News

November 01, 2025 - USA -  The White House Correspondents' Association and other press‐freedom groups are raising serious concerns after the White House issued a memo restricting accredited journalists from freely entering Room 140 (the “Upper Press” area) in the West Wing without a scheduled appointment. The space houses senior communications officials—including Karoline Leavitt, press secretary—and the new policy, attributed to structural changes in the National Security Council (NSC), holds that the communications staff now routinely handles sensitive material. The NSC memo states the change is needed “to protect such material, and maintain coordination between...

November 01, 2025 - General -  In a new call to action, the United Nations has spotlighted the growing dangers faced by journalists covering conflict zones and critical societal issues, emphasizing that the majority of assaults remain unpunished. The report highlights how reporters are often caught between lethal hazards and digital threats, yet perpetrators continue to act with impunity. The insight emerged during the UN’s annual observance of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. Across battlefields, documentation crews are deliberately targeted; some are even abducted or killed while striving to document...

October 31, 2025 - General - In a strongly worded statement dated 30 October 2025, the Committee to Protect Journalists emphasizes that the dramatic rise in violence against media workers demands radical structural reforms, not just symbolic observances. The organization notes that the number of journalists killed, abducted, or subject to enforced disappearance is reaching unprecedented levels, yet accountability mechanisms remain fragmented and weak. CPJ highlights that many countries routinely fail to launch meaningful investigations into attacks on journalists, fostering a climate of impunity that emboldens perpetrators and chills press freedom. The statement underscores how...

October 31, 2025 - Pakistan - In a serious assault on press freedom in Pakistan, authorities in Rawalpindi intercepted a contract killing plot targeting journalist Tahir Naseer of DawnNewsTV. A police investigation revealed three suspects had been hired for Rs 200,000 (approximately USD 500) to assassinate him. They had observed his residence for three days, and one procured a weapon, and the group had already received Rs 99,000 in their bank account. The plot came to light when the investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Nabeel Haider, confirmed the contracted nature of the crime. The suspects were arrested...

October 31, 2025 - General -  The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reaffirmed on 31 October 2025 that ending impunity for crimes against journalists is a collective global duty. The statement, issued ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) on 2 November, denounced ongoing violence and intimidation against media workers and reiterated the demand for a binding international treaty guaranteeing journalists’ safety. The IFJ’s communiqué pointed out that despite the IDEI having been observed for more than a decade, attacks on journalists continue to rise. It highlighted that reporters...

October 30, 2025 - Philippines - Following the powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu on September 30, 2025, local journalists who had rushed to document the disaster are now confronting a different kind of aftershock—the emotional trauma of covering widespread destruction, loss, and fear. A recent report by Rappler reveals how those tasked with informing the public during the crisis have been left grappling with their own mental scars. In the hours after the quake, journalists from Cebu-based newsrooms and local stations were among the first to arrive at collapsed structures and makeshift evacuation centers....

October 30, 2025 - South Africa -  At Rhodes University’s campus in Makhanda, South Africa, journalism students and faculty held a dedicated month-long memorial to honor the journalists killed while reporting on the conflict in Gaza. The initiative concluded on 23 October 2025 with a candlelight service and a visual tribute of over 270 CDs suspended from campus trees—each representing a journalist lost in the war zone. The tribute was organized by the university’s School of Journalism and Media Studies and included a documentary screening, student-led vox-pop interviews, and a silent walk alongside the photographs...

October 30, 2025 - Syria/USA -  Thirteen years after American journalist Austin Tice vanished in Syria, new testimony uncovered by CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward has reignited questions about his fate and the extent of Syrian government involvement in his disappearance. The report, released on October 28, 2025, takes viewers deep into Lebanon and the edges of war-torn Syria, where Ward confronts two men who claim to hold knowledge of what happened to Tice—one a former Syrian general, the other a regime insider. Austin Tice, a freelance journalist and former U.S. Marine, disappeared near...

