CPJ, Knight Institute file FOIA for U.S. intelligence report on murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Just a few days after the grim four year anniversary of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and CPJ Thursday filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the CIA, and the Public Interest Declassification Board seeking immediate release of a U.S. intelligence report on the 2018 murder of the journalist, who was a U.S. resident. Earlier this year, the board—a panel of experts appointed by the president and Congress—recommended that President Biden’s administration publicly release the report in its entirety. Nevertheless, the White House continues to withhold it.
In late 2018, the Knight Institute and CPJ filed FOIA requests for records showing whether U.S. intelligence agencies fulfilled their “duty to warn” Khashoggi of threats to his life and liberty. After the U.S. intelligence agencies failed to release documents, the organizations filed a lawsuit and the agencies released just 20 documents that failed to answer essential questions.
In the Philippines, journalist Percival Mabasa—better known as Percy Lapid—was gunned down inside his vehicle by unidentified assailants in Las Piñas City on Monday night. Lapid was on his way to work as the host of the “Lapid Fire” program on the DWBL 1242 radio station and had been a prominent critic of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte in his commentaries and YouTube broadcasts.
In Rwanda on Wednesday, a court acquitted and released three Iwacu TV journalists—Damascene Mutuyimana, Shadrack Niyonsenga, and Jean Baptiste Nshimiyimana—detained since 2018. “The four years that these journalists lost behind bars are a great injustice, underscoring the willingness of Rwandan authorities to abuse judicial systems to the detriment of the press,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo. “All those other journalists who remain behind bars in Rwanda for their work should be released without delay.
CPJ
