Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

In its annual round-up of violations against journalists, RSF calls for a “response to match the emergency”.

Naji Jerf was gunned down in broad daylight in Gaziantep, where he had worked for the past three years. The founder and editor of the opposition magazine Henta, he had made several films about atrocities by both Islamic State and the Syrian government.

It took 13 months, 15 Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and a lawsuit for the city of Chicago to release the video of Laquan McDonald’s shooting by a police officer. This is only the latest example of a growing trend to restrict transparency and access to information concerning police brutality in the United States.

According to RSF’s tally of journalists held hostage, imprisoned or missing, 54 professional journalists – including one woman – are currently held hostage worldwide, a 35% increase since 2014.

Al-Tayar’s journalists think that the closure is a punishment for an editorial in which Editor-in-Chief Osman Mirghani criticized the finance minister’s announcement of caps on subsidies for fuel, electricity and wheat, and called for the minister’s resignation.

RSF is shocked by the severe beating that citizen-journalist and cyber-activist Nguyen Van Dai received from plainclothes policemen in the northern province of Nghe An on 6 December 2015, shortly after he participated in a discussion about human rights in Vietnam and the 2013 constitution.

IFEX members call for an immediate investigation into spying operations in Romania incompatible with free and democratic society.

“In a country where the media are often accused of sloppy reporting, it’s the last straw that these journalists are being prosecuted for acting professionally, checking their facts and deciding not to publish an incomplete story.”