Americas

  

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…

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The funeral of Sergei Magnitsky is held in Moscow on November 20, 2009. The lawyer died in state custody after exposing official corruption. (Reuters/Mikhail Voskresensky)

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…

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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.

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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,…

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to journalists in Nashville, Tennessee, in August 2015. (Reuters/Harrison McClary)

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.

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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.

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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…

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CPJ alarmed by WhatsApp block in Brazil

New York, May 2, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by a judicial order to block WhatsApp in Brazil for 72 hours. A judge ordered telecommunications companies to block the messaging application as of 2 p.m. local time today for failing to turn over data in a criminal investigation, according to press reports.

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CPJ highlights challenges to female journalists, reporter released from prison, CPJ hosts book talk

CPJ Newsletter: May edition CPJ publishes annual edition of Attacks on the Press On April 27, CPJ launched its annual publication of Attacks on the Press. This edition, which focuses on gender and media freedom worldwide, highlights the challenges faced by female journalists who fight to report the news against all odds. The book–and the…

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Compassion, Strength, Hugs

I am a hugger. Maybe it’s my Texas heritage, but the value of wrapping people in a warm embrace at the right time has stayed with me, like a hint of twang, in the 40 years since I left the state. And hugs have been just the right thing many times during the decades that…

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