Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Sierra Leone security forces attack, charge journalist covering COVID-19
- Tajikistan bans independent Akhbor news website
- Peruvian political cartoonist Carlos Tovar Samanez receives death threats
- Journalists detained, assaulted in India during COVID-19 lockdown
- Iran arrests 2 journalists for allegedly sharing cartoon mocking government’s COVID-19 response
- CPJ, 73 media and rights groups urge Asian heads of state to release jailed journalists
- Chinese police detain 2 volunteers who collect and share censored news, 1 more missing
- CPJ, partners call for release of Beninese journalist Ignace Sossou on appeal
- Police in India’s Tamil Nadu state arrest journalist over COVID-19 coverage
Reporter Without Borders
- Zimbabwe: Two journalists held for violating coronavirus lockdown rules
- Vietnam arrests two leading members of independent journalists group
- Covid-19: six Chinese defenders of press freedom still in detention
- Beijing’s “national security” measures threaten Hong Kong’s journalists
- Cameroon: Imprisoned journalist’s case referred to UN special rapporteur on right to health
- Cambodian radio journalist held for covering land dispute
- Regulators gradually imposing official line monopoly on Turkey’s media
- Myanmar journalist jailed for two years for reporting Covid-19 death
OPC Calls for Bangladesh to Free Photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol
The Overseas Press Club of America calls on law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh to free jailed photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol and dismiss the case against him, in addition to investigating the circumstances behind his disappearance.
Kajol, 50, was arrested May 3 after disappearing for 53 days. News media reported that Kajol was arrested while attempting to cross the border from India.
Kajol, the editor of Pakkhakal magazine, and 31 other journalists were charged with criminal defamation under the country’s Digital Security Act on March 9, according to the Dhaka Tribune.
According to journalist colleagues, Kajol shared a story from the daily Manab Zamin on his Facebook page and added the names of other government officials, which triggered the DSA filing.
Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, which led a 2018 coalition of 56 organizations, have repeatedly spoken out against the enforced disappearances in Bangladesh believed to be led by government security forces.