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…
Al-Moutaz Bellah Ibrahim
Ibrahim, a correspondent for the independent Shaam News Network and a freelance reporter, was killed in Tel Abyad, a Syrian town north of the city of Raqqa, on May 4, according to Shaam and the Beirut-based SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. Ibrahim was kidnapped by the Islamic State militant group (then called Islamic…
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.
‘Like visiting hell’: How an Italian journalist is reporting on COVID-19 from the frontlines
CPJ Europe Correspondent Attila Mong spoke with Stefania Battistini, a reporter for Italian public broadcaster RAI, about her experience covering the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit regions in the world. Battistini compared the experience to reporting in a warzone. “The enemy is everywhere and you don’t know how to defend yourself,”…
#FreeThePress 2020
#FreeThePress Amid the unprecedented public health threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 190 groups joined together to urge world leaders to immediately and unconditionally release all journalists imprisoned for their work. For journalists in jail, freedom has never been more urgent Thousands of people joined the call, with 11,337 signatures on…
CPJ Insider October 2019: Khashoggi’s murder anniversary, Sulzberger’s warning, threats to women journalists unpacked
CPJ marks one year since Khashoggi’s murder with court action What did the U.S. government know, and when did it know it? As CPJ enters year two of advocacy to secure justice for Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, these are central questions.
Kashmiri media on the brink of extinction
On August 5, the Indian government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a strict communication blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after stripping the state of its limited autonomous status under the Indian constitution. As restrictions continue, CPJ’s India correspondent, Kunal Majumder, traveled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, to speak to local journalists and find…
A concerning plan to establish media courts in Pakistan
Pakistan’s federal cabinet has approved an initiative to establish specialized courts aimed at resolving media-related issues, the government announced on Tuesday. CPJ expressed serious concerns about this plan. On Monday, CPJ voiced apprehension over the appeal of Aleksei Pukach, who was convicted of murdering Ukrainian investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000. The appeal hearings began…