International Press Institute (IPI)

In March, Axier López became the first journalist fined by Spain’s central government for taking photographs of a police officer.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in granting a request by the Turkish government, underscored that Germany viewed the deteriorating situation of press freedom in Turkey with “great concern”.

Dündar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Gül, the newspaper’s Ankara representative, face accusations of aiding a terrorist organisation, espionage and disclosure of classified documents for reports in Cumhuriyet claiming that Turkey’s intelligence agency secretly armed Islamist rebel groups in Syria.

A joint letter to Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev calling for review of recent state actions towards Seytkazy Matayev and the National Press Club.

According to reports, around 20 masked men wielding knives and clubs ambushed the journalists in their minibus as they attempted to cross from Ingushetia into neighbouring Chechnya together with representatives of a Russian anti-torture NGO.

“Turkey’s government appears to be willing to stop at no end to muzzle those who dare to criticise the policies of the president and the ruling AKP, much less those who point out alleged wrongdoing.”

Free expression organisations join the Media Foundation for West Africa in calling on African regional body to pressure The Gambia to release journalist Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay.

In a partial victory for media freedom, the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court invalidated provisions in the country’s press law criminalising defamation of government bodies and public officials, but declined to strike down criminal defamation more broadly.