The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here.
As journalists, media workers, and their families face increased risk in Afghanistan following the U.S. pullout, CPJ welcomes the priority inclusion of Afghans who are or were employed in Afghanistan with U.S.-based media outlets in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, and calls on the Biden administration to ensure the program is inclusive and accelerated. “Given the potential for violence against journalists following the U.S. military withdrawal, it is imperative that the process for this priority designation be expedited,” said Michael De Dora, CPJ’s Washington advocacy manager.
- Former United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, spoke to CPJ about the Pegasus Project and surveillance reform; CPJ also dove deeper into the Pegasus Project revelations to reveal the added layer of risk for corruption reporters
- A court in Ethiopia granted police between seven and 10 days to continue detaining at least 13 Ethio Forum and Awlo Media Center journalists and media workers
- CPJ renews call to end impunity in Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder
- Zambian opposition supporters assault reporter from state media
- Palestinian police close the office of J-Media Network news agency near Ramallah
- Russian authorities label The Insider a ‘foreign agent,’ search editor’s home
- Algeria revokes accreditation of Saudi channel Al-Arabiya over allegedly spreading misinformation
Spotlight
This month, ahead of World Photography Day, August 19, the One Free Press Coalition highlights cases of photojournalists, filmmakers, and camera operators who have experienced a range of threats in retaliation for their work, from lawsuits to kidnappings, to imprisonment, to physical attacks. One photographer, Anton Hammerl, was killed in Libya ten years ago. His family is seeking accountability through the #JusticeForAnton campaign.
Photojournalists experience a unique set of challenges as the nature of their work necessitates direct access to the action. In a 2018 global survey of photojournalists, 90% of respondents told CPJ they had worked in high-risk environments and almost half had been injured while working.
Learn more about photojournalists and CPJ’s #SafetyInFocus campaign highlighting photojournalist safety here.
- The Second Sex: Women’s Liberation and Media in Post-Independence Tanzania — Heba M. Khalil, The Elephant
- ‘Stop patronising me and give me an interview’: the female journalists speaking up for India’s poor — Cath Clarke, The Guardian
- Georgian Dream’s anti-media crusade continues — Shota Kincha, Open Caucasus Media
- The Islamic republic killed Iranian journalism. Can it be resurrected in exile? — Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post
- The raid that killed off Belarus’ last independent media platform — Andrea Sceresini and Lorenzo Giroffi, Euronews
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