USA / Americas

Our alert released yesterday about the landmark decision to convict three Colombian officials in the 2003 murder of radio commentator José Emeterio Rivas is receiving coverage around the world today. The Associated Press has stories in both English and Spanish and the Swedish-language Medie Varlden newspaper has coverage.

A new report investigating conduct by St. Paul police during last summer’s Republican National Convention faults them over their handling of journalists. But the St. Paul Police Department’s response to the report raises questions over how the department will respond to journalists, including those from alternative and new media outlets, who cover similar future events.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki says he will reconsider the deeply flawed communications legislation that he signed into law at the beginning of the year. Kibaki said he would direct the Information Ministry and attorney general to consider the concerns of Kenya’s media and present them to the cabinet for possible legislative revision. CPJ and other…

January 2009News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

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…