Features & Analysis

  
Journalists march in Manila. (AP/Bullit Marquez)

Cries for justice in the Philippines massacre

Mobilized and clad in black, a group of Philippine journalists symbolically laid down their notebooks, microphones, and cameras in the street to observe a moment of silence outside Malacañang Palace, the seat of national government in the Philippines.

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In Dharamsala, India, exiled Tibetans hold a vigil for the jailed filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen. (AP/Ashwini Bhatia)

The story of Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker jailed in China

On the same day that historic protests started by monks in Lhasa began and were to sweep all over Tibet in the subsequent months, Dhondup Wangchen was nearly 3,000 kilometers away in Xian, in China’s Shaanxi province. It was the last day of filming for his documentary film project that sought to give voice to…

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CPJ

How to help journalists in prison

Today CPJ released its annual census of imprisoned journalists around the world. Citing 136 journalists jailed for their work around the world, the report brings to the foreground one of the toughest issues CPJ and other advocacy groups grapple with: Advocacy working at its best can make a difference over time and, in some cases,…

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Michoacán journalists under siege with nowhere to turn

David Silva, the husband of abducted reporter María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, ran his hand roughly across his forehead twice, then held his face, looked down, and said, “Every night it’s the same until 2 or 4 in the morning, waiting for the phone call, listening for the car to stop on the street. Then if…

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An Iraqi in America: In the middle of nowhere

We are all stuck in the middle of nowhere. Millions in Iraq and millions outside it face an ambiguous future. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fled Iraq under Saddam’s regime, which lasted for almost 40 years, but since the led-American invasion in 2003 that number has exceeded 4 million, according to United Nations estimates.

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Mikhail Beketov before he was brutally beaten and left for dead in 2008. (Eco Oborona)

Beketov still recovering from attack a year later in Russia

Those familiar with Mikhail Beketov’s ordeal describe his survival as nothing short of a miracle. The once fit, towering 51-year-old who campaigned on environmental issues and criticized his city government’s policies through the pages of his newspaper is now gone. But the former editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda, an independent publication that exposed the blunders of the Khimki…

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CPJ

Philippine groups move quickly to investigate massacre

Four groups in the Philippines released what appears to be the most authoritative account on the murder of 57 people on November 23 in Ampatuan, in Maguindanao province, in the Philippines’ southernmost main island, Mindanao. The report puts the death toll for journalists at 30, with a few others classified as media workers—drivers and other support staff. Some bodies are…

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New lawyer network serves bloggers and online journalists

Whether you are an old-school journalist looking to move online or a Net native with journalistic aspirations, chances are at some point you’re going to need a lawyer. The Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center is aware of that and wants to help.

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Letter to Ahmadinejad: Release the hikers

I hope Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad checked his fax machine this morning because he received an important letter urging the release of three American hikers held now for five months without charge. I joined 79 signatories from a dozen countries in signing the appeal because I am gravely concerned that the hikers are being used as political…

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Morocco silences the pens of its journalists

On the eve of Hillary Clinton’s departure to Morocco for the Forum of the Future on November 3, CPJ urged her to “impress upon the Moroccan authorities that a free press is a crucial component of any free society.” The forum is a gathering of political, business, and social leaders from the Middle East and…

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