Impact

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, February 2012

'Attacks on the Press' launched

Repressive governments, militants, and criminal groups across the globe are leveraging new and traditional tactics to control information and obscure misdeeds, silence dissent, and disempower citizens, according to Attacks on the Press, CPJ's yearly survey released on February 21, available here. The 2012 release marks the first year that the report's findings are presented with enhanced interactive features in the online version.

This year's report assessed press freedom in more than 100 countries and found that in the Arab world, journalists face unpredictable new threats, and in Asia, intimidation has a chilling effect. In Africa, investigative reporting is considered a threat to development, and in Latin America, state media serves as a politicized weapon against the independent press. Worldwide, Internet crime laws continue to put journalists in peril.

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, January 2012

Journalist released after 163 days

CPJ was pleased to report on the January release of imprisoned journalist Hermann Aboa, who languished behind bars for 163 days. The former Ivorian state TV presenter was freed on bail after being jailed in July 21 on antistate charges for his role as a moderator of a political talk show on state TV during the rule of deposed former President Laurent Gbagbo.

CPJ called for Aboa's immediate and unconditional release and urged Ivorian prosecutors to drop the politicized charges against him, which included endangering state security and public order, participating in an insurrection, and inciting ethnic hatred. CPJ reviewed the case and determined any charges based on Aboa's performance as a journalist were baseless.