Pegasus Project revelations show added layer of risk for corruption reporters
Exposing those who abuse power for personal gain is a dangerous activity. Nearly 300 journalists killed for their work since CPJ started keeping records in 1992 covered corruption, either as their primary beat, or one of several. The risk was reaffirmed this month with the release of the Pegasus Project, collaborative reporting by 17 global…
CPJ Insider: Press freedom accountability project, journalists freed, and more
Press Freedom Accountability Project On May 26, 2020, the day after George Floyd was killed, two reporters covering a demonstration in Minneapolis were struck by projectiles. Since then, the number of press freedom violations during Black Lives Matter protests has risen dramatically. More than 850 violations have been reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker—which…
Mehman Huseynov
A Baku court on March 3, 2017, sentenced Mehman Huseynov, a blogger and press freedom advocate, to two years in prison on defamation charges for alleging that police beat him, according to his lawyer and media reports. Five plainclothes policemen dragged Huseynov into an unmarked vehicle the night of January 9, 2017, according to media reports, human rights groups,…
Afgan Mukhtarli
Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azerbaijani reporter who fled to Georgia in 2014 after receiving threats related to his work, was abducted in Tbilisi and taken across the border to Azerbaijan in 2017. Authorities accused him of smuggling contraband and in 2018 sentenced him to six years in prison. The journalist’s wife, Leyla Mustafayeva, initially reported him…
Amal Clooney
CPJ is honored to present its 2020 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, for extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom, to lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney specializes in public international law, international criminal law, and human rights. She has represented clients before courts such as the International Criminal Court, the International Court of…
Freedom of speech is guaranteed Aliyev says as Azerbaijan blocks news websites
President Ilham Aliyev claims that in Azerbaijan the internet is free and press freedom is guaranteed. But ahead of the April 11 snap elections, authorities have systematically silenced critical voices online through amending laws and blocking news websites, and hackers have attacked independent news outlets.
Azerbaijan goes to the polls amid muzzled media and blocked websites
When it comes to silencing critics, Azerbaijani authorities have been industrious and methodical. Ahead of snap presidential elections scheduled for April 11, potential opposition candidates have been either jailed or barred from running, and the political landscape has been cleansed of virtually all formal avenues of expressing dissent.
After murders of Kuciak and Caruana Galizia, investigative journalists band together for justice
The assassinations of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October and of Ján Kuciak in Slovakia last month have elicited an outpouring of support from journalists determined to honor the memory of their colleagues by fighting back with the weapon they wield best: journalism.
Dangers from inside the newsroom
By Christiane Amanpour/chief international correspondent for CNN and CPJ senior advisor In November, I stood before top news media executives in the United States and called on them to stamp out sexual harassment in their organizations. “The floodgates are open,” I told the audience at the annual International Press Freedom Awards gala of the Committee…
Azerbaijani court sentences local journalist to six years in prison
New York, January 12, 2018–A district court in Azerbaijan today convicted veteran investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli on charges of illegally crossing the border, resisting police arrest, and contraband, and sentenced him to six years in prison, media reported.