Americas

2018

  

CPJ expresses concerns with proposed changes to Canada’s Access to Information Act

The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to Canadian MP Scott Brison to express concerns with proposed changes to Canada’s Access to Information Act.

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Facebook's head of global policy management, Monika Bickert, testifies at a Senate hearing in January on monitoring extremist content online. Companies like Facebook and Google are at the forefront of how much of the world receives its news. (AFP/Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis)

Tweaking a global source of news

The only way Abdalaziz Alhamza and his fellow citizen journalists could get out news from the Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Syria to a global audience was by posting materials on Facebook and YouTube. “They were the only way to spread news since many militias and governments prevented most, if not all, the independent media…

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Christiane Amanpour speaks at CPJ's International Press Freedom Awards in November 2017. (AFP/Getty Images/Kevin Hagen)

Dangers from inside the newsroom

By Christiane Amanpour/chief international correspondent for CNN and CPJ senior advisor In November, I stood before top news media executives in the United States and called on them to stamp out sexual harassment in their organizations. “The floodgates are open,” I told the audience at the annual International Press Freedom Awards gala of the Committee…

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Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez at a construction site in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in January 2018. An unidentified man with a knife attempted to attack journalist César Omar Silva on February 13 amid ongoing political unrest in Honduras following the reelection of President Juan Orlando Hernández and a subsequent security crackdown, according to reports. (Reuters/Edgard Garrido)

Attacker tries to stab Honduran journalist during live broadcast

New York, February 16, 2018–Honduran authorities should take swift action to identify and bring to justice the man who attempted to stab television reporter César Omar Silva during a live broadcast, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, pictured at a meeting in January 2018, has indicated he intends to pursue leak investigations. (AFP/Saul Loeb)

The president’s phantom threats

During his tumultuous campaign, Donald Trump declared war on the press, pledging to “open up our libel laws” and impose fines on critical journalists if elected. Within a month of taking office, he vowed to go after leakers, comparing them to Nazis, and urged then-FBI director James Comey to jail reporters who published classified information.…

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A general view of a beach is seen in Acapulco, Mexico in September 2017. Two unidentified assailants on February 5 shot dead Pamika Montenegro, a journalist, satirist and social media commentator, at her Acapulco restaurant. (Reuters/Troy Merida)

Mexican blogger and satirist killed in Guerrero state

Mexico City, February 8, 2018–Authorities in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero must undertake an exhaustive investigation into the murder of Pamika Montenegro, a journalist, satirist and social media commentator, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Two unidentified assailants on February 5 shot Montenegro dead in the restaurant she owned in the beachside resort…

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A view of Tegucigalpa in November 2017. Honduras lawmakers are considering a draft law that would regulate online speech. (AFP/Orlando Sierra)

CPJ calls on Honduras to reject law regulating online speech

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with more than 50 international and local digital rights organizations and media outlets, joined calls on Honduran lawmakers this week to reject a proposed law that would regulate online speech.

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People gather at Constitution Square in downtown Guatemala City, Guatemala in August 2015. The bodies of two journalists, Laurent Ángel Castillo Cifuentes and Luis Alfredo de León Miranda, were found in a field outside the town of Santo Domingo, in Guatemala's southwestern Suchitepéquez deportment on February 1, 2018. (Reuters/Jose Cabezas)

Journalist, radio worker found dead in Guatemala

New York, February 7, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should conduct a swift and credible investigation into the murders of a newspaper journalist and radio station worker, establish motives, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Harvey Weinstein speaks at a New York conference in December 2012. Allegations that Weinstein hired private investigators to try to kill negative stories highlight the methods some people use to try to censor the press. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri)

Weinstein-BlackCube surveillance claim exposes aggressive tactics to kill a story

Those with deep pockets can go to great lengths to push back against journalism they find objectionable. Billionaire Peter Thiel deployed a team of lawyers in a move that bankrupted the news site Gawker in 2016–and last month President Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to block the publication of an unflattering book. But there’s another, much…

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President Nicolás Maduro greets supporters at a February 2018 rally in Caracas. Venezuela's journalists say they fear a new anti-hate law will be a new tool for the government to suppress critical reporting. (AFP/Frederico Parr)

Venezuela’s anti-hate law provides Maduro with another tool to intimidate the press

In what journalists fear could be a taste of things to come, Venezuela’s new anti-hate law was enforced for the first time against a news organization on January 30, when Yndira Lugo, the editor of Diario Región, was called before government agents for questioning.

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2018