Americas

  
Draft legislation on access to information in Canada, proposed by Member of Parliament Scott Brison, second from left, is inadequate, a group of press freedom organizations said in a letter to Brison today. (AP/Cliff Owen)

Canada’s proposed reform of access to information is inadequate

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with a coalition of more than 30 international and Canadian civil society organizations, sent a letter on September 28 to Canadian Member of Parliament Scott Brison, the president of the Treasury Board of Canada, calling for proposed access to information legislation to be replaced with a more robust reform.

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A Warao man fishes on the Orinoco Delta in 2009. A group of journalists from the indigenous community are running a news website to cover issues affecting the Venezuelan region. (Reuters/Jorge Silva)

From power cuts to powerful threats, Venezuela’s indigenous journalists face a series of challenges in their reporting

Three twentysomethings huddle over a desk in a small room in Tucupita, a low-slung city of about 90,000 people that spills across the Orinoco river delta region in northeastern Venezuela. Far from the tear gas and street conflicts roiling cities including Caracas and Valencia, these journalists are focused on reporting the latest story from the…

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Images of 43 missing students from Guerrero state hang from a tree in Mexico City . Journalists reporting on violence in the state, and on the case of the students, face threats and violence. (AP/Marcos Ugarte)

On the front lines of reporting in Guerrero, Mexico’s most-violent state

Several months ago, during a three-day journalism congress in Mexico City, a reporter from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero took out his cell phone and scrolled through a series of pictures. The photos showed teenagers smiling at the camera, carrying automatic rifles, and sporting bulletproof vests.

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A portrait of Javier Valdez at a Mexico City event to pay tribute to the investigative journalist, who was murdered in May. (AFP/Bernardo Montoya)

Memory of Mexico’s investigative reporter Javier Valdez will live on through his work

Two months have passed since Javier Valdez Cárdenas, the Mexican investigative reporter and recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, was murdered. The grief over his killing in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, has left many looking for answers as to why the investigation into his murder appears to have yielded few results so…

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Reality Winner, center, an intelligence contractor charged with leaking classified National Security Agency material, is shown in a courtroom sketch at a hearing in Augusta, Georgia, on June 8, 2017. A group of Senate Republicans claim that leaks to the media under the Trump Administration are harming national security. (Reuters/Richard Miller)

US Senate report on leaks and national security is deeply flawed

Last week, Republicans on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report on leaks to the media. The report, which was led by Chairman Ron Johnson, asserts that “an avalanche” of leaks under the Trump Administration is harming national security. It lists at least 125 news articles and their bylines -…

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Congressman Greg Gianforte appears in court to face a charge of misdemeanor assault over an attack on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in Montana in June. (Reuters/Tommy Martino)

CPJ to use $50,000 Gianforte donated as part of body slam settlement to track other assaults on press

When the news came that Greg Gianforte was making a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists it was 10 p.m. on the East Coast, but 8:30 a.m. in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s Disney-like capital city, where members of our CPJ team were meeting officials to discuss that country’s punitive press laws.

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Óscar Martínez, pictured at CPJ's 2016 International Press Freedom Awards, says journalists should discuss safety with their sources. (CPJ/Getty/Jeff Zelevansky)

Óscar Martínez: Trust and safety for journalists and sources is vital in El Salvador

Óscar Martínez knows first-hand the dangers of reporting on crime and gang violence. The co-founder of Sala Negra (Black Room)–an investigative reporting project run by the El Salvadoran new outlet El Faro–says he and his colleagues have been threatened and harassed for their hard-hitting coverage. But, Martínez says, their sources are equally at risk of…

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Brazil's Chamber of Deputies holds a session on April 12 with only two deputies after the Supreme Court announced corruption investigations into a number of politicians. A journalist has questioned why the court released details of his telephone call with a source, despite him not being part of the investigation. (AP/Eraldo Peres)

Released recording highlights polarized atmosphere for Brazil’s political reporters

The release of a private conversation between a well-known journalist and his source has shaken the journalistic community in Brazil and highlighted the increasingly polarized and uneasy terrain in which political reporters work.

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How US Espionage Act can be used against journalists covering leaks

Earlier this week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly joked about Trump using a saber on the press and U.S. Senator Jim Risch told CNN the press should be questioning the Washington Post about its sources. Then, on May 16, The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump allegedly asked former FBI director…

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The author interprets Javier Valdez Cárdenas's acceptance speech at the 2011 International Press Freedom Awards in New York. Valdez 'combined the grit of the most battle-hardened reporter with the elegiac soul of a 19th century Romantic poet.' (CPJ)

Javier Valdez Cárdenas, brave and beloved Mexican journalist

When Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas arrived in New York City in November 2011 to accept CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, he and his staff had already suffered a grenade attack on the offices of their weekly, Ríodoce. Weeks after receiving the award, they were the victims of a denial of service (DOS) attack that…

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