Americas

2015

  

Inter-American Human Rights System, campaigns against defamation laws keep journalists from jail in Americas

When a prison guard told Ángel Santiesteban Prats that he would be released from jail on a scorching summer day in July, the Cuban independent writer and blogger decided to ignore him, brushing off the news as a cruel joke. By then, Santiesteban had already spent two years and five months in prison, half of…

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Presidential candidate Daniel Scioli is surrounded by press on election day. A pro-government TV station erroneously declared him the winner despite the vote going to a runoff in late November. (AP/Enric Marti)

How Argentine broadcast law rewards friendly outlets and discriminates against critics

The moment polls closed for Argentina’s presidential election on October 25, the C5N cable news station breathlessly reported that ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli had triumphed and would succeed President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is banned by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term.

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Save Crypto: CPJ joins call for Obama to back strong encryption

The Committee to Protect Journalists has signed a petition organized by digital rights groups Access and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, urging President Barack Obama to publicly commit the U.S. to a policy of supporting strong encryption. Since the Save Crypto petition’s launch on September 29, it has gathered nearly 18,000 signatures, including about 30 from…

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The west wing of the White House in July. The Obama administration is debating whether to support stronger encryption. (Geoffrey King/CPJ)

Has White House finally got the message about strong encryption? Welcome shift seen in speeches and policy memo

Yesterday, during a panel on encryption policy hosted by Just Security, an online forum covering national security law and policy, top U.S. intelligence lawyer Robert S. Litt pressed the case for engineering backdoors in encryption without undermining computer security as a whole. As CPJ has documented, leading security and policy experts consider this impossible.

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CPJ joins call for Canada to help free Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy

The Committee to Protect Journalists has signed a joint letter calling on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take immediate action to have jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy deported from Egypt to Canada. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon and Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour signed the letter to Harper along with…

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Firing of critical newspaper editor raises concern in Ecuador

When the Quito daily El Comercio was sold in December to a Latin America media tycoon known for avoiding editorial conflict, press freedom advocates feared the newspaper would soften its coverage of the Ecuadoran government. Those concerns have now increased with last month’s firing of Martín Pallares, one of El Comercio’s most prominent journalists and…

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Roberto Borge, governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, says a new law is meant to protect journalists, but they say it is a joke. (AP/Israel Leal)

‘Pedro Canché Law’ obscures the real problem in Quintana Roo

Mayan journalist Pedro Canché spent 271 days in prison on charges of sabotage. Authorities alleged Canché organized protests one year ago against rising water bills in the Zona Maya south of Cancún, in Quintana Roo state, where demonstrators stormed the offices of the local waterworks, CPJ research shows.

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Criminal defamation thwarts critical reporting in Ayacucho

When Wilfredo Oscorima, the governor of the southern Peruvian state of Ayacucho, was sentenced in June to five years in prison for official misconduct, independent daily La Calle viewed the ruling as vindication for its vigorous investigations into his administration.

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A protester holds up a photograph of Rubén Espinosa, who was killed after he fled Veracruz state. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

The murder of Mexican photographer Espinosa has touched a nerve

The July 31 murder of Mexican photographer Rubén Espinosa hit the press freedom community really hard. Espinosa, who was found in an apartment with four female victims–all of them shot in the head–had fled the state of Veracruz in June and sought refuge in Mexico City, where he thought he would be safe from threats…

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Audio: James Foley on being a freelance war correspondent

In April 2012, Nicole Schilit, research associate in CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program, interviewed James Foley about his experience working as a freelance journalist in conflict zones. The interview took place in New York between reporting trips to Libya and Syria. Foley was murdered in Syria in August 2014.

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2015