Americas

  

CPJ welcomes conviction in 2013 murder of Brazilian photographer

São Paulo, August 20, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the conviction and sentencing Wednesday of Alessandro Neves Augusto for the murder of Walgney Assis de Carvalho, a freelance photographer shot dead in Minas Gerais state in 2013, and urges authorities to continue investigating to find the mastermind.

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A protester holds up a photograph of Rubén Espinosa, who was killed after he fled Veracruz state. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

The murder of Mexican photographer Espinosa has touched a nerve

The July 31 murder of Mexican photographer Rubén Espinosa hit the press freedom community really hard. Espinosa, who was found in an apartment with four female victims–all of them shot in the head–had fled the state of Veracruz in June and sought refuge in Mexico City, where he thought he would be safe from threats…

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Audio: James Foley on being a freelance war correspondent

In April 2012, Nicole Schilit, research associate in CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program, interviewed James Foley about his experience working as a freelance journalist in conflict zones. The interview took place in New York between reporting trips to Libya and Syria. Foley was murdered in Syria in August 2014.

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Two U.S. journalists charged months after being arrested in Ferguson

New York, August 11, 2015–Two U.S. journalists have been charged in Missouri with trespassing and interfering with a police officer nearly a year after they were detained by police in the city of Ferguson, according to news reports. Wesley Lowery, a reporter for The Washington Post, and Ryan J. Reilly, a reporter for the Huffington…

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Brazilian journalist dies after being shot while hosting radio program

New York, August 7, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder on Thursday of Brazilian radio journalist Gleydson Carvalho in the municipality of Camocim in the northeastern state of Ceará and calls on authorities to bring the killers to justice. Carvalho was presenting a program on Radio Liberdade FM when two unidentified gunmen entered…

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Mexican photojournalist who fled violent Veracruz state murdered in capital

Mexico City, August 3, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Mexican photojournalist Rubén Espinosa and calls on authorities to investigative all motives in the killing and ensure the perpetrators are held to account. Espinosa, who had fled to the capital from Veracruz state after receiving threats, was found murdered in a Mexico…

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A press briefing at the Pentagon in April. Worrying guidelines on how the military can categorize the press during conflict are contained in the Defense Department's Law of War Manual. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

In times of war, Pentagon reserves right to treat journalists like spies

The Pentagon has produced its first Department of Defense-wide Law of War Manual and the results are not encouraging for journalists who, the documents state, may be treated as “unprivileged belligerents.” But the manual’s justification for categorizing journalists this way is not based on any specific case, law or treaty. Instead, the relevant passages have…

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Radio reporter arrested after covering protest

Juan Carlos Paco Veramendi, a reporter for the Potosí-based Radio Líder, was arrested on July 24, 2015, and held for five days, according to local journalists and press reports.

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Violence and censorship are weakening Latin America democracies

CPJ’s Carlos Lauría testifies at congressional hearing on press freedom in the Americas Washington, D.C., July 29, 2015–Deadly violence against the press in the Americas has caused censorship to reach one of its highest points in recent decades, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ senior program coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauría, said today in remarks…

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A scene from Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary 'The Look of Silence.' (Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media)

Increased risks for filmmakers and sources in documentaries’ Golden Age

Joshua Oppenheimer travelled to New York for today’s premiere of his documentary “The Look of Silence,” but one place he won’t travel is Indonesia, where he says his work on this and an earlier film puts him at risk. Earlier this week, Laura Poitras, the Academy Award-winning director of the documentary CITIZENFOUR, filed a lawsuit…

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