Marking Maguindanao, events for reflection, justice
Tuesday is the anniversary of the deadliest attack on the press ever recorded by CPJ. On November 23, 2009, 32 journalists and media workers were shot and killed in a massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan, in the southern province of Maguindanao. The victims were part of a convoy accompanying the supporters and relatives of…
CPJ’s Rebecca MacKinnon on ‘Internet freedom’ in WSJ
Here’s a quick pointer to an insightful Wall Street Journal op-ed about Internet freedom from CPJ board member (and former CNN colleague) Rebecca MacKinnon. She’s based in Washington these days, a Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation, so she has plenty to say about inside the Beltway funding issues. But she’s…
CPJ Press Freedom Awardee: ‘I always wanted answers’
The last few weeks have been extremely busy for everyone at CPJ as we’ve been preparing for the 2010 International Press Freedom Awards. Today’s press conference in Washington will be followed by a series of events culminating in our awards ceremony Tuesday in New York. As always, the awardees make it special.
How to support injured photojournalist Joao Silva
New York Times photojournalist Joao Silva lost both his legs when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine in Afghanistan on October 23. “Those of you who know João will not be surprised to learn that throughout this ordeal he continued to shoot pictures,” wrote New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in a memo to…
Armando Rodríguez’s murder: Two years, no justice
Two years have passed since the killing of El Diario journalist José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, known to his friends as “El Choco,” and no legal process has begun to shed light on the crime committed on November 13, 2008. Faced with the reality of impunity, his widow, Blanca Martínez, asserted that her only hope lies…
Internet Blotter
Egyptian blogger Karim Amer is finally free after four years in prison. Iran launches yet another police force to deal with the Internet, headquartered with the Revolutionary Guard. Its commander says the state plans to quadruple its Internet control budget. Google lobbies U.S. policymakers to consider online censorship a free trade issue. Is breaking into…
CPJ’s Smyth in Harvard Review: Facing impunity is key
Harvard International Review ran a feature article called “Murdering With Impunity: The Rise in Terror Tactics Against News Reporters,” by CPJ’s Journalist Security Coordinator Frank Smyth in its Fall 2010 issue, billed as a symposium focused on changes in journalism and press freedom. Editors-in-Chief Collin Galster and Gloria Park write in the printed issue’s foreword:
Finding freedom in a Cuban cell
There exists a sensual, amorous liaison, almost felt and seen, that binds poetry, journalism, and freedom together. Examples of such affairs abound, their protagonists transcending short-lived fame and bursting into history and onto the pages of encyclopedias. They are the greats, the masters, those worthy of veneration. But intellectual stature is not always required of…
News with a genuine North Korea dateline
A book named Rimjin-gang–News from Inside North Korea just became available. It’s a compilation of years of reporting by a group of about 12 North Koreans using video and still cameras to record everyday life in North Korea. The title comes from the Rimjin River (Imjin in English), which forms part of the Demilitarized Zone…
In exile in the U.S., Ethiopian journalist struggles forward
After almost a year in exile in America, an icy ocean away from his home in Ethiopia, journalist Samson Mekonnen, left, only recently received his work permit in Washington. In the interim, like most journalists undergoing the emotionally and financially grueling resettlement process, he has relied on friends, family, and international organizations like CPJ to…