CPJ Impact

While CPJ was able to help free some journalists, several still remain in prison. Iran became the world’s leading jailer of journalists in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 election. Authorities made sweeping arrests, rounding up dozens of domestic journalists and at least three international journalists, including Bahari. Dozens of other journalists, including the BBC’s Iran bureau chief, John Leyne, were expelled or confined to their offices. Iran jammed broadcast signals and blocked Internet sites. With 37 journalists still in jail, including who were arrested prior to the election, the number of imprisoned journalists in Iran now surpasses China. For more information, see CPJ’s complete coverage of the election aftermath.

Obama’s meeting coincided with the fifth anniversary of the murder of Paul Klebnikov, the founding editor of Forbes Russia, who was gunned down outside his Moscow office on July 9, 2004. His case has received worldwide attention, yet no one has been convicted in his murder.

On the eve of his trip, Obama gave an exclusive interview to Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper known for its investigative journalism, in which he said, “Americans and Russians have a common interest in the development of the rule of law, the strengthening of democracy, and the protection of human rights.” Of 17 journalists who have been murdered in Russia since 2000, all in retaliation for their work, four of them worked for Novaya Gazeta.

Lauría brought together an unusual coalition of the president’s critics and supporters to present the report, including prominent journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, human rights lawyer Mauro Ampie Vilchez, and Roberto Larios, president of the pro-Ortega press group Unión de Periodistas de Nicaragua.

“When the information doesn’t flow with transparency, democracy is hurt,” said Chamorro. Ortega supporter Larios criticized the report, claiming it represented only the view of the “media owners that represent the oligarchy.” His comments sparked a lively debate with journalists and activists in the audience that lasted more than 90 minutes.

Read more from Carlos Fernando Chamorro on the CPJ Blog.

O’Connor’s special report, “Reporting, and Surviving, in Ciudad Juarez,” examines the threats journalists face in reporting the news in that city. He found that reporters who look into how extortion works or the reasons police don’t solve crimes are at grave risk from the cartels, or from the police themselves. “We have learned the lesson: To survive, we publish the minimum,” Norte de Ciudad Juárez’s editor-in-chief, Alfredo Quijano, told O’Connor. “We don’t investigate. Even at that, most of what we know stays in the reporter’s notebook.”

Nearly 400 journalists have been forced into exile worldwide since 2001, when CPJ began compiling detailed data. Illustrating the extraordinary dangers facing these journalists at home, more than 330 of them remain in exile today. Read more about journalists in exile on CPJ’s Web site.

“The implications of these findings for journalists and bloggers are chilling,” wrote Mahoney. “If this fiat from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology goes unchallenged, how will PC makers react if ordered to install more sophisticated tracking technology to allow the state to keep an eye on users?”

In the face of opposition ranging from PC makers abroad to bloggers at home, Chinese authorities backed away from the requirement-but we will keep an careful eye on countries whose control over technology put freedom of expression at risk.