Church says Cuba will release political prisoners
New York, July 7, 2010—The Catholic Church in Cuba said today that the government of President Raúl Castro has agreed to release dozens of political prisoners over the next several weeks, raising hopes that numerous imprisoned journalists could be freed. “If imprisoned journalists are freed, as suggested by the church’s announcement, it cannot come a…
U.S. photographer harassed covering Gulf oil spill
On July 2, 2010, photographer Lance Rosenfeld was detained by police and released only after authorities reviewed his images and collected his personal identification information, which they then shared with BP, the company responsible for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Rosenfeld was on assignment for the non-profit media outlet ProPublica and the PBS…
Balancing risk vs. safety in global news reporting
CPJ’s Joel Simon will be live on Wednesday on “The Kojo Nnamdi Show,” a daily news public radio show in Washington. Joining Simon will be Iraqi journalist Haider Hamza, who has covered the war in Iraq for Reuters and ABC News, and Alfredo Corchado, the Mexico bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, in a…
President Calderón responds to CPJ’s concerns
On June 7, we wrote to Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa about a series of attacks perpetrated against local journalists by federal law enforcement since the beginning of the year. The office of the Mexican president responded on June 16. In a letter to CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, Calderón informed us that our letter was submitted to the attorney general’s…
Two Mexican journalists slain in war-wracked Guerrero
New York, July 1, 2010—Mexican journalist Juan Francisco Rodríguez Ríos and his wife, journalist María Elvira Hernández Galeana, were shot dead on Monday at the Internet café they owned in the town of Coyuca de Benítez, state of Guerrero, according to international and local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Mexican…
Global Media Forum cites risks of environmental reporting
He’s young, unemployed and carries himself with the innocence of a man who hasn’t spent much time outside his own village. But Egyptian blogger Tamer Mabrouk is the real deal. Appearing at an international media conference in Bonn, Mabrouk’s description of chemical dumping into a brackish lagoon on the northern Nile Delta near the Mediterranean Sea…
Colombian intelligence official held in journalist’s murder
New York, June 30, 2010—A former deputy director of the national Colombian intelligence agency has been ordered held for masterminding the 1999 murder of journalist Jaime Garzón. José Miguel Narváez is currently behind bars awaiting trial in a separate case.
Police beat journalist at G-20 summit in Toronto
A freelance journalist was beaten by police on June 26, 2010, as he was covering a demonstration related to the G-20 summit of world leaders in Toronto. Jesse Rosenfeld, a contributor to the opinion section of the Guardian online, later said in a press conference that Canadian police authorities attacked him after recognizing him as a “loud-mouthed…