Following recent revelations that journalists around the world were potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, the chief executive of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, spoke to CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “This should be a wake-up call for security on the internet,” Cathcart said. This week CPJ also joined more than 150 human rights groups and independent experts in calling on states to implement an immediate moratorium on the sale, transfer, and use of surveillance technology.
- Mexican journalist Ricardo López shot and killed in Sonora
- Radio journalist Renante ‘Rey’ Cortes shot and killed in the Philippines
- Two Nigerian journalists respond to the government’s ongoing Twitter ban
- Camila Acosta speaks from house arrest about covering Cuba’s historic protests
- Four Afghan journalists arrested
- Cambodian reporter detained for criminal incitement
- Bangladesh authorities detain journalist under Digital Security Act
- Tunisian authorities raid Al-Jazeera bureau
- International journalists face intense harassment, threats, while covering flooding in China
- Belarus authorities dissolve Belarus Press Club. Separately, authorities sue to shut down independent journalist organization
- Indian tax officials raid offices of Dainik Bhaskar media group, Bharat Samachar channel
- CPJ joins statement calling on Kyrgyz authorities to investigate death of journalist Azimjon Askarov
Spotlight
In the nearly six months since Myanmar’s military seized power, the country has become one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, CPJ found in a special mid-year survey and report. As of July 1, 2021, at least 32 journalists were behind bars in the country for their work. Watch this video with their stories.
In a CPJ-hosted press briefing to launch the report, Kamayut Media founder and editor-in-chief Nathan Maung recounted his harrowing experiences behind bars earlier this year. Maung’s colleague at Kamayut Media, Hyanthar Nyein, remains imprisoned and was featured yesterday in a full-page ad in The Washington Post.
A closer look | CPJ’s most-read features in July
- Iceland fishing company goes ‘guerilla’ on journalists who uncovered alleged corruption — Attila Mong/CPJ Europe Correspondent
- Botswana police use Israeli Cellebrite tech to search another journalist’s phone — Jonathan Rozen/CPJ Senior Africa Researcher
- Capital Gazette shooter found criminally responsible, while questions of justice linger — Katherine Jacobsen/CPJ U.S. Researcher
- The Global Network Initiative’s 2020 Annual Report: Following the GNI Principles — GNI
- Don’t Let the Autocrats Win – How Biden Can Use the Democracy Summit to Build Back Media Freedoms — Amal Clooney, Just Security
- Cuba’s internet and journalism blackouts — Jon Allsop, Columbia Journalism Review