CPJ marks World Press Freedom Day

CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg (center) and press freedom advocates at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, in New York City, to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2023. (Nasdaq, Inc./Vanja Savic)

CPJ rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square in recognition of the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. The bell ringing ceremony included a speech by CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg, in which she called for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter wrongfully detained in Russia, and underscored the urgent need to stand with journalists whose reporting will not be silenced even if they are behind bars.

CPJ also participated in and hosted several events and activities this week. In case you missed them live, watch recordings and read through CPJ’s live coverage below:

Record numbers of journalists [are] in prison as the United Nations marks…its special day for media freedom,” wrote CPJ’s Robert Mahoney. Growing authoritarianism has shrunk the political optimism and blossoming of independent media during the 1990s, and journalism, which needs democracy and the rule of law to thrive, “is now losing both.”

Global press freedom updates

Spotlight

Yellow tape marks bullet holes on a tree at the site where Palestinian-American Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed in the West Bank city of Jenin, as pictured on May 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

On Tuesday, CPJ will release “Deadly Pattern,” a report on the killings of journalists by the Israeli military over the past 22 years. Ahead of the first anniversary of Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, CPJ revisited 20 cases of journalists killed by the Israel Defense Forces and found a pattern of Israeli response that appears designed to evade responsibility.

CPJ’s report documents the scope of Israeli military killings of journalists and how the country’s seeming refusal to pursue justice for slain reporters undermines the freedom of the press. The report includes CPJ’s recommendations to protect journalists, end impunity in the cases of killed journalists, and prevent future killings.

CPJ will host a press conference about the report in Tel Aviv on May 9, at 10 a.m. IDT / 3 a.m. EDT.

What we are reading

A closer look | CPJ’s most-read features in April

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