Noose left at U.S. newspaper’s office door

On April 21, 2017, someone left a noose on the doorstep of The Sacramento Valley Mirror, a semiweekly newspaper in Willows, California, newspaper staff told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Fighting for the Truth

Journalists have a huge amount of work to do By Christiane Amanpour Never in a million years did I expect to find myself appealing for the freedom and safety of American journalists at home. Despite the hostile rhetoric of the U.S. presidential campaign, I hoped that after becoming president-elect, Donald Trump would change his approach…

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Case in Point

A journalist details one fight over records requests in the United States By Michael Pell In December 2010, Robin Gordon faced an ultimatum. She had found that a debt collection company had purchased a $291 tax lien on an apartment she owned in Atlanta, Georgia, after her mortgage company failed to pay a small portion…

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Thwarting Freedom of Information

Agencies exploit every loophole to evade disclosure requirements By Jason Leopold On December 13, 2016, I filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI seeking a wide range of documents about a series of highly controversial decisions the bureau made in the weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election that Democratic lawmakers…

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What Is the Worst-Case Scenario?

American journalists grapple with the Trump presidency By Alan Huffman The word “unprecedented” is often used to describe Donald Trump’s antipathy toward the American media, as it is of many of his other approaches to governance.

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(Access Now)

CPJ joins Fly Don’t Spy campaign to protect journalists and their sources

Over the past several months, the Committee to Protect Journalists has raised concerns over U.S. border agents’ use of secondary searches of journalists and their devices at U.S. borders, and government proposals to require travelers to hand over social media account passwords as a condition of entry to the U.S. That is why today CPJ…

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White House press secretary Sean Spicer talks to the media during the daily briefing. President Trump and his administration have accused critical outlets of being fake news. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Deciding who decides which news is fake

Authorities decry the proliferation of misinformation and propaganda on the internet, and technology companies are wrestling with various measures to combat fake news. But addressing the problem without infringing on the right to free expression and the free flow of information is extremely thorny.

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A traveler arrives at New York's JFK airport. Suggestions by the Homeland Security Secretary that passengers be asked for social media passwords would impact journalists. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

CPJ calls on Homeland Security secretary to reject password proposal

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly’s suggestion to a committee hearing that the U.S. could request social media profile and password information as a condition to entering the country. Such requirements would have an impact on journalists by undermining their ability to protect sources and work product,…

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Coalition calls for charges to be dropped against Standing Rock journalists

CPJ and a coalition of other organizations request that the Morton County State’s Attorney’s Office drop the charges against journalists arrested during protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline or justify the arrests of reporters in the course of their work.

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Reporters gather after being denied access to an informal White House press secretary briefing. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Reporters barred from U.S. press secretary briefing

New York, February 24, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the decision today to bar nine news outlets from an informal briefing known as “a gaggle” by President Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Separately, at the Conservative Party Action Conference in Maryland today, Trump said that journalists should not be…

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