Chad’s vibrant press shook off chains of the state
When Chad proclaimed independence on August 11, 1960, I was still attending primary school and had never heard of journalism. I listened only to music on the radio. But there was euphoria everywhere in Sarh, south of Chad where I lived, and we sang and danced to the frenzied rhythm of “independence tcha tcha tcha”…
In Italy, vote postponed on Berlusconi’s ‘gag law’
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is leaving for vacation in a very bad mood. On Thursday, the House of Deputies, although dominated by Berlusconi’s center-right coalition, decided to postpone until September its vote on a wiretap bill that had been considered a bellwether by a government wracked by internecine wars and confronted with ominous poll…
CPJ’s Carlos Lauría talks about Mexican press crisis
CPJ’s Senior Program Coordinator for the Americas Carlos Lauría was live on the national radio show “The Takeaway” this morning talking about the ongoing deterioration of the media environment in Mexico. Lauría was joined by New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City.
In Ivory Coast, old struggles give way to new challenges
Independence came when I was attending school at the orientation college in Abidjan-Plateau, and when I was still sneaking to listen to the news on my father’s Grundig radio set. Today, I believe that genuine freedom of the press exists in our African countries. In Ivory Coast, for example, the new press law abolished prison…
No Wikileaks, but cocoa piece typifies fight over leaks
WikiLeaks’ publication of tens of thousands of pages of confidential U.S. military documents on the Afghanistan war has drawn a lot of attention, perhaps overshadowing the many, more common cases around the world in which journalists publish stories based on leaked documents. This week, for instance, three journalists in Ivory Coast were found guilty of…
Afghan media push bill to ensure access to information
When we report on Afghanistan, it’s often about something horrific—a deadly explosion, a murder, a kidnapping. But when you ask many Afghan journalists about the biggest challenge they face daily, it’s not danger or harassment that they cite. Although Article 50 of the Afghanistan Constitution guarantees access to public information, journalists say that obtaining such…
On Pakistan’s frontier, home is often the cost of reporting
In an alert on Monday, we reported on an attack that left at least six women and children seriously injured at the home of local television journalist Zafarullah Bonari along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. A group of unidentified attackers threw grenades and opened fire on Bonari’s house. The information was scant when we first heard about…
Hollman Morris, labeled ‘terrorist,’ finally Harvard-bound
For a month, U.S. officials in Bogotá told Colombian journalist Hollman Morris that his request for a U.S. visa to study at Harvard as a prestigious Nieman Fellow had been denied on grounds relating to terrorist activities as defined by the U.S. Patriot Act, and that the decision was permanent and that there were no…
Three hikers in Iran, one year on
On July 30, three American hikers in Iran will have endured an entire year in custody, held without charge or a modicum of due process. This is obviously a terrible injustice, so much so that it surprises me when I mention their situation to skeptical friends or colleagues who believe that the three were foolish to hike…
From 9/11 to 7/11, balancing security, liberty
Ugandan President Museveni urged his peers at this week’s African Union summit to unite in the battle against terrorism in the aftermath of the terrible 7/11 bombings in Kampala. Security measures pursued by Ugandan authorities after the twin bombings, however, have left some Ugandans and other East African residents wary. East African journalists were among…