News

November 25, 2024 - USA - Eric Labarge, 46, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on November 25, 2024, for orchestrating a targeted harassment and vandalism campaign against journalists from New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) and their families. Labarge will also serve three years of supervised release, pay a $10,000 fine, and provide over $34,000 in restitution. His sentencing marks the conclusion of a chilling case that has drawn national attention to the growing threat of retaliation against investigative journalists. The harassment began shortly after NHPR reporter Lauren Chooljian co-authored a March 2022...

November 25, 2024 - Palestine/UN - A coalition of UN human rights experts issued a pressing appeal for the urgent medical evacuation of Fadi al‑Wahidi, a critically injured Al Jazeera cameraman in Gaza. The experts, including UN special rapporteurs on freedom of expression and the right to health, highlighted that al‑Wahidi sustained severe spinal injuries and paralysis after being shot in the neck during an Israeli military operation in October 2023. The UN statement stressed that al‑Wahidi continues to fight for his life in a Gaza hospital ill-equipped to address his serious condition. They warned that...

November 25, 2024 - Media -  In a controversial move that has drawn widespread condemnation, the Israeli Cabinet voted unanimously on November 24, 2024, to impose formal sanctions against Haaretz, the country's oldest and most internationally recognized newspaper. The decision, spearheaded by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, bars all government institutions from purchasing Haaretz, subscribing to its services, or engaging with its journalists in an official capacity. The government’s justification centers on recent remarks by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken, who during a press event in London sharply criticized Israel’s leadership, accusing it of operating an apartheid...

November 25, 2024 - Azerbaijan - Nargiz Absalamova, a 25-year-old investigative journalist with the independent outlet Abzas Media, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in Azerbaijan in what human rights groups are calling a politically motivated attack on press freedom. Her conviction stems from allegations of “smuggling foreign currency,” a charge that critics say was fabricated to punish her reporting on government corruption and civil unrest. Absalamova was arrested in November 2023 after covering environmental protests in Soyudlu, a village in western Azerbaijan. Authorities claimed that €40,000 in undeclared cash was found in...

November 25, 2024 - Lebanon/USA - An Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists and injured three others in southern Lebanon on October 25, 2024, may amount to a war crime, according to legal experts and press freedom advocates. The journalists—Ghassan Najjar and Mohammad Reda of al-Mayadeen, and Wissam Qassem of al-Manar—were asleep in a clearly marked press chalet in the Tayr Harfa area when the building was hit by two U.S.-manufactured JDAM bombs dropped by an Israeli warplane. Investigations by The Guardian, which included on-site visits, satellite analysis, and interviews with survivors, revealed that the...

November 25, 2024 - Lebanon/USA - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has concluded that the Israeli airstrike on October 25, 2024, which killed three journalists in southern Lebanon, likely constitutes a war crime. The investigation, backed by forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts, reveals that the journalists were deliberately targeted using a U.S.-supplied Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb guidance kit. The victims—Ghassan Najjar and Mohammad Reda from Al Mayadeen and Wissam Qassam from Al-Manar—were killed while resting in a marked press chalet in the village of Tayr Harfa. The building, situated far from any military activity,...

November 24, 2024 - Palestine – The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) has sharply criticized Israeli authorities for barring both Arab and foreign journalists from covering events in Gaza, denouncing it as a deliberate tactic to suppress media access amid the ongoing military offensive. According to a statement published by the Palestinian news agency WAFA on December 4, 2024, the PJS accused the Israeli occupation of engaging in a "systematic policy" designed to prevent accurate reporting and hinder global understanding of the situation on the ground. Citing reports from journalists stationed near the Gaza Strip, the...

November 23, 2024 - Palestine -  A Gaza media office confirmed that Wael Ibrahim Abu Quffa, a journalist and lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on November 23, 2024, raising the number of media professionals killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, to 189. Abu Quffa’s death is among the many cases that starkly illustrate the risks Palestinian journalists face in the conflict zone. This figure aligns with other regional sources, which reported the same toll and emphasized the accumulation of journalists killed since the war...

