USA / Americas

For data on press freedom violations in the U.S., visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a partnership between CPJ and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Read CPJ’s report on the Biden administration and the press.

  

Freelance journalist Lindsey Snell detained in Turkey after leaving Syria

New York, September 1, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Turkish authorities today to release Lindsey Snell, an American freelance journalist who has been detained since August 7 after traveling to Turkey from Syria, where she said she had been filming.

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Pentagon’s revised Law of War Manual recognizes role of independent journalists

Washington, July 22, 2016–The Pentagon no longer considers journalists operating independently of U.S. military forces as potential spies, terrorists, or saboteurs, according to U.S. military officials who have rewritten the military’s Law of War Manual.

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CPJ testimony on threats to press freedom at Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

Today, at a hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney C. Radsch gave testimony on the threats to freedom of expression.

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A confrontation outside a Trump rally in San Diego in May. Journalists covering the Republican and Democratic conventions are advised to take security precautions. (AP/Lenny Ignelzi)

Be prepared: steps to staying safe while covering US political party conventions

The U.S. political party conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia this summer carry the risk of civil unrest. While protests have long occurred both inside and outside of convention venues, security experts and political commentators have said this year’s gatherings have the potential for unrest not seen since in the U.S. since the Vietnam war-era clashes…

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Georgia journalist arrested over open records request related to court

New York, July 6, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on prosecutors today to drop all charges against Mark Thomason, the publisher of local weekly newspaper Fannin Focus, in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Thomason, who was arrested June 24, faces felony charges including making a false statement in an open records request.

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Freelance journalist Jay Torres, whose body was found on June 13, had contributed to La Estrella for nearly 20 years. (Rebecca Aguilar)

Journalist Jay Torres murdered in Garland, Texas

New York, June 16, 2016–The Committee to Protect journalists is alarmed by the killing of Texas journalist Jacinto Hernández Torres, whose body was found on Monday night in Garland, a northeast suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The journalist, who went by the name Jay Torres, was a freelance contributor for nearly 20 years…

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Time for justice in the killing of Vietnamese-American journalists

New York, May 27, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists will call for the cases of five Vietnamese-American journalists who were killed between 1981 and 1990 to be reopened, based on information uncovered by ProPublica and Frontline. The suspected assassinations were the subject of CPJ’s 1994 report, “Silenced, The Unsolved Murders of Immigrant Journalists in the…

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CPJ

CPJ reacts to reports that Peter Thiel has funded lawsuits against Gawker

New York, May 25, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists today released the following statement from Executive Director Joel Simon regarding reports that entrepreneur Peter Thiel has been secretly covering the expenses for Hulk Hogan’s lawsuits against online news organization Gawker Media:

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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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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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