Frank Smyth/CPJ Journalist Security Coordinator
Frank Smyth is CPJ’s senior adviser for journalist security. He has reported on armed conflicts, organized crime, and human rights from nations including El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, Rwanda, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Jordan, and Iraq. Follow him on Twitter @JournoSecurity.
In journalist security field, maturing and understanding
Journalist security is still a maturing field, but news organizations are devoting more attention to preparing their reporters and photographers for the dangers particular to the profession. That means understanding risks that are constantly evolving. The brutal attack on CBS correspondent Lara Logan at a Cairo demonstration has drawn worldwide attention to the issue of…
Young journalist held in Iran, ‘a country I love so much’
Iason Athanasiadis is still a young man at 30, but he’s an old school, shoe leather journalist. “Journalism’s deepest, most honest contributions inevitably spring from on-the-ground reporting, unencumbered by policy agendas in Washington, London, or other foreign capitals,” writes Sandy Tolan, author and University of Southern California journalism professor, today in Salon. “That’s what epitomizes the work of…
In Oakland, progress in Bailey murder prosecution
The murderers of journalists around the globe presume they won’t get caught. Unfortunately, they’re often right: Only one case in 10 results in any convictions; just one in 20 results in convictions of those who ordered the murder. For more than a year it seemed like the August 2007 slaying of U.S. journalist Chauncey Bailey,…
Bailey colleagues hold detectives accountable
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…