Maria Salazar/Americas Senior Research Associate
Maria Salazar Ferro is director of CPJ’s Emergencies Department, overseeing the organization’s assistance and safety work worldwide. She is president of the board of the ACOS (A Culture of Safety) Alliance, a coalition aimed at improving protections for freelancers. She joined CPJ in 2005 and has served as coordinator for the Journalist Assistance Program and the Global Campaign Against Impunity, and as senior research associate for the Americas program.
Newsweekly reveals twist in Colombian wiretapping scandal
Last week’s cover story in the leading Colombian newsweekly Semana—known for investigations that have shaken the core of the administration of President Alvaro Uribe Vélez—revealed further evidence of illegal wiretapping of journalists by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the country’s national intelligence service. The article, titled “A handbook for threats,” disclosed outrageous details about the intimidation techniques…
From a park bench in Havana, Cuban blogger honored in NY
Last night’s scenario was breathtaking: a circular hall with high ceilings, marble columns, tables draped with heavy tablecloths and soft bouquets, and journalism personalities elegant in cocktail dresses and tuxedos. And poised behind a wood podium, a black screen silently reminding all those present of who was not there.
Honduran radio station goes online after suspension
Early Monday morning, military and police personnel forcefully shut down the Tegucigalpa-based Radio Globo under a decree by the de facto government that suspends civil liberties, CPJ reported. Today, Honduran and international media outlets said the radio station was being broadcast online.
Hopeless, a sister visits her imprisoned brother in Havana
Graciela González-Degard is 72 years old. She has salt-and-pepper hair, long elegant hands, soft manners reminiscent of another era, and a bad knee that she blames on age. Once a Catholic nun, Graciela moved to the United States from Havana in the 1960s and now lives in New York with her husband. She teaches children…
Imprisoned Cuban journalist is granted 24 hours at home
March 20 marked the sixth anniversary of the three-day 2003 crackdown on the independent Cuban press. That day, Oleivys García Echemendía was scheduled to visit her husband, imprisoned Cuban journalist Pablo Pacheco Ávila, at 1 p.m. at the Morón prison in the central province of Ciego de Ávila.
Independent Cuban journalist details four-day detention
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, a Havana-based independent journalist, sent an e-mail message this morning to his “brothers, colleagues, and organizations that protect and watch over press freedom around the world” announcing that he had been released from police custody after a four-day detention. In his e-mail, titled “Thanks to you and to your demands,…
FARC declares Colombian media a military target
Four hostages released this weekend by Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) said at a press conference on Monday that the leftist guerrilla group had declared the Colombian media a “military target,” according to Colombian and international news reports. The statement stirred a heated debate among Colombian journalists over coverage of guerrilla groups.
Jailed Cuban journalist protests inhumane conditions
Fabio Prieto Llorente, one of 21 independent journalists jailed in Cuba, has been outspoken in describing the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which he and others have been held. On Wednesday, he began a hunger strike to call attention to the situation at El Guayabo Prison in the western Isla de la Juventud province, the…
Mexican reporter released from U.S. detention center
According to U.S. and Mexican news reports, reporter Emilio Gutiérrez Soto was released on Thursday from a detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he had been held for seven months while awaiting an immigration hearing. Gutiérrez illegally entered the United States in June fearing for his life and that of his son after receiving…