Colombian journalist Amalfi Rosales flees after death threats
Bogotá, Colombia, September 8, 2014 — Colombian journalist Amalfi Rosales has fled her home in northern La Guajira state and is seeking government protection after gunmen fired at her house, and she received death threats, according to news reports. Rosales told the Committee to Protect Journalists the threats began after she reported on alleged links…
Right to Report in the Digital Age
CPJ launches anti-surveillance campaign New York, September 8, 2014–Revelations about surveillance, intimidation, and exploitation of the press have raised unsettling questions about whether the U.S. and other Western democracies risk undermining journalists’ ability to report in the digital age. They also give ammunition to repressive governments seeking to tighten restrictions on media and the Internet.…
Back-to-back display killings of journalists unprecedented
The apparent back-to-back murders of two American freelance journalists by the same group are unprecedented in CPJ’s history. The beheadings on camera in a two-week period of first James Foley and then Steven Sotloff appear to be an acceleration of a pattern–dating at least to Daniel Pearl’s killing in 2002–of criminal and insurgent groups displaying…
CPJ condemns murder of US journalist Steven Sotloff
New York, September 2, 2014–The Islamic State militant group released a video Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of American freelance journalist Steven Sotloff, according to news reports. Sotloff, who was abducted in Syria in August 2013, would be the second American journalist murdered by Islamic State. In a video posted online on August 19,…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, August 2014
US-Africa Leaders Summit President Barack Obama hosted the first US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C. this month. The discussion focused on trade and investment, but CPJ helped put press freedom on the agenda. At a time of unprecedented growth and change in Africa, journalists are under increasing pressure, with spikes in repression from Ethiopia to…
James Foley’s killers pose many threats to local, international journalists
New York, August 20, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned for all journalists, most of them Syrians, still held captive by the Al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State, which has repeatedly kidnapped, killed, and threatened journalists in the territories over which it holds sway. President Barack Obama confirmed today that the group is responsible…
Radio station suspended in Venezuela
Bogotá, August 20, 2014–Venezuelan telecommunications regulator CONATEL shut down a critical radio station on Tuesday after refusing to renew the station’s expired transmission license, according to news reports. The move follows CONATEL’s suspension on Friday of a critical radio program on another station.
CPJ condemns killing of American journalist James Foley
New York, August 19, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of James Foley, a U.S. freelance journalist, who was abducted in Syria in November 2012. In a video posted online, the Al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State claimed to have executed Foley, saying the act was retribution for U.S. military intervention in Iraq.
Television anchor shot dead outside his home in Honduras
New York, August 19, 2014 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of broadcast journalist Nery Francisco Soto Torres in Honduras on Thursday and calls on authorities to launch a full investigation, determine the motive, and bring those responsible to justice.