northern Ireland journalists

Tribunal investigating lawfulness of 2013 PSNI actions after complaint by Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey

A secretive tribunal is looking into allegations that UK authorities spied on investigative journalists in Northern Ireland to identify their sources.

The investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) is examining a complaint by two journalists who asked the body to find out whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them.

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Biden ‘serious’ on prisoner swap for US reporter Evan Gershkovich

Biden says process ‘under way’ to free Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia and accused without evidence of spying

Joe Biden has said he is serious about pursuing a prisoner exchange for the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days, and claimed the process was “under way”.

“I’m serious on a prisoner exchange,” Biden told reporters on Thursday when asked about Gershkovich’s continued detention in Russia.

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