Features & Analysis

Making headlines today across the English and Spanish-language press is the brutal murder of Mexican crime reporter Armando Rodríguez.

CPJ is pleased to welcome three leading journalists to its board of directors: Kathleen Carroll of The Associated Press, Lara Logan of CBS News, and David A. Schlesinger of Reuters.

Mexico’s special prosecutor for crimes against journalists has responded to CPJ’s October 24 letter expressing concerns about the investigation into the murder of U.S. filmmaker Bradley Will. The prosecutor’s response leaves much unresolved.

Alexis Sinduhije, a 2004 International Press Freedom Award recipient, has been charged with “contempt for the president” in his home country of Burundi. Sinduhije has given up journalism to pursue a career in politics. The Boston Globe has coverage of the arrest today.

Alexis Sinduhije founded Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) in 2001 to bridge Burundi’s ethnic divide. Divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups have sparked widespread and lingering violence throughout the country. 

The release of CBC correspondent Mellissa Fung, who had been abducted by a criminal gang in Afghanistan, is the focus of a few stories today. The Associated Press has coverage of her month-long ordeal, and that piece has been picked up by various papers including The Boston Globe and The Baltimore Sun. 

Several week ago, I blogged about the risk of doing environmental reporting in repressive countries. Now we have a report from CBS News about a “60 Minutes” crew roughed up in China while reporting on toxic dumping.

The Chauncey Bailey Project is shaking up California authorities from Oakland to Sacramento, after alleging misconduct by police–including mishandling or withholding evidence by the chief detective investigating their colleague’s murder. Evidence recently published by the project, a rare, ad hoc consortium of committed journalists, has led the Alameda district attorney to open an independent oversight…

The Web site EurasiaNet has an article today looking at concerns surrounding the shutdown of foreign radio broadcasts in Azerbaijan. We released an alert on this troubling development on November 3, expressing concern at plans by President Ilham Aliyev’s administration to discontinue the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

The Web site Global Voices Online has a posting today that examines the Global Network Initiative. The initiative, which CPJ has joined, sets privacy and free speech principles for telecommunications companies.