News

October 26, 2025 - UK/USA -  A British journalist and political commentator, Sami Hamdi, was detained by U.S. federal authorities upon arrival at San Francisco airport, where officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed his visa revocation and ongoing custody. Hamdi, known for his outspoken criticism of both U.S. and Israeli policies regarding Gaza, was en route to speak at an event and was held amid what his supporters describe as coordinated pressure from far-right, pro-Israeli lobby groups. The Council on American‑Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the detention as a “blatant affront to free...

October 25, 2025 - Palestine -  The Gaza Strip has become one of the world’s most restricted zones for international journalism, as the State of Israel persistently bars foreign reporters and fact-finding teams in what Euro-Med describes as a “systematic policy to erase evidence of genocide and war crimes.” The organization states that journalists and independent investigators are routinely denied entry or removed from Gaza, while foreign forensic teams and autopsy specialists are prevented from accessing mass-death sites, critical equipment, and victims’ remains. This approach, Euro-Med says, aims to ensure that crime scenes are destroyed...

October 25, 2025 - General -  The International Press Institute (IPI) formally adopted a landmark resolution at its 75th General Assembly, calling on national governments to urgently expand safeguards and support mechanisms for journalists forced into exile. The resolution emphasizes that exile should not equate to silencing: journalists displaced by repressive regimes must be enabled to continue independent work, maintain safe connections with home-communities, and receive protection for themselves and their families. IPI’s policy document identifies three critical layers of action. First, states must prevent forced exile by strengthening domestic legal frameworks, guaranteeing a safe...

October 25, 2025 - Palestine/Turkey -  At the concluding session of the Gaza Tribunal held in Istanbul, Palestinian journalists, medical professionals, and witnesses gave powerful recorded testimony alleging deliberate attacks by Israeli forces on media workers, medical personnel, and non-combatants in the Gaza Strip. Among the journalists whose testimonies were presented were Mohammad Qraiqea and Hossam Shabat, both of whom were killed shortly after their recordings. Qraiqea said that “all the journalists, without exception, are under the threat of the Israeli attack.” He described burying his own mother following her death by shelling near Al-Shifa Hospital....

October 24, 2025 - Algeria/France - The appeal trial of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes has been set for 3 December 2025 by the Tizi Ouzou Court of Justice, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Gleizes was originally sentenced on 29 June to seven years’ imprisonment after being charged with “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing publications for propaganda harmful to national interest” linked to his reporting in Algeria. Gleizes, known for his work for publications such as So Foot and Society, was arrested on 28 May 2024 while researching the Algerian football club Jeunesse Sportive de...

October 24, 2025 - Afghanistan -  An Afghan journalist, Mohammad Agha Sailani, was released from police custody in Islamabad early on Thursday, marking a sudden reversal after his detention by Pakistani authorities. He had been held in connection with enforcement operations targeting undocumented Afghan refugees in Pakistan’s capital region. The detention had been strongly condemned by the Afghanistan Media Support Organization, which described it as a “grave violation of press freedom” and of the rights of refugee journalists. That group had called for Sailani’s immediate and unconditional release, noting that the Pakistani authorities provided no...

October 24, 2025 - Turkey -  Turkish authorities have opened investigations into several journalists covering the suspicious death of university student Rojin Kabaiş and blocked access to related media reports, raising serious concerns about press freedom and transparency. Kabaiş, a 21-year-old student at Yüzüncü Yıl University in Van, disappeared on 27 September 2024, and her body was found 18 days later on the shore of Lake Van. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but subsequent forensic work revealed DNA traces from two different men on her body, including one inside the vaginal area and...

October 24, 2025 - Ethiopia -  The Ethiopian Media Authority issued a letter on 23 October 2025 informing the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that it would temporarily suspend the accreditation of its Amharic-language local correspondents in Ethiopia. The authority alleged that the journalists had repeatedly violated Ethiopia’s broadcasting regulations—specifically referencing Proclamations 1238/2013 and 1185/2021—and failed to uphold professional ethics, coupled with warnings and discussions that the authority said had gone unheeded. According to published reports, the warning regime began when the authority summoned the reporters for feedback, issued verbal and written notices, and finally initiated...

