News

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...

November 20. 2024 - Russia/Ukraine -  As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine entered its 1,000th day on November 20, 2024, data from IFEX and Media-Azi reveals a chilling statistic: at least 13 journalists have been killed while on assignment, underlining the perilous environment for frontline reporting. Of these fatalities, some were victims of indiscriminate shelling, while others appear to have been deliberately targeted. Notable cases include Arman Soldin of Agence France‑Presse, killed by a rocket near Chasiv Yar in May 2023, and Oksana Baulina, struck by Russian shelling in Kyiv in March 2022. Yet the...

November 20, 2024 - Palestine - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has strongly condemned the continued killing of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces, particularly in the Gaza Strip. In its latest statement, MADA denounced the targeted airstrike that killed four journalists in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on March 15, 2025. The journalists—Bilal Abu Matar, Bilal Akila, Mahmoud Yahya Al-Saraj, and Mahmoud Salim Eslaim—were working with the Al-Khair International Foundation and had been documenting humanitarian efforts at a local shelter when their vehicle was struck. All four were killed instantly despite being...

November 20, 2024 - Palestine - Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Attar, who was severely wounded while covering the war in Gaza, has been successfully evacuated to Jordan for urgent medical treatment. The transfer, completed on June 20, 2025, was coordinated by the Jordanian government in cooperation with Al Jazeera Media Network, following growing calls for immediate humanitarian intervention. Al-Attar, injured during an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, was one of the few journalists remaining on the frontlines of the besieged enclave. His condition was reported as critical after he sustained serious shrapnel wounds...

19 November 2024 - Palestine - In a mother-and-child tragedy amid escalating Israeli bombardment in Gaza, a Palestinian journalist was severely injured — though not killed — and an infant lost their life in a single strike on June 28, 2025. According to reports from Middle East Eye and the state news agency WAFA, the strike targeted a residential area in southern Gaza City. The injured journalist, still alive but gravely wounded, had been covering the conflict; his evacuation and treatment were underway as of the latest update. This incident draws renewed attention to the...

November 19, 2024 - Russia/Ukraine - After 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian journalists are pressing on despite escalating threats, according to IPI, ECPMF, and IMI data. IPI’s assessment underscores the intense risks: at least 13 media workers killed in combat reporting, countless journalist injuries, and well over 1,000 documented media-freedom violations, including cyberattacks, censorship, and surveillance. The death toll includes frontline reporters like Arman Soldin and Oksana Baulina, many victims of indiscriminate shelling or suspected extrajudicial executions. ECPMF and Media Freedom Rapid Response partner statements mark 19 November 2024...

November 19, 2024 - Palestine - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has raised serious alarm at recent Israeli actions portraying Palestinian journalists in Gaza as “terrorists.” Director‑General Thibaut Bruttin, speaking in Geneva, condemned this as a deliberate effort by Israeli defense forces to recast frontline reporters—many of whom wear press vests and are civilians—as legitimate military targets. Bruttin described the trend as deeply troubling and unprecedented. He stressed that Gaza is essentially inaccessible to international media, meaning local journalists are “civilians at risk and journalists that might be targeted.” Labeling them terrorists makes it easier to...

November 19, 2024 - Mozambique - In the wake of Mozambique’s disputed October 2024 elections, the once relatively secure environment for journalists has crumbled, thrusting media workers into a perilous landscape of violence, intimidation, and legal harassment. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least nine journalists—both local and foreign—have been detained, while two international reporters expelled and Internet shutdowns further crippled independent reporting. On November 14 in Maputo, police apprehended South African journalists Bongani Siziba and Sbonelo Mkhasibe, along with local state broadcaster reporter Charles Mangwiro, detaining them in masked, militarized facilities. They were blindfolded, interrogated...

November 18, 2024 - Turkey - Furkan Karabay, a court reporter for 10Haber, was arrested on several occasions in Turkey due to his investigative reporting and outspoken social media commentary on judicial and political figures. Most recently, he was detained on May 15, 2025, under charges of “targeting public officials involved in counter‑terrorism” and “insulting” President Erdoğan, connected to his reporting on the arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. This arrest followed a prior conviction in April 2025 for defamation and insulting the president, which resulted in a deferred sentence of 25 months. Similarly,...

November 18, 2024 - China -  The ongoing national security trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has become a stark symbol of Hong Kong’s diminishing press freedoms under Beijing’s tightening grip. Charged with “collusion with foreign forces” and “conspiracy to produce seditious publications,” Lai faces the possibility of life imprisonment. His prosecution stems from his media work and meetings with international officials, including U.S. lawmakers, which authorities allege were attempts to seek sanctions against China. The trial, which began in December 2023 and has stretched for over 140 days, has...

November 18, 2024 - Palestine - Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, speaking at a press conference, praised the courageous work of Palestinian journalists amid the ongoing Gaza war. He emphasized their critical role in "publishing the facts that the occupation tried to hide," documenting child casualties, hospital bombings, starvation tactics, and forced displacement—efforts he said were vital for preserving truth and holding Israel accountable.. He highlighted that these journalists courageously brought Gaza's narrative and humanitarian realities to the world, under extremely dangerous conditions. The remarks reinforced President Mahmoud Abbas’s support for the journalists, acknowledging the...

November 18, 2024 - Iran/Palestine -  Tehran hosted a poignant international summit titled “Assassination of Truth”, commemorating over 200 journalists from Gaza and Lebanon who were killed by Israeli fire in the past year. The emotionally charged event featured coverage by Iranian state media, including Press TV and Tehran Times. Iranian media figures—such as IRIB director Peyman Jebelli—spoke at the summit, offering tributes to the fallen reporters and repeating sentiments like Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s proclamation that “the time of victory has come”. Hundreds of local and international journalists, media activists, academics, and diplomats participated, paying...

November 17, 2024 - Palestine/Israel -  Amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza, international journalism organizations have united to spotlight the plight of Palestinian journalists and demand urgent protective measures. This global movement reflects growing concern over the deliberate targeting of media professionals amid Israel’s military operations. The Palestinian Information Center reported on November 17, 2024, that leading journalists in Gaza have intensified their reporting, spotlighting humanitarian crises such as hospital strikes and mass displacement. They emphasized the importance of keeping global attention on civilian suffering and Israel’s military tactics—a vital form of resistance against attempts...

November 17, 2024 - Palestine - Hiba Al‑Wahidi, the mother of Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi Al‑Wahidi, has launched a hunger strike to demand urgent medical evacuation for her critically injured son in Gaza. Fadi, one of the last remaining Al Jazeera field journalists in the besieged enclave, sustained severe injuries—reported to include paralysis—during Israeli military operations in northern Gaza. Local medical facilities have been overwhelmed, lacking the necessary resources to provide adequate care. In mid‑November 2024, Hiba began her hunger strike in Doha, where she traveled to raise international awareness of her son’s dire condition. She maintains...