Americas

Washington state was the first COVID-19 hotspot in the United States. Since its first case was reported on January 21, more than 10,000 people have been infected with the virus, and at least 511 have died.

Dayanna Monroy reports for the Teleamazonas television station in the port city of Guayaquil, the epicenter of Ecuador’s COVID-19 outbreak. She and her colleagues have recently reported on bodies piling up in morgues and being left for days in the streets and in people’s homes, the results of overwhelmed hospitals, funeral homes, and cemeteries.

When university campuses across the U.S. began to send students home in response to growing coronavirus concerns, student journalists did not close their student papers, pack up, and leave. Instead, many student journalists across the country have emerged as their communities’ local coronavirus news reporters. The student journalists at The Independent Florida Alligator at the…

Washington D.C., April 10, 2020—The Committee to Protect Journalists today said it is appalled by an official White House statement yesterday accusing Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. Congress-funded international broadcaster, of “speak[ing] for America’s adversaries” and promoting Chinese propaganda on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bogotá, April 9, 2020 — Bolivian authorities should reform the country’s lockdown decree to ensure that journalists cannot face jail time for reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Miami, April 9, 2020 — Haitian authorities should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the assault on a group of journalists at the National Identification Office in Port-au-Prince, the capital, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Washington, D.C., April 8, 2020 — Puerto Rican authorities should guarantee that journalists can cover the COVID-19 pandemic without fear of government retaliation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Reuters correspondent Robenson Sanon has been covering life in his home country of Haiti for over 10 years.

In early February, only eight weeks ago but in a parallel universe that no longer exists, I invited Billie Sweeney, a senior staff editor at The New York Times, to tour the new CPJ office and visit with old friends. For nine years, from 2004 to 2013, Billie worked as CPJ’s editorial director, overseeing all…

For Sadef Ali Kully, a housing and land use reporter for the nonprofit news outlet City Limits, meeting with sources in-person was an integral part of covering her beat in New York City. However, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kully has needed to rethink how to perform the basics of her job.