Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Choc said police officers shoved him and confiscated his phone and microphone while he was attempting to cover the protests against mining. Guatemalan authorities should immediately drop criminal charges and stop using the country’s justice system to harass and silence the press.

“The press must be able to report freely and safely in regions like the Izabal department, which has become an increasingly dangerous place for journalists covering environmental and social issues in recent years” – CPJ.

Journalist Malcom Bernabé Paho was arrested for defaming a religious leader in a story, even though Cameroon’s communications regulator found nothing amiss with the offending article.

Le Van Dung, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, was convicted after a two-hour trial and sentenced to five years in prison and five subsequent years of probation for posting videos on social media that allegedly defamed the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Investigative journalist Paul Chouta was abducted by unknown assailants, driven to the outskirts of Cameroon’s capital city Yaounde and savagely beaten.

“President Castillo and his government must be mindful that anti-press rhetoric by high-level public officials is dangerous and can lead to real violence against journalists,” said the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Police have been on strike in Minas Gerais since late February, according to reports. “It is very clear there is a hostility against the press during these police officers’ protests, but this is not an isolated case,” a news director told CPJ.

Armando Linares and ‘Monitor Michoacán’ had received death threats over the outlet’s reporting on alleged corruption by state and municipal authorities. He confirmed to CPJ that he had been in contact with the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.