2020

By Katherine Jacobsen The COVID-19 pandemic has sent public health officials scrambling, the global economy into shock, and governments everywhere into crisis. It has also reshaped the way journalists work, not least because many authorities in many countries have cited the contagion as a reason to crack down on the news media. Certain dangers will…

Updated June 22, 2021 CPJ has documented numerous press freedom violations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, from legislation threatening to censor free speech to arrests of journalists providing the public with vital news about the virus. This map plots violations, verified by CPJ staff, across nearly every region of the world from early…

Washington D.C., June 1, 2020– Local and state authorities in the U.S. must stop targeting journalists and media workers covering protests and ensure that the press is exempt from any curfew restrictions, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. “We are horrified by the continued use of harsh and sometimes violent actions of police against…

Updated August 26, 2020 There have been hundreds of reported incidents of violence and harassment, as well as arrests, targeting journalists covering ongoing Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S. sparked by the death on May 25, 2020—in police custody—of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These incidents have been documented by CPJ…

New York, May 30, 2020 — In response to reports of attacks against journalists in recent days by police and protesters while covering demonstrations across the U.S., the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews, and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical…

Mexico City, May 29, 2020 — Mexican authorities should immediately provide journalist Marco Antonio Duarte Vargas with protective measures and credibly investigate threats against his life, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 27, at about 11:30 p.m., unknown assailants set fire to Duarte’s car at his home in Ciudad Obregón, in the…

Washington, D.C., May 29, 2020 — Minnesota police officers today arrested a CNN crew covering protests in Minneapolis while they were live on air, according to video from the broadcaster. In the footage, correspondent Omar Jimenez can be seen holding his press badge and crew members are heard identifying themselves as journalists and offering to…

Can the key to ending news blackouts in isolated areas of Colombia come from inside a shipping container? The Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) thinks so. In an experiment to turn community activists into reporters in regions that lack local news outlets, FLIP has converted a shipping container into a roving journalism classroom. For…

Mexico City, May 26, 2020 – Mexican authorities must immediately investigate an attack by gunmen on journalist Fernanda de Luna Ferral, bring those responsible to justice, and re-evaluate protective measures provided to her by the government, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

In a letter this week to the partners of the 2020 #FreeThePress campaign, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasized that freedom of the press and the safety of journalists remains a key priority for him, stressing that, “No democracy can function without press freedom, which is the cornerstone of trust between people and their institutions,…