The murderers of journalists around the globe presume they won’t get caught. Unfortunately, they’re often right: Only one case in 10 results in any convictions; just one in 20 results in convictions of those who ordered the murder. For more than a year it seemed like the August 2007 slaying of U.S. journalist Chauncey Bailey,…
New York, April 18, 2009–An Iranian court convicted journalist Roxana Saberi of espionage and sentenced her to eight years in prison today following a closed, one-day trial earlier this week, according to international news reports. Her lawyer said he will appeal. “Roxana Saberi’s trial lacked transparency and we are concerned that she may not have been…
On April 15, 2009, a documentary filmmaker was handcuffed and forcibly removed from the University of Southern California campus during a journalism awards ceremony. The filmmaker, John Ziegler, was led away by two USC Department of Public Safety officers after refusing university requests to remain within a designated area behind a barricade set up for…
On April 2, 2009, a professional mixed-martial arts fighter and boxer was charged with assaulting a food critic for the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York. Police are investigating whether the assault was a premeditated attack in retaliation for a critical review of an area restaurant the year before.
Early in the morning of March 30, 2009, the decaying, mangled corpses of a slew of dead animals were left by the front door of a college editor’s off-campus residence in Hillsdale, Michigan. The carcasses included one and a half deer, several large rodents, and a black goat, according to The Collegian, the newspaper of…
CPJ Washington Representative Frank Smyth had a posting on The Hill Blog on April 3 about the House’s passing of a “shield bill” to protect reporters from revealing their sources, and another bill, the “Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act,” named after the late Wall Street Journal reporter. Read Smyth’s post here.
New York, March 19, 2009–Diplomats in China, North Korea, and the United States should cooperate to ensure the safe release of two journalists and a guide reportedly detained by North Korea while working near the country’s border with China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.