USA / Americas

Dear President-elect Obama: I am writing as chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists to seek your leadership in reaffirming America’s role as a staunch defender of press freedom throughout the world. Journalists in many countries who risk their lives and liberty upholding the values of free expression look to the United States for support.

Also: See capsule reports on journalists in jail as of December 1, 2008 New York, December 4, 2008–Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found…

The Chauncey Bailey Project is shaking up California authorities from Oakland to Sacramento, after alleging misconduct by police–including mishandling or withholding evidence by the chief detective investigating their colleague’s murder. Evidence recently published by the project, a rare, ad hoc consortium of committed journalists, has led the Alameda district attorney to open an independent oversight…

New York, November 4, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the decision by California authorities to undertake additional investigations into the August 2007 murder of U.S. editor Chauncey Bailey.

After Jehad Ali’s leg was shattered by assailants in Iraq, colleagues raised money, and surgeons in California offered help. Now, Ali has cleared another big hurdle: He’s gained permission to enter the United States. By Robert Mahoney

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced it decided to issue visas to two Cuban journalists who had previously been denied reentry into the U.S. As a footnote to the transcript of spokesman Sean McCormack’s discussion about the case of Cuban journalists Ilsa Rodriguez Santana and her husband, Tomas Anael Granados Jimenez, which was reviewed…

New York, September 30, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the U.S. government to explain its decision not to renew visas of two New York-based, United Nations-accredited Cuban correspondents.

Each year, CPJ compiles an annual census of journalists imprisoned around the world, and every year since 2001, the U.S has figured on this list of infamy. During this period, journalists have been imprisoned right here in this country for refusing to reveal their sources; imprisoned by the U.S. military in Iraq for long periods…

New York, September 5, 2008–Dozens of journalists were arrested while covering demonstrations on the third day of the Republican National Convention. They included two Associated Press reporters who, along with other members of the media, were documenting a few hundred protesters trapped by police on both sides of bridge over an interstate highway. The protesters…

CPJ’s Washington Representative Frank Smyth has a posting on The Hill Blog today about the recent arrests of journalists covering protests around the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Read our alert on the incidents here, and click here to watch video footage of the arrests posted yesterday.Read Smyth’s post at The Hill Blog.