Alexandra Ellerbeck/CPJ North America Program Coordinator

Alexandra Ellerbeck, CPJ's North America program coordinator, previously worked at Freedom House and was a Fulbright teaching fellow at the State University of Pará in Brazil. She has lived in Chile, Bolivia and Brazil.

A Mexican official pictured at the bridge connecting Tijuana and San Diego, in April 2018. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the policies of Customs and Border Protection after documents appeared to show that the agency targeted journalists. (Reuters/Mike Blake)

What we need to know about CBP’s searches of journalists at San Diego

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether the Customs and Border Protection Agency inappropriately targeted and questioned journalists and activists. The investigation, announced by CBP on March 6, came after NBC 7 obtained documents showing that the border agency compiled a list of individuals, including at least 10 journalists, for additional screening.

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Senators talk together in the the Russell Senate Office Building after leaving a January 16 news conference about proposed reforms to FISA. The Senate has reauthorized Section 702 of the act in a move that could put journalists at risk. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP)

How US vote to extend NSA program could expose journalists to surveillance

The U.S. Senate last week approved a six-year extension to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FISA), in a move that could put journalists at risk. Because people targeted by Section 702 are often of interest to the press as well as the NSA, journalists are more likely than most to have…

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Draft legislation on access to information in Canada, proposed by Member of Parliament Scott Brison, second from left, is inadequate, a group of press freedom organizations said in a letter to Brison today. (AP/Cliff Owen)

Canada’s proposed reform of access to information is inadequate

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with a coalition of more than 30 international and Canadian civil society organizations, sent a letter on September 28 to Canadian Member of Parliament Scott Brison, the president of the Treasury Board of Canada, calling for proposed access to information legislation to be replaced with a more robust reform.

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