Libya detains 4 more international journalists
New York, April 7, 2011–Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi have detained four international journalists on the outskirts of the city of Brega, news reports said today, continuing the government’s pattern of arbitrary detentions and other restrictions. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to stop detaining, expelling, and obstructing journalists reporting on…
Global Campaign Against Impunity
Global Campaign Against Impunity The murder of a journalist is the ultimate form of censorship, yet the perpetrators of such crimes are seldom held to account. In more than eight out of 10 cases where a journalist has been targeted for murder, their killers go free. The price of a story should never be that…
Zero-click surveillance and press freedom: When spyware turns phones into weapons
It’s The Torch’s fourth anniversary! Sign up here to get the newsletter in your inbox. CPJ released a new report Thursday, “Zero-click Spyware: Enemy of the press,” about how zero-click surveillance threatens reporters, sources, and global press freedom. The report explains the insidious nature of spyware, its existential threat to journalists, and how it has…
Four Mexican journalists killed in a month
In Mexico, the killing of camera operator and video editor Roberto Toledo in Zitácuaro, a town 80 miles west of Mexico City, marks the fourth media worker killed in the country in less than a month in 2022. CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick discussed the climate for journalists in Mexico…
CPJ welcomes Lucy Westcott as emergencies director
New York, October 7, 2021–As threats to journalist safety worldwide persist, the Committee to Protect Journalists is pleased to announce that Lucy Westcott has been named CPJ’s emergencies director. In the role, Westcott will oversee the organization’s Emergencies team, which provides comprehensive, life-saving support to journalists and media workers at risk around the world through…
Belarus makes it clear they will cross any red line to censor independent voices
In a shocking move, even for Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, authorities in Belarus forcibly diverted a jet to Minsk to arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich. The next day, Pratasevich appeared in a government video apparently confessing to “organizing mass riots.” In an op-ed for CNN, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said stressed how…
A year like no other: The state of press freedom in 2020
What a year! Over the past 12 months, journalists worldwide faced the risk of COVID-19 exposure while reporting on the frontlines of the pandemic, and bore the brunt of virus-related crackdowns and censorship. Journalists mobilized to cover consequential elections, and a wave of protests and unrest around the world from Minsk to Minneapolis. Authorities surveilled…
#HoldTheLine
Defend Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines Internationally celebrated Filipino-American journalist, and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize awardee, Maria Ressa is facing extreme threats in the Philippines as state-orchestrated attacks escalate against her and Rappler, the news organization she founded. This follows her conviction on a criminal cyber libel charge and the shuttering of…
#HoldTheLine campaign launched in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines
Sixty press freedom groups and civil society organisations, journalism institutions, filmmakers, and other supporters have formed a coalition in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines, united around the call to #HoldTheLine. Today the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the…
CPJ, 192 partner organizations urge UN Secretary General to take action to secure release of jailed journalists amid COVID-19
The #FreeThePress campaign, made up of 193 press freedom and human rights organizations and the more than 11,337 concerned citizens who signed the petition, urges the UN secretary general to take immediate action to secure the release of journalists jailed around the world whose lives are risk due to the spread of COVID-19.