October 24, 2025 - India - Veteran journalist Lakshmi Narayan Singh, 54, widely known as “Pappu,” was brutally killed on Thursday evening in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The attack took place near the Harsh Hotel, where Singh was ambushed by a group of assailants armed with a large knife. The attackers inflicted more than twenty deep wounds to his neck, abdomen, and arms before fleeing the scene. Singh, who was related to former High Court Bar Association president Ashok Singh, was rushed to Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital but died from his injuries shortly after arrival. Police...

October 24, 2025 - Sri Lanka/India -  The press-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued a public call urging Sri Lanka’s authorities to halt the systematic harassment of veteran Tamil photo-journalist Kanapathipillai Kumanan, who has long documented human-rights violations in the country’s northeast. Kumanan, based in the Mullaitivu district, has covered issues such as military land seizures, mass grave exhumations, and enforced disappearances affecting Tamil-speaking communities since the end of the civil war in 2009. According to RSF, the journalist has been subjected to a renewed campaign of intimidation that appears to be directly...

October 24, 2025 - USA -  Federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a public reprimand of Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt after he posted on X that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were operating on 26th Street in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin reposted the message and asked, “Why is a Chicago Tribune reporter telegraphing the location of federal law enforcement?” The episode quickly ignited criticism from press freedom advocates and journalism organizations, who argued the government’s framing risks suppressing legitimate...

October 24, 2025 - Lebanon -  Lebanese journalist Sami Kleib has cautioned that although officials are offering many assurances of stability, they may be misleading given what he perceives as an imminent escalation in Israeli military activity in Lebanon. He states that his sources suggest South Lebanon and other regions used by Hezbollah or considered its base of support are likely to face intensified operations from Israel. Kleib argues that instead of broad open warfare, Israel appears to be planning a calibrated plan of action aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s military-political capabilities. He expects a surge...

October 24, 2025 - General -  The International Press Institute (IPI) has announced its 2025 recipients of the Press Freedom Hero and Free Media Pioneer awards.  Among those honored is the late Palestinian photo-journalist Mariam Abu Dagga, recognized posthumously as one of this year’s Press Freedom Heroes. The Free Media Pioneer Award for 2025 goes to independent media outlets in Hungary, acknowledged for their inventiveness and perseverance under intensified political and economic pressures. Mariam Abu Dagga, who documented events in Gaza and contributed to major international news agencies, was killed in August 2025 while covering...

October 24, 2025 - Crimea -  Crimean-Tatar citizen journalist and political prisoner Amet Suleymanov, who is serving a 12-year sentence in a Russian maximum-security penal colony, has seen his health deteriorate rapidly under incarceration. His wife, Lilia Liumanova, reported that during her visit on 24 June 2025 to the detention facility in Vladimir, Russia, she observed dangerously elevated blood pressure reaching approximately 230 mmHg and visible bodily symptoms, including a widespread rash and dental problems. Suleymanov suffers from serious and chronic heart conditions, including arterial and mitral valve insufficiency, and had previously been recommended for...

October 23, 2025 - Russia -  Ukrainian journalist Anastasiia Hlukhovska has reportedly been held by Russian authorities for over two years without formal charges while enduring brutal treatment, an investigation by Slidstvo.Info revealed. On 20 August 2023, Hlukhovska was taken from her apartment in Melitopol by officers of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), who seized her electronic equipment and institutional records. Nevertheless, Russian authorities later claimed they had no information about her detention. Sources interviewed by Slidstvo.Info, including a fellow detainee who shared a cell with Hlukhovska in a basement facility...

October 23, 2025 - Palestine -  Palestinian journalist Plestia Alaqad has published her debut memoir, The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience, which draws directly from diary entries she wrote during the first 45 days of the 2023 Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip after the October 7 attack by Hamas. Her book opens a raw and immediate window on life under bombardment, displacement, and survival. At just 21 when the war broke out, Alaqad had already begun using social-media video dispatches to tell the world about daily life in Gaza. Then her narrative...

