Media Tracker lists the challenges and achievements of the journalists and media organisations worldwide. Here’s a list of journalism at risk stories in the recent month. We would like to thank international media protection organisation and news outlets for their content.
- A Kyrgyz court upholds a life sentence for investigative reporter Azimjon Askarov, who has been jailed since 2010. The ruling ignores findings by the U.N. Human Rights Committee that the journalist is arbitrarily detained, has been tortured, and should be freed. (CPJ)
- The speaker of the Parliament and other leading lawmakers recently filed a complaint with Egypt‘s general prosecutor demanding a state investigation of Ibrahim Eissa, Editor daily Al-Maqal, on charges of “insulting the parliament.” He has been accused of publishing a series of satirical headlines in the newspaper criticising the parliament and government for their political an economic decisions. The journalist is known for his sharp and often irreverent critique of authorities in his decades-long career. (CPJ)
- Eritrea has been a dictatorship for over two decades. In this period the space for a free journalism has suffered immensely. At least 15 journalists are currently detained, some of them held incommunicado. President Issayas Afeworki controls the media expression with iron hands. “Those who think there will be democracy in this county can think so in another world,” he recently said. Eritrea has been ranked last in RSF’s press freedom index for the past eight years. (RSF)
- A reporter and editor for The Independent, Justin Brake, faces criminal charges for being the only reporter to cover the Indigenous protest and occupation of the Muskrat Falls, Newfoundland Canada, hydroelectric project site in October 2016. In his struggle for public’s right to know, Brake faces two criminal charges—(1) “mischief relating to a testamentary instrument or property greater than 5,000” and (2) “unlawfully disobeying an order of the Court”—that carry a maximum ten years in prison. (CJFE)
- Nazım Babaoğlu was a young correspondent for the pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem in the southeastern city of Urfa to disappear without trace on 12 March 1994. No credible investigation has ever been conducted in the time until now. At the time, working with the newspaper was extremely dangerous, as fighting went on between government forces and PKK-led Kurdish rebels in the 1990s. Babaoğlu’s case is typical of the impunity that was awarded for the mass crimes committed by the forces during 1990s, including the murders of a score of journalists. (RSF)