November 22, 2024 - Nigeria - Lead Advocacy at Gatefield and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) released alarming figures: nearly 70 journalists were arrested across Nigeria in 2024, double the number from the previous year. Shirley Ewang, spokesperson for Lead Advocacy, expressed deep concern during an Abuja event that highlighted a troubling atmosphere of intimidation that’s silencing journalists and curtailing public discourse. Christiana Longe of CJID stressed that despite constitutional protections under Sections 39 and 22 of the Nigerian Constitution, press freedom is under relentless pressure. She warned that daily threats, arbitrary arrests, and...

November 22, 2024 - Bangladesh - Bangladesh has witnessed a surge of violent and legal attacks against journalists, alarming press freedom advocates. According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), journalist Shahidul Islam—reporting for Khulna Gazette and News21 Bangla TV—was assaulted twice in one week in Rupsa Upazila. He was attacked by roughly 30 people wielding handheld weapons and required hospitalization. Around the same period, university journalist Mohammad Junayed Sheikh was also physically attacked on campus. In March 2025, two more journalists—N Amin Russell and Monirul Islam—were beaten while covering proceedings at Barishal Court; their...

November 22, 2024 - Europe - Analysts warn that the recent wave of threats and assaults against female journalists in the Balkans is symptomatic of a larger, international crisis in press freedom. The November 2024 VOA article details a surge in online harassment of women reporters in North Macedonia and a physical attack in Montenegro, underscoring persistent gender-targeted aggression within and beyond Southeast Europe. In North Macedonia, female correspondents have endured harsh verbal harassment and sexist threats across social media platforms. In Montenegro, a reporter was physically attacked while covering a political event—an alarming escalation...

November 22, 2024 - Philippines - Fifteen years on from the horrific Maguindanao (Ampatuan) Massacre—the world’s deadliest single attack on journalists—impunity remains deeply entrenched in the Philippines. On November 23, 2009, a convoy carrying the Family members of political rival Esmael Mangudadatu and 32 journalists was ambushed and brutally killed by gunmen linked to the powerful Ampatuan clan. In total, 58 individuals lost their lives, with at least 32 media professionals among the victims. In a public statement marking the massacre’s 15th anniversary, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the Philippine government to "take decisive...

November 22, 2024 - Colombia - Colombian journalist and radio presenter Steven Andrés Fajardo was shot and killed in the town of Doradal, Antioquia. Fajardo, who worked for the local station Triunfadora Stereo, was ambushed by unidentified assailants in broad daylight. His murder has triggered urgent calls for justice from international press freedom advocates and human rights organizations. Fajardo was known in the region for his community reporting and had previously survived a violent attack in 2018. His return to journalism, despite ongoing threats, underscored his commitment to serving the public. He was widely respected...

November 22, 2024 - Palestine/Lebanon - Since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, journalists—especially Palestinians—have faced unprecedented threats, making the conflict the deadliest for media workers in modern history. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 178 journalists and media workers have been killed, most of them in Gaza. The majority were Palestinians reporting under constant bombardment, with limited protective gear and no safe corridors. A CBC News investigation highlights that Israel has barred international journalists from independently entering Gaza throughout the conflict. Foreign reporters can only access the...

November 22, 2024 - China -  In a major escalation of Beijing’s crackdown, 45 members of the pro-democracy group known as the “Hong Kong 47” were sentenced in November 2024 under the national security law. Their alleged offense: organizing democratic primary elections in 2020 to nominate Legislative Council candidates, deemed a conspiracy to “subvert state power”. Sentences range from 4 years and 2 months to 10 years, with prominent figures like legal scholar Benny Tai receiving the longest at a decade. Significantly, three press-freedom defenders were among those imprisoned: media founder Frankie Fung, who received 4 years...

November 22, 2024 - General -  Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued a strong call urging governments around the world to implement legal frameworks that explicitly outlaw gender-based violence, especially targeting women in journalism. The IFJ emphasized that despite global awareness, violence against women journalists—ranging from sexual harassment to online abuse and physical attacks—remains widespread and largely unpunished. The IFJ highlighted that these threats are not isolated incidents but part of a systemic pattern rooted in gender inequality and...

November 21, 2024 - Nepal - In Nepal, the contrast between national celebration and national tragedy came sharply into focus this June. On the one hand, the government observed National Paddy Day with festive rice-planting ceremonies intended to symbolize agricultural renewal. On the other hand, Dalit journalist Suresh Bhul was murdered in a brutal act of caste-based violence that exposed deep fissures in Nepal’s social fabric. National Paddy Day was marked with symbolic gestures from top officials, including Agriculture Minister Beduram Bhusal, who participated in transplanting paddy in Bhaktapur. He assured farmers that fertilizer shortages...

