USA / Americas

For data on press freedom violations in the U.S., visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a partnership between CPJ and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Read CPJ’s report On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom.

  
Press photographers at a 2018 World Cup match in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on July 2. At least four female sports journalists were grabbed or sexually harassed while covering the soccer tournament. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

World Cup harassment highlights issues female sports journalists face on daily basis

With the World Cup final just a few days away, female sports journalists say the experiences of at least four reporters who were grabbed, groped, or sexually harassed on air while covering the tournament in Russia have highlighted the harassment they face.

Read More ›

In a photo taken by St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Christian Gooden, Black Lives Matter protesters and others burn U.S. flags during a protest in September 2017. Gooden was hit by pepper spray while covering the protests. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Non-white journalists describe risks and repercussions of covering protests in the US

“I was just another in a sea of black faces on the other side of a police line,” said Christian Gooden, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer who was hit by pepper spray while covering a protest on September 29, last year. Gooden said that he turned his head when police sprayed indiscriminately, then resumed photographing…

Read More ›

Zack Stoner, left, pictured with two members of Good Brothers, a community group he was part of. Stoner was shot dead in Chicago in May. (Charles Preston)

With Zack Stoner’s killing, Chicago loses vital voice covering overlooked community

I weighed the possibility of being killed for writing this. Seriously. I know that shedding light on or speaking about particular persons and issues can increase the likelihood of being murdered, especially in Chicago. To some this may seem like hyperbole or another introduction to a hit-piece on the city’s violence, exaggerating statistics and depicting…

Read More ›

A local resident lays an American flag at an impromptu memorial outside of the Capital Gazette, the day after a gunman killed five people at the newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 29, 2018. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

Alleged killer of Capital Gazette employees had made repeated threats

New York, June 29, 2018–A gunman shot to death five people in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, yesterday afternoon in what police called a “targeted attack,” the newspaper reported. Police arrested Jarrod Ramos, 38, and charged him with five counts of first-degree murder, the paper said, citing court documents. He had…

Read More ›

Law enforcement officials survey the scene after a gunman fired through a glass door at the Capital Gazette newspaper and sprayed the newsroom with gunfire, killing at least five people and injuring several others, in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S., June 28, 2018. (Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

At least five people killed at newsroom shooting in Maryland

New York, June 28, 2018–At least five people were killed in a shooting in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, this afternoon. Police have a suspect in custody, but his identity and motive are unknown, the newspaper reported on its website.

Read More ›

A woman uses her cell phone in New York in 2014. A HuffPost reporter and several of his colleagues are receiving threatening and harassing messages via phone and online. (AFP/Jewel Samad)

HuffPost journalist and colleagues receive online threats

At least 11 journalists at HuffPost, their families and others were harassed and threatened online in late May and early June 2018, Lydia Polgreen, editor in chief at HuffPost, told CPJ. The harassment came after the outlet published a piece written by reporter Luke O’Brien that identified the person behind a Twitter account that shares…

Read More ›

The New York Times building in New York City in November 2016. The United States Justice Department seized phone and email records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins, according to reports. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

CPJ: Data seizure from New York Times reporter sets dangerous precedent

New York, June 8, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern about the seizure of phone and email records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins by the United States Justice Department in the first known incident that federal prosecutors have gone after a journalist’s data under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Read More ›

Independent music journalist and video blogger Zachary Stoner is shown in this screenshot from his YouTube channel, zacktv1.

Independent music journalist Zachary Stoner killed in Chicago

Chicago, June 4, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the killing of independent music journalist Zachary Stoner, who was shot to death in the early hours of May 30 in Chicago, Illinois. Stoner published videos to his YouTube channel zacktv1, which focused on community life and hip hop artists in his hometown of Chicago.

Read More ›

A lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee, photographed in Washington in April, accuses WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, Russian operatives and others of a conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 election by stealing and publishing tens of thousands of emails and documents. (AP/Alex Brandon)

By suing WikiLeaks, DNC could endanger principles of press freedom

In 1993, WILK radio host Frederick Vopper broadcast a conversation intercepted by an illegal wiretap and sent anonymously to the Pennsylvania radio station, in which two teachers union officials discussed violent negotiating tactics. The officials sued Vopper, arguing that he should be liable for the illegal wiretap that captured their comments. But the Supreme Court…

Read More ›

People attend the YouTube Fanfest in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2016. Google released its first YouTube-specific transparency report in May. (Reuters/Beawiharta)

Greater transparency welcome but social media sites should allow independent audits of content takedowns

In recent days, some of the world’s largest tech companies released new transparency reports, opened up their content moderation guidelines, and adopted approaches to fighting pernicious content as they tried to head off government regulation amid concerns about “fake news,” harassment, terrorism and other ills proliferating on their platforms.

Read More ›