October 29, 2025 - Palestine -  Palestinian journalist Mohammed Al-Muneerawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Al-Muneerawi, who worked with the Falasteen newspaper, was among the last journalists still reporting from the devastated enclave. His death brings the number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023 to 256, according to the Gaza Government Media Office and medical sources. The strike that killed Al-Muneerawi came amid a fresh wave of bombardments that have persisted despite the ceasefire declared earlier in...

October 29, 2025 - Senegal -  In the early hours of October 28 and 29, 2025, authorities in Dakar carried out coordinated raids on the private television station 7TV and broadcaster RFM, resulting in the arrest of five journalists, including the station owner Maimouna Ndour Faye and producer Bamba Touré. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that as of the statement date, these two remained in custody and called for their immediate release. The raids reportedly came amid heightened tensions between independent media outlets and the Senegalese government. The detained journalists are accused of...

October 29, 2025 - Serbia -  According to the press-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 89 physical attacks against journalists were recorded in Serbia over the past year as they covered nationwide protests triggered by a fatal railway station collapse. The protests began after the canopy above a railway station platform in northern Serbia collapsed on November 1, 2024, resulting in the deaths of 16 people. Since then, media professionals documenting the unrest have faced an unprecedented wave of reports of assault, interference, and intimidation. RSF notes that nearly half of these attacks...

October 29, 2025 – Iran/Russia – Two men, Rafat Amirov (46) and Polad Omarov (41), are set to be sentenced in a federal court in Manhattan after being convicted earlier this year of plotting to kill Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn residence. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms of up to 55 years for both men, arguing the plot advanced to a perilously close stage of execution. They contend that both defendants, described as senior figures in a faction of the Russian mob known as the Gulici, were motivated by financial...

October 29, 2025 – Vietnam – A journalist working for the BBC has been prevented from leaving Vietnam and endured multiple days of questioning by state authorities following a trip to renew their passport and visit family. Since August, the reporter — a Vietnamese national based in Thailand — has been unable to depart the country due to the detention of both their renewed passport and identity card by Vietnamese officials. According to sources familiar with the case, Vietnamese security personnel interrogated the journalist for an extended period, probing the nature of their reporting work....

October 28, 2025 - Azerbaijan -  Exiled Azerbaijani journalist Parvana Gurbanli has delivered a stark warning about the state of media freedom in her home country, declaring that if she were still in Azerbaijan today, she would “probably be in prison.” Her remarks came in a recent in-depth interview with the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and provide a rare, personal window into the mounting pressure on independent journalism under the rule of Ilham Aliyev. Gurbanli recounts a police raid on her apartment after she published investigative reporting that exposed corruption and...

October 29, 2025 - Mexico/USA -  Mario Guevara, a Salvadoran-born journalist based in Atlanta, was deported to El Salvador on 3 October 2025 after spending about 100 days in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising deep concerns among press-freedom and civil-rights advocates. Guevara had lived in the United States for more than two decades and built a prominent Spanish-language reporting presence focusing on immigration enforcement in Georgia. After covering an anti-Trump “No Kings Day” protest in June 2025, he was arrested by local police and subsequently handed over to ICE, despite...

October 28, 2025 - Ecuador - The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the killing of community journalist Álex Fernando Álvarez Vera, 28, who was shot dead while playing football with friends in Salitre, a canton in Ecuador’s Guayas Province, on October 28. The incident occurred at a municipal sports ground when an assailant reportedly approached him near the goal area, fired a shot, and fled the scene. Alvarez Vera served as the administrator of a local Facebook news page and was recognised for his community-level reporting on regional issues. RSF’s statement...

October 28, 2025 - Senegal -  At a regional conference held in Dakar under the aegis of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the governments of Mauritania, Liberia, and The Gambia formally backed the RSF-initiated “Dakar Declaration on the Right to Information in the Sahel”. The declaration seeks to enshrine the right of citizens within the Sahel region to access reliable information and to enable a freer press environment—especially critical in the face of security challenges, conflict-driven instability, and threats to media independence. This marks a notable step for the three signatory states, signaling a willingness to...