November 21, 2024 - Media -  Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued an urgent appeal against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, characterizing it as “openly targeting media independence and pluralism” in Israel. The statement criticizes several alarming measures proposed or enacted by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and his cabinet, illustrating a concerted effort to curb critical voices within Israel’s media landscape. A major flashpoint included a government‑mandated boycott of Haaretz, Israel’s oldest and most respected left‑leaning newspaper. Officials were directed to cease all advertising, subscriptions, and any interaction with Haaretz for its persistent critical coverage of...

November 21, 2024 - Palestine - Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat was severely injured while covering the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City. As he reported from the rubble, a second strike hit the same location, inflicting wounds on Shabat and killing a first responder nearby. He later shared harrowing details on social media: “The moment I stepped inside, the house was bombed again, and dismembered body parts of the wounded flew around me”. Then, on March 24, 2025, tragedy struck again. Shabat, now 23, was killed when his vehicle in northern Gaza’s...

November 21, 2024 - China -  Selina Cheng, a veteran journalist and recently elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), is suing the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for what she alleges was an unlawful and politically motivated dismissal. Cheng was informed in July 2024 that her role in WSJ’s Hong Kong bureau had been eliminated due to restructuring. However, she contends the real motive was retaliation for her leadership of the HKJA—an organization that has increasingly come under pressure amid Hong Kong’s declining press freedoms. Cheng alleges that WSJ editors pressured her to...

November 21, 2024 - India - Investigative reporter and Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub has faced a renewed wave of cyber‑harassment after her personal phone number was leaked online on November 8, 2024. The number was reportedly posted by a right‑wing account on X named Hindutva Knight, run by a meme creator associated with a BJP-linked consultancy firm. In response, Ayyub received over 200 explicit WhatsApp messages, video calls, and even repeated OTP requests—while authorities, she says, have yet to take substantial action despite her cybercrime complaint. This episode follows chronic abuse. Ayyub has long...

November 20, 2024 - Haiti - As Haiti plunges deeper into chaos, journalists have become deliberate targets in the country’s spiraling gang violence. On November 11, 2024, reporter Wandy Charles narrowly escaped a shooting outside his home in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood that was taken over by armed gangs just hours later. Charles, who was with his family at the time, described the attack as calculated intimidation. Days earlier, on November 5, another journalist, Lookens Jean-Baptiste of Radio Tropic FM, had his home in Fort National torched by suspected gang members. The attackers allegedly justified the...

November 20, 2024 - Palestine - As international journalists leave Gaza, Palestinian reporters remain, and one of them was grievously wounded but survived. In October 2024, after Israel publicly labeled several Al Jazeera journalists as “terrorists” with the apparent intent to silence them, the few remaining media workers in northern Gaza came under intensified threat. In November 2024, during a double‑tap airstrike on a residential compound, one such Al Jazeera journalist was critically injured—a targeted blow in an operation that seemed directed at silencing frontline reporting. The strike came merely a month after the IDF publicly threatened...

November 20, 2024 - Turkey -  In mid‑November 2024, a coalition of international media freedom organizations—including the International Press Institute (IPI), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)—carried out a press freedom mission to Ankara. During meetings with Turkish judicial officials, government representatives, independent journalists, and diplomats, the mission raised alarm over draft amendments to Turkey’s espionage laws. Dubbed the “agents of influence” bill, the amendment would broaden espionage clauses to penalize individuals acting “in alignment with or under the direction of” foreign...

November 20, 2024 - USA - a small-town legal drama in Escambia County, Alabama, exposed alarming misuse of prosecutorial and police powers. School board member and Atmore News co-owner Sherry Digmon, reporter Don Fletcher, bookkeeper Ashley Fore, and fellow board member Cindy Jackson were arrested under accusations of “revealing grand jury secrets.” However, no actual grand jury had convened, exposing the claims as baseless. At the heart of the controversy was a political tussle over Superintendent Michele McClung’s contract renewal. When the board rejected her reappointment twice in 2023, District Attorney Stephen Billy and Sheriff...