Features & Analysis

Time.com’s “China Blog” has a post today titled “A Dark Time for Reporters in China” that outlines some recent cases of harassment and violence against journalists working in the country and quotes our statistics of journalists imprisoned for their work.

Ten years ago on Saturday, the bullet-ridden bodies of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo and three friends were found in Zongo’s burned-out car outside the capital of Burkina Faso.

About 10 reporters sit on one of two wooden benches in the back of Room No. 4 at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow. They’re gathered for the trial of three defendants accused of playing a role in the October 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya. Only they won’t be attending…

The Lebanon-based Web site Menassat has an article today about the continued detainment of Reuters cameraman Ibrahim Jassam, currently the only known journalist being held by the US military. A local Iraqi court has urged the military to release Jassam, who was arrested on September 2, as there is no evidence against him. 

CPJ’s Deputy Director Robert Mahoney has a posting on The Guardian’s London-based “Comment is free” blog today about CPJ’s finding that online journalists now make up the majority of journalists jailed for their work. Read our full report on imprisoned journalists here.

The release of Iraqi journalist Adel Hussein, who had been jailed in Iraqi Kurdistan, is making news today. The Associated Press has coverage of his pardon from President Masoud Barzani, as does Canada’s CBC News. Both articles cite our coverage of the case and quote CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney, who called on the authorities…

There is even more coverage today of our annual census of imprisoned journalists, released last week, that lists 125 journalists in jail. The Czech service of RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, the newspaper Malaysia Today, the AsiaOne Web site, G4TV online, all have stories focused on our finding that the majority of those jailed are online journalists. AllAfrica has coverage of the…

We released this statement after learning that formerly jailed journalist Liu Xiaobo was detained after signing a letter to the government today calling for greater freedoms ahead of the 60th anniversary Wednesday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The letter was signed by 300 lawyers, writers, scholars, and artists…

I attended a potluck reception for my daughter’s first-grade class last week, and amid the banter about the economic meltdown and arranging play dates I spent a lot of time answering the inevitable questions about what I do for a living.

Last month, veteran crime reporter Armando Rodríguez was gunned down in Ciudad Juárez on the Texas border, sparking another round of hand-wringing about the relentless violence that is suffocating critical journalism in Mexico. Rodríguez’s brutal murder sparked coverage in the U.S. media as well, including pieces in The Washington Post and NPR.