Americas

  
Reality Winner, center, an intelligence contractor charged with leaking classified National Security Agency material, is shown in a courtroom sketch at a hearing in Augusta, Georgia, on June 8, 2017. A group of Senate Republicans claim that leaks to the media under the Trump Administration are harming national security. (Reuters/Richard Miller)

US Senate report on leaks and national security is deeply flawed

Last week, Republicans on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report on leaks to the media. The report, which was led by Chairman Ron Johnson, asserts that “an avalanche” of leaks under the Trump Administration is harming national security. It lists at least 125 news articles and their bylines -…

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Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, center, speaks to journalists in Washington, D.C. on June 27. He released a report claiming that media leaks under the Trump Administration harm U.S. national security. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republicans on Senate committee assert media leaks harm US national security

New York, July 6, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a report released today by a group of Senate Republicans arguing that “an avalanche” of media leaks under the Trump Administration is harming national security. The report, which lists at least 125 news articles that allegedly harmed national security and their bylines, was…

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Guatemalans remember those killed in the country's 36-year civil conflict in Guatemala City, February 25, 2016. (Reuters/Josue Decavele)

Guatemalan journalist faces threats, intimidation

New York, June 30, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should thoroughly investigate the threats against journalist Marielos Monzón, an investigative reporter and contributor to the newspaper Prensa Libre, and should ensure her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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In this file photo, municipal police block a street in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, January 17, 2017. (Reuters/Victor Ruiz Garcia)

Mexican journalist says he was attacked, threatened by police

Mexico City, June 29, 2017–Mexican authorities should swiftly and credibly investigate the alleged assault of journalist Rubén Pat, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Pat, the co-founder of the online news resource Semanario Playa News, told CPJ that police beat him, detained him overnight, and threatened him for his reporting.

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Congressman Greg Gianforte appears in court to face a charge of misdemeanor assault over an attack on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in Montana in June. (Reuters/Tommy Martino)

CPJ to use $50,000 Gianforte donated as part of body slam settlement to track other assaults on press

When the news came that Greg Gianforte was making a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists it was 10 p.m. on the East Coast, but 8:30 a.m. in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s Disney-like capital city, where members of our CPJ team were meeting officials to discuss that country’s punitive press laws.

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Guatemalan TV journalist survives gunshot to head

Two unidentified gunmen on June 14, 2017, shot Carlos Danilo Rodríguez Ixtecox, the owner and director of the local TV channel Multiviral Canal 19, in a small grocery store his family owns in Puerto Barrios, on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast.

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Mexican investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui speaks to reporters in Mexico City, June 19, 2017. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Spyware targeted Mexican journalists and activists

Mexico City, June 20, 2017–Attempts to spy on Mexican journalists and human rights activists by infiltrating their mobile devices with spyware threaten press freedom in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A report released in Mexico City yesterday by the press freedom group Article 19 and open internet researchers R3D and the…

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A soldier destroys chemicals used in the production of cocaine in Ragondalia, in the remote Colombian state of Norte de Santander, November 22, 2006. Dutch journalists Derk Johannes Bolt and Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender were abducted in the state, police said yesterday.

Dutch journalists abducted in Colombia

Bogotá, Colombia, June 20, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of two Dutch journalists who were abducted while reporting from a lawless region of northeastern Colombia.

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A car drives on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, September 29, 2017. A Dutch freelance journalist said Venezuelan security forces detained him on September 21, 2017 while he was on a reporting trip in the country's southern mining district. (Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)

2017 Venezuela Country Safety Page

Updated November 9, 2017 As the political situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate, journalists covering protests have been routinely targeted, harassed, attacked, and detained. To provide concrete safety information for local and international journalists covering the unrest, CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team is issuing periodic updates on the political situation and the climate for journalists.

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Óscar Martínez, pictured at CPJ's 2016 International Press Freedom Awards, says journalists should discuss safety with their sources. (CPJ/Getty/Jeff Zelevansky)

Óscar Martínez: Trust and safety for journalists and sources is vital in El Salvador

Óscar Martínez knows first-hand the dangers of reporting on crime and gang violence. The co-founder of Sala Negra (Black Room)–an investigative reporting project run by the El Salvadoran new outlet El Faro–says he and his colleagues have been threatened and harassed for their hard-hitting coverage. But, Martínez says, their sources are equally at risk of…

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