October 28, 2025 - USA/Syria - American freelance journalist and former Marine officer Austin Tice disappeared in Syria in August 2012 while reporting on the country’s civil war. He entered the Damascus suburb of Darayya, intending to travel onward, but was stopped at a checkpoint and has not been seen in public since. Tice, a decorated veteran and Georgetown University alumnus, transitioned into journalism after his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He aimed to document stories from conflict zones, including Syria, where press freedoms were rapidly being eroded. Shortly after his disappearance, a brief...

October 28, 2025 – Yemen – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Houthis to immediately release Yemeni journalist Majed Zayed and writer Oras Al‑Iryani, both of whom have been missing since late September following their arrests in the capital, Sana’a. According to the IFJ, Zayed—a freelance contributor to several independent outlets in Yemen—was seized on September 23 while leaving a medical center in Sana’a. Al-Iryani was abducted the day before, apparently in connection with his public commentary mocking social and political conditions under Houthi rule. Both detentions occurred amid a broader...

October 28, 2025 – Palestine – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has renewed its call for a thorough, independent, and transparent investigation by the U.S. into the killing of veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera, who was shot dead while covering a military operation on May 11, 2022, in the occupied West Bank. The call comes after a former U.S. military official alleging that a U.S.-led inquiry was softened to favor Israeli military narratives. That official, Steve Gabavics, claimed he and others concluded the killing was intentional, but that...

October 28, 2025 – Botswana – A dramatic incident unfolded at the Mmegi–reported hearing inside the Broadhurst Magistrates’ Court, Botswana, when photojournalist Moreri Sejakgomo was physically attacked by an accused person moments after the hearing had adjourned. According to eyewitnesses cited by Mmegi, the accused, whose matter the court had just heard, charged at Sejakgomo in a rage, assaulted him, damaged his camera equipment, and uttered death threats. The episode occurred within a courtroom after proceedings ended, exposing glaring security deficiencies in a space expected to uphold fairness and safety. Mmegi’s editorial board condemned the...

October 28, 2025 – Sudan – Sudanese freelance journalist Muammar Ibrahim, a regular contributor to Al Jazeera Mubasher, has been detained by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, North Darfur, amid the group’s takeover of the city. Ibrahim was among the few reporters still inside El Fasher during the RSF-sustained siege, capturing the worsening humanitarian conditions under heavy bombardment, communications blackouts, and lack of access to essentials for more than 200,000 civilians. Video footage first shared on RSF-linked social media shows Ibrahim surrounded by RSF fighters shortly after the group announced it...

October 28, 2025 - Egypt -  On 24 September, the Egyptian freelance investigative journalist and social science researcher Ismail Alexandrani (alternatively spelled Al-Iskandarani) was apprehended by state security agents while passing through a checkpoint between Marsa Matruh and Cairo, and immediately taken blindfolded—a detail his lawyer interprets as evidence that his prior reporting on the Sinai region was targeted. He is currently being held in pre-trial detention at the Tenth of Ramadan Prison, on the outskirts of Cairo. Prosecutors charged Alexandrani with allegedly “spreading false news,” “belonging to a terrorist organization,” and operating a website...

October 28, 2025 - Palestine/USA -  In a fresh and sharply contested turn in the case of Shireen Abu Akleh—the Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera who was killed on May 11, 2022, while covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank town of Jenin refugee camp—a retired US military officer who led a US investigation now publicly claims the shooting was intentional. Colonel Steve Gabavics, a veteran of the US military police and former Guantánamo commander, told the New York Times his team concluded that the Israeli sniper who fired the...

October 27, 2025 - Mexico -  Mexican journalist Miguel Ángel Beltrán was discovered murdered along a highway in the state of Durango on October 26, 2025. His body was wrapped in a blanket and left at the side of the road between Durango and Mazatlán, accompanied by a cardboard message accusing him of “spreading false accusations against the people of Durango.” Beltrán had recently shifted from print to social-media journalism, posting under the TikTok handle “Capodgo7” and via his Facebook page La Gazzetta Durango. His final posts included coverage of the arrest of a gang...