Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Journalist Vasily Muravitsky and blogger Eduard Nedeliayev, held respectively by the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists, should be released immediately.

At least 15 journalists were arrested in various cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo while covering demonstrations to demand the publication of an election calendar. Some of the journalists were physically attacked.

Seven bloggers and citizen-journalists have been arrested in recent weeks and two have been given long jail terms.

Suna Venter’s broken heart, silencing Sudan’s FIFA suspension, the unsolved case of Burundi’s Jean Bigirimana, policing police in Zimbabwe and more from Somalia, Senegal, Nigeria and South Sudan.

This July, protesters in Israel and Morocco were met with violence and journalists were subjected to harassment and denial of access, Lebanon banned protests, and 150 organisations met in Doha to discuss threats to freedom of expression in general, and the case of Al Jazeera in particular.

After his death, not only was Liu’s name censored on social media platforms, even phrases containing the word “thunder” – a homophone for “tears” in Chinese – and the candle emoji were removed by censors.

A reporter for the independent news website Iwacu, reporter Jean Bigirimana left his home in Bujumbura on the morning of 22 July 2016 to meet a contact in Bugarama. He told his wife he would be back for lunch. She never saw him again.

RSF has registered many media freedom violations since the start of a wave of protests in Morocco’s northern Rif region and accuses the authorities of deliberately obstructing the Moroccan and foreign reporters who have been trying to cover the unrest.