October 23, 2025 - Turkey -  Journalist Ercüment Akdeniz was ordered released from pre-trial detention by the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court, after spending roughly eight months (243 days) behind bars in connection with an investigation tied to the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK). Akdeniz had been detained since 21 February 2025 under charges that included alleged “membership in a terrorist organization”, linked to his reporting and association with HDK-linked persons. During his hearing on 23 October, the court released him under judicial control, imposing a travel ban rather than the continuation of his detention. The...

October 23, 2025 - Afghanistan -  An Afghan journalist named Javed Qureshi was arrested by Pakistani police in the city of Attock, as part of a broader enforcement campaign targeting undocumented Afghan refugees. According to an audio message recorded by Qureshi, he was taken into custody without prior notice by police in the Attock district. The detention occurs amid heightened tension along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border following recent clashes involving the Taliban and Pakistani security forces, which triggered an increase in round-ups and forced deportations of Afghans residing in Pakistan. Qureshi’s arrest is consistent with a...

October 23, 2025 - India -  India’s national human-rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has taken suo motu cognizance of media-reported assaults on journalists in three states — Kerala, Manipur, and Tripura. The incidents occurred on 30 August 2025 in Kerala and Manipur and on 21 September 2025 in Tripura. In each case, the journalist victims were hospitalized, and FIRs were filed. In Tripura, a journalist attending a clothes-distribution event organized by a political party in Hezamara, West Tripura, was attacked by a group wielding sticks and sharp weapons and had his motorcycle...

October 23, 2025 - Ukraine/Russia -  Two Ukrainian media workers, journalist Olena Hubanova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, were killed in a Russian drone strike in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. The attack, carried out using a Lancet-type unmanned aerial vehicle, targeted the area on a working day as they were carrying out their reporting duties for Freedom TV Channel. According to the regional military administration, the journalists died at the scene, and the incident is now under official investigation to determine further details, including whether they were deliberately targeted. The deaths of Hubanova and...

October 22, 2025 - Philippines - Radio broadcaster Noel Bellen Samar, 54, was ambushed Monday morning while driving along Maharlika Highway in Barangay Morera, Guinobatan, Albay province. The unidentified gunman fired at him, striking his chest and abdomen. Samar was transported to a Legazpi medical facility, but succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday after undergoing surgery. Samar worked with Kadunong ITV and DWIZ News FM – institutions that provide critical information across the Bicol region. His death was swiftly condemned by the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), which described the attack as not...

October 22, 2025 - Turkey -  A Turkish court has handed a 10-month suspended sentence to journalist Asuman Aranca for publishing parts of an expert report in the murder case of far-right figure Sinan Ateş. The sentence was given by the İstanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance; though the term was pronounced, it is suspended and will only be enforced if Aranca commits a similar offense within the next five years. The case centers on the December 30, 2022, killing of Sinan Ateş in Ankara. Ateş had been a former leader of the ultranationalist...

October 22, 2025 - Turkey -  Journalist Öznur Değer, the news editor of the Kurdish-women-run agency JINNEWS, has been sentenced by a Turkish court in Mardin to three years, four months, and fifteen days in prison. The conviction stems from indictments that accuse Değer of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” linked to her coverage and social-media commentary about a drone strike in northern Syria that killed two Kurdish journalists. Değer’s arrest came in February 2025 when anti-terror police raided her family home in the Kızıltepe district, detaining her without the presence of her lawyers....

October 21, 2025 - Palestine -  Palestinian journalist Ahmad Abu Mutayr was killed on 20 October 2025 in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, despite an active ceasefire agreement. Mutayr was reporting from the area when the attack occurred, marking yet another journalist casualty in a conflict that has claimed the lives of dozens of media workers. His body was later transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where colleagues, family members, and fellow journalists gathered to pay their respects. Mutayr’s death comes amid a growing outcry from international press freedom organizations, human rights monitors,...

October 21, 2025 - Palestine - A fragile ceasefire that began on 10 October 2025 has eased large-scale combat in Gaza and the West Bank, yet journalists in both areas continue to face severe dangers. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that despite reduced bombardments, attacks, arrests, and harassment of reporters persist. In Gaza, two journalists were killed and another was injured since the ceasefire took effect. One succumbed to gunfire amid internal armed clashes in Gaza City, and another died in an airstrike at a media production facility. Meanwhile, in the West Bank,...