Security risk for sources as US border agents stop and search journalists
French-American photojournalist Kim Badawi did not go home to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. He didn’t want to risk a repeat of November last year, when he says U.S. border security detained him at Miami airport and interrogated him in minute detail about his private life, political views, and journalistic sources.
In China, foreign correspondents continue to face harassment, restrictions
Conditions for foreign correspondents in China remain difficult, with journalists reporting cases of harassment, surveillance, and restrictions on where they can work, according to findings by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.
Montreal police spied on La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé
New York, October 31, 2016–Montreal police have been tracking an iPhone belonging to La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé since the beginning of the year, the journalist’s paper reported today. Canadian courts authorized 24 warrants to surveil Lagacé’s phone, according to court documents obtained by the French-language Montreal daily. The warrants allowed police to access the…
Reporters at Spain’s ABC face trial for allegedly revealing investigation secrets
Brussels, May 2, 2016–A Madrid court has ruled that Cruz Morcillo and Pablo Muñoz, two journalists at the Spanish daily ABC, should face trial for their reporting on a police wiretap investigation into suspected members of the Italian Camorra crime syndicate, according to news reports and Muñoz.
EU rulings on whistleblowers and right-to-be-forgotten laws puts press freedom at risk
European journalists were reminded today that their freedom to report is not only determined by national laws, but increasingly by European institutions. Today, after years of political battle, the European Parliament adopted the Passenger Name Record directive, the Data Protection Package, and the Trade Secrets Protection Act. The stakes were immense and the debates long…
How RightsCon brings press freedom, technology and social change together
This week in San Francisco, CPJ’s Technology and Advocacy teams will participate in RightsCon 2016, an annual conference focusing on human rights and technology. Organized by digital rights group Access Now, RightsCon is one of the most important regular gatherings on technology policy, and the conference has been the site of effective discussions around issues…
Computer security is necessary for journalist safety
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published, in Spanish, in El País. This week, journalists, technologists, and other human rights advocates will gather in Valencia, Spain for the Internet Freedom Festival, a multidisciplinary “un-conference” dedicated to fighting surveillance and censorship online. More than 600 people from 43 countries have registered for the festival, which is…
Are intelligence sector reforms enough to protect Colombia’s journalists?
When Colombia’s national intelligence agency, known as DAS, was disbanded in October 2011 after revelations of illegal surveillance and harassment of the press and public figures, many journalists breathed a sigh of relief. But recent claims of reporters being spied on and government agencies buying advanced surveillance technology without ensuring clear guidelines over its use,…
Claims police spied on two journalists revive surveillance fears of Colombia’s press
When Claudia Morales’s six-year-old daughter asks about her mother’s bodyguards, the Colombian journalist tells her they are colleagues. “She’s too young to understand,” Morales, who works for the Bogotá-based Caracol Radio in the city of Armenia, told CPJ in a telephone interview. Vicky Dávila, the news director of LA Fm Radio who also has private…
As editor-informant Li Xin disappears, journalists share their experiences with China’s security services
The case of Li Xin, a journalist who disappeared in Thailand in January after telling the international press in November he had fled China after being forced to work for years as a government informant, has shed light on the pressures some journalists face to provide information to the authorities.