U.S. reporter faces ‘insult’ suit in Brazil air crash aftermath
New York, September 29, 2009—U.S. freelance journalist Joe Sharkey, who covered a 2006 plane crash in Brazil in which he was a passenger, faces an onerous civil defamation suit for comments he said were wrongly attributed to him. On the third anniversary of the accident, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Brazilian judicial authorities…
CPJ to honor five international journalists
New York, September 23, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor courageous journalists from Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan with its 2009 International Press Freedom Awards at a ceremony in November. Mustafa Haji Abdinur of Somalia, Naziha Réjiba of Tunisia, Eynulla Fatullayev of Azerbaijan, and J.S. Tissainayagam of Sri Lanka have faced imprisonment, threats…
Anthony Lewis, former New York Times columnist, author
Burton Benjamin Award Awards 2009 |Announcement of the Awards | Eynulla Fatullayev | J.S. Tissainayagam | Naziha Réjiba | Mustafa Haji Abdinur Tony Cenicola Anthony Lewis is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the foremost thinkers on freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. In a distinguished career at The New…
CPJ tells Clinton of threats to women journalists in Congo
Dear Secretary Clinton: In light of your recent advocacy on behalf of Congolese women during your visit to Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, we are writing to bring to your attention our deep concerns about the safety of three reporters covering women’s issues in Bukavu, south of Goma.
An Iraqi journalist in America: Finally … Red Lobster
Most of the Iraqi refugees who recently arrived in America were shocked by the economic situation here. I was prepared. I knew about the difficulties of finding a job in America, and I knew I could count on assistance from the American government through my status as a journalist with The New York Times. Even…
Walter Cronkite: ‘He still believed in it all’
The projected image of Walter Cronkite smiled out at a crowd of hundreds of journalists, family, and friends at a memorial in Manhattan today. From a lectern beneath this image, President Barack Obama spoke about the late CBS anchor’s steadfast professionalism, a quality never more needed than today, in the midst of severe political and…
CPJ calls U.S. detention of Ibrahim Jassam unjust
CPJ called on U.S. military forces to charge or release journalist Ibrahim Jassam, who has been imprisoned in Iraq for one year as of today. Jassam, a freelance cameraman and photographer working for Reuters, has not been charged with a crime, and no evidence against him has ever been disclosed. U.S. forces have made only…
Lee and Ling: ‘Instinctively, we ran.’
Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested by North Korean police on March 17 for allegedly entering the country illegally and carrying out “hostile acts.” In June, they were sentenced to 12 years’ hard labor. Now back in the U.S. after receiving a pardon, the two are telling their story on Current.com,…
Pentagon questions profiling of reporters in Afghanistan
No doubt Stars and Stripes is a Pentagon-authorized newspaper. But no one should doubt the daily’s editorial independence from the Defense Department. This week Stars and Stripes beat the rest of the press pack in breaking a story that not only made Defense Department officials uncomfortable, but that compelled veteran Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman to…