Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

How CPJ helped journalists in 2024

Protesters and media members in Sidon, Lebanon, carry pictures during an October 26, 2024, sit-in condemning the killings of Al Mayadeen television network’s Ghassan Najjar and Mohammad Reda, and Al Manar’s Wissam Qassem in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya. (Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher)

CPJ drastically stepped up its assistance work in 2024, helping more than 3,000 journalists with financial grants, safety training, and other kinds of support amid rising threats to the media and declining press freedom. In a new feature, CPJ’s Lucy Westcott explains the top five ways CPJ helped journalists around the globe last year. Among the highlights:

CPJ gave $300,000 to three organizations supporting Gaza’s journalists as they cover and endure war: the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, and Filastiniyat. It also gave grants to Lebanese freedom of expression groups helping journalists escape Israeli bombardment.

CPJ helped to host three online mental health workshops attended by 160 Ukrainian journalists, who learned how to prevent burnout when working in a war zone, how to remain calm while reporting during air raids and explosions, and how to work effectively under shelling.

Ahead of the U.S. election, CPJ trained more than 740 journalists on physical and digital safety, and provided U.S.-based journalists with resiliency and know-your-rights advice through a summer webinar series with partner organizations.

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Tajik journalist Ahmad Ibrohim sentenced to 10 years in prison

A court in Tajikistan’s southern city of Kulob on January 10 sentenced Ahmad Ibrohim, chief editor of the independent weekly newspaper Payk, to 10 years in prison on charges of bribery, extortion, and extremism.

The closed-door trial was held in the city’s pretrial detention center, with authorities reportedly classifying the case as secret.

“With Tajik authorities having all but obliterated the independent press over the past decade, the hefty sentence meted out to Ahmad Ibrohim shows the lengths they will go to stamp out critical reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Tajik authorities should immediately release Ibrohim, along with seven other journalists serving lengthy sentences on retaliatory charges, and reform the country’s repressive media environment.”

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan