Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was ready to be a father. His wife, Nargiz, was five months pregnant when he dropped her off near a Metro stop in Baku, Azerbaijan, one May…
Foreign Reporting
When reporting becomes a crime: The story behind one journalist’s disappearance and imprisonment
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the rules of journalism in the occupied areas changed overnight. Independent news outlets disappeared. Newsrooms were empty. Phones and computers were hacked and searched. Journalists were imprisoned, forced to flee or pressured into…
In Belarus, a journalist in prison learns her husband had been jailed too
Inside a cage in a Belarus courtroom, Belsat TV reporter Katsiaryna Andreeva and a colleague awaited sentencing for broadcasting a banned protest in memorial for a man authorities reportedly beat to death during a peaceful protest against the disputed re-election…
Reporter who criticized local food prices in Nicaragua, still imprisoned after a year; others in exile
Five vehicles carrying some 20 police officers swerved violently through the streets of Nicaragua’s capital in October 2024 as police raced toward the home of journalist Elsbeth D’Anda. When they arrived, officers overpowered D’Anda, handcuffed him and took him away.…
Married Hong Kong journalists imprisoned, media outlets shut
What had once been routine journalism at Stand News, an independent news site that surged to 20 million page views per month during Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, was, by the end of 2021, deemed criminal. Seventeen articles, published between…
West Bank journalist languishes in Israeli jail without trial
In early September 2024, Mujahed al-Saadi, a prominent Palestinian journalist, published an eyewitness account of an Israeli raid on Jenin, documenting how soldiers had bulldozed scores of homes, markets and roads in the West Bank city and occupied hospitals, preventing…
Ethiopian journalist Abay Zewdu suffers medical issues in Qilinto Prison
After a week spent reporting from the war in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region in early August 2023, journalist Abay Zewdu stopped at a café in Addis Ababa to eat injera, a traditional flatbread, with friends. Moments later, his friends watched…
Journalist accuses Cuba of orchestrating attack and prison sentence
After catching their breath, journalist Yeris Curbelo Aguilera, his wife and their 15-year-old son looked around their home and saw a broken window, a ripped curtain and rocks covering the floor. Minutes before, a group of men surrounded and attacked…
‘Kyrgyzstan didn’t used to be like this’: Experts warn amid increased attacks on independent media
Kyrgyz authorities forced the founder of Temirov LIVE, a YouTube-based investigative news outlet, into exile, and, 14 months later, imprisoned his successor — his wife. Makhabat Tazhibek-kyzy, 34, was arrested in the early morning of Jan. 16, 2024, as Kyrgyz…
Saudi cartoonist imprisoned for satire about Saudi-Qatar diplomatic crisis
Sitting in a cafe in the small hilly village of Al-Zarqa in southern Saudi Arabia, a retired cartoonist saw a familiar face enter and instantly knew something was wrong. It was the same man who was seated next to him…