Ríodoce attack shows need for denial-of-service defenses
A founder of Mexican news weekly Ríodoce, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, traveled to New York in November to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award at our annual benefit dinner. No sooner had he returned to Mexico than Ríodoce’s website was thrown offline by a denial of service (DOS) attack, in which multiple computers are used to…
Mexican weekly goes offline after cyberattack
New York, November 28, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports of a cyberattack on Mexican weekly Ríodoce that forced its website offline on Friday. Ríodoce is one of the few publications to cover crime and drug trafficking in Mexico.
Awardees to their colleagues: Buck the system
The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria might seem like an odd venue to stage a call for resistance. Nine hundred people in tuxedos and gowns. Champagne and cocktails. Bill Cunningham snapping photos. This combination is generally more likely to coax a boozy nostalgia than foment a revolution. But the journalists honored last night at…
A call to continue the struggle against impunity
Last night, hundreds of journalists and members of New York’s press freedom community met at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan for the Committee to Protect Journalists’ XXI annual International Press Freedom Awards. At the event–celebrating the extraordinary courage of five journalists from across the globe–guests and award recipients unanimously expressed their commitment to fighting…
Mexican daily offices attacked by gunmen
New York, November 15, 2011–A group of unidentified gunmen attacked the premises of the Mexican daily El Siglo de Torreón early this morning, setting a car on fire and shooting at the building several times. Around 2:40 a.m., at least three assailants parked two vehicles in front of the newspaper’s offices in the city of…
Mexican cartels keep up social media intimidation
The dissemination of reports and graphic photos of a dead man, reportedly decapitated and left in the border city of Nuevo Laredo with a warning that he was murdered for using a chat room, appears to be the latest attempt by organized crime to intimidate social media users and control the online agenda. While it’s…
Mexico murder may be social media watershed
María Elizabeth Macías Castro’s killers made sure their actions were understood. In a macabre, carefully orchestrated mise-en-scene, they placed her body in front of a poster with the ominous note. Nearby they left a computer keyboard, with a pair of headphones on her decapitated head.
Mexican police reporter missing in Veracruz
New York, September 29, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Mexican journalist Manuel Gabriel Fonseca Hernández has gone missing from the city of Acayucán, in Veracruz state. Fonseca’s friends first reported him missing on September 20, police records show.