Journalist Lyra McKee (Art: Gianluca Costantini)
Journalist Lyra McKee (Art: Gianluca Costantini)
The Torch

#WeStandWithLyra

The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here.

Freelance journalist Lyra McKee was fatally injured on April 18 during rioting and a police operation in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She was hit with a bullet when a gunman opened fire on police, and died in the hospital. CPJ joins family and friends of Lyra, as well as the global community, in standing with Lyra.

In Myanmar, the Supreme Court upheld Reuters’ journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s convictions. CPJ’s Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin said from Bangkok that the journalists “should both be free and able to continue their reporting, not sitting in jail cells. Their conviction and sentence will be an enduring stain on Myanmar’s reputation.”

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in December 2017 and convicted in 2018 of allegedly possessing and disseminating secret information sensitive to national security under Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. They were each sentenced to seven years in prison. They were recognized on April 16 as co-winners of a Pulitzer Prize for their investigations on the mass expulsion of the Rohingya from Myanmar.

Global press freedom updates

  • Myanmar military sues The Irrawaddy for criminal defamation over conflict coverage
  • Cuban police detain and beat journalist Roberto Jesús Quiñones in Guantánamo
  • Cumhuriyet staff hand themselves in after failed appeal in Turkey; and read the latest Crackdown Chronicle, CPJ’s weekly round-up of press freedom violations in the country
  • Philippine news and human rights organizations accused of ‘plot’ against Duterte
  • In Peru, journalist Gustavo Gorriti and other media blamed for ex-president’s suicide
  • On Earth Day on Monday, CPJ highlighted on Twitter journalists attacked worldwide for covering environmental issues

Spotlight

Marc and Debra Tice, the parents of Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, hold up photos of him during a press conference at the Press Club in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 20, 2017. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
Marc and Debra Tice, the parents of Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, hold up photos of him during a press conference at the Press Club in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 20, 2017. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

The National Press Club, along with other Free Austin Tice Coalition partners, is organizing a “Night Out For Austin Tice.” Restaurants around the country will donate a portion of proceeds on Thursday, May 2, to a fund that will be used as a reward for information leading to the safe return of journalist Austin Tice. Find a list of participating restaurants here.

Tice, a U.S. freelance photojournalist, went missing in mid-August 2012 and was last heard from in Syria. According to CPJ data, there are currently 60 journalists missing globally.

What we are reading

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