2008

CPJ’s Monica Campbell is interviewed today on NPR’s “People and Places” about the recent murder of crime reporter Armando Rodriguez and the worsening situation for Mexican journalists. She is joined by journalist Arturo Chacon.Visit NPR.org to listen to the report.

New York, November 20, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Mexican authorities today to protect journalists in the border town of Ciudad Juárez after one journalist was forced to flee and another was murdered. 

Washington, November 20, 2008–On the day Ugandan editor Andrew Mwenda was introduced here as a recipient of a CPJ International Press Freedom Award, police back home summoned the journalist for questioning over his magazine’s hard-hitting political coverage.

Since 2001, CPJ has documented the cases of 340 journalists forced into exile after their reporting exposed them to harassment, violence, or imprisonment. They face many difficulties in their new homes, from language and cultural adjustments to emotional and economic hardships. Here are five snapshots of journalists in exile.

Making headlines today across the English and Spanish-language press is the brutal murder of Mexican crime reporter Armando Rodríguez.

Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, Radio Sur, August 26, 2008 Original case: April 14, 1998 Colombia’s attorney general ordered the arrest of Carlos Augusto Rojas Ortiz, president of the local Assembly in Huila province, for masterminding Carvajal’s murder in 1998, according to local news reports.

Anderson Leandro, QuemTV, October 23, 2008 Military police shot Leandro, a cameraman for the human rights television producing company QuemTV, in the face with a rubber bullet while he was covering a clash between police and protesters in the Fazendinha neighborhood of Curitiba in the Paraná state, 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of São Paulo. The journalist told…

New York, November 13, 2008–Veteran Mexican crime reporter Armando Rodríguez was shot to death this morning while in his car in the border city of Ciudad Juárez. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Rodríguez’s killing and called on authorities to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation. 

We issued the following statement in response to the murder of Mexican reporter Armando Rodríguez, who covered crime for the Ciudad Juárez-based daily El Diario in the state of Chihuahua. Rodriquez was shot to death this morning by an unidentified gunman, according to local press reports…

Mexico’s special prosecutor for crimes against journalists has responded to CPJ’s October 24 letter expressing concerns about the investigation into the murder of U.S. filmmaker Bradley Will. The prosecutor’s response leaves much unresolved.