Criminal defamation suits in Peru and Chile could have chilling effect
New York, June 3, 2016 — Two criminal defamation suits filed against journalists by the president of Chile and a Peruvian governor could have a chilling effect on the press in both South American countries, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Time for justice in the killing of Vietnamese-American journalists
New York, May 27, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists will call for the cases of five Vietnamese-American journalists who were killed between 1981 and 1990 to be reopened, based on information uncovered by ProPublica and Frontline. The suspected assassinations were the subject of CPJ’s 1994 report, “Silenced, The Unsolved Murders of Immigrant Journalists in the…
CPJ reacts to reports that Peter Thiel has funded lawsuits against Gawker
New York, May 25, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists today released the following statement from Executive Director Joel Simon regarding reports that entrepreneur Peter Thiel has been secretly covering the expenses for Hulk Hogan’s lawsuits against online news organization Gawker Media:
Two journalists disappear in Colombia while covering story of missing reporter
Bogotá, Colombia, May 24, 2016– Two Colombian TV journalists may have been kidnapped in Colombia’s dangerous northeast Catatumbo region, their employer said today. Reporter Diego D’Pablos and camera operator Carlos Melo, of Bogotá’s RCN TV station, were investigating the disappearance of Salud Hernández-Mora, a Spanish-Colombian journalist who was last seen Saturday afternoon in the village…
Global Magnitsky Act could be powerful weapon against impunity in journalist murders
Last week, the proposed Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act emerged from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee with approval. The bill was passed by the Senate last year. If passed by the full House of Representatives and signed into law by the president, it has the potential to offer partial redress to one of…
Journalist Missing in Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia, May 23, 2016 – Salud Hernández-Mora, a Colombian-Spanish journalist who was reporting on human rights violations and the illegal drug trade in northern Colombia, has been missing since Saturday and may have been abducted, according to her employer and the Spanish and the Colombian governments.
Ecuadoran news websites face harassment
Ecuadoran news websites that published corruption allegations were the target of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on May 9, 2016, according to a joint letter Ecuadoran editors and press-freedom advocates sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists on May 13. In a DDoS attack, the attackers seek to overwhelm a website’s server with rapid,…
Why Trump’s insults of journalists must be taken seriously
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called the mainstream media “crooked” “unfair” “troublemakers” and The New York Times a failing, “SAD!” newspaper “full of boring lies.” Individual reporters are “liars” and “bimbos,” according to his tweets.
Mexican reporter killed in Veracruz
New York, May 17, 2016 – Mexican authorities should thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Manuel Santiago Torres González, who was shot to death on Saturday in the city of Poza Rica, in the eastern coastal state of Veracruz, and bring all those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Mexican newspaper faces harassment
Mexico City, May 12, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the increasing harassment of the Mexican daily newspaper Vanguardia and its staff. In recent weeks, Vanguardia’s website was attacked, police raided its owner’s ranch, a former local official sued the newspaper, and unknown men followed one of its reporters home, according…