Profiles

Aaron Berhane, former editor-in-chief of Eritrea’s now-banned largest private newspaper, Setit, escaped arrest in September 2001 and launched Meftih newspaper in Canada.

Solomon Abera worked as a reporter, presenter, producer, and commentator with Eritrea’s government-controlled national radio station Dimtsi Hafash following independence in July 1991. In 2003, he also began working as a presenter with state broadcaster Eri-TV and state-controlled youth radio Radio Zara. He defected in March 2005 after enduring government censorship and intimidation.

John Otis, CPJ’s Andes correspondent for the Americas program, works as a correspondent for Time magazine and the Global Post. He authored the 2010 book Law of the Jungle, about U.S. military contractors kidnapped by Colombian rebels, and is based in Bogotá, Colombia.

Géraldine May is the coordinator for the Free Burma VJ campaign, a project run by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a nonprofit media organization, that calls for the release of the 17 video journalists imprisoned in Burma.

CPJ Middle East and North Africa Research Associate Dahlia El Zein, a Lebanese native who grew up in Cairo, received her master’s degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. She speaks Arabic fluently and has traveled widely in the Middle East.

Journalist Assistance Program Associate Sheryl A. Mendez is an editor and photojournalist who has worked in international hot spots such as Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. She has a master’s degree in International Affairs specializing in conflict and security from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Julie Payne is the manager of the Toronto-based press freedom organization Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Payne is also the manager of the global network for journalist assistance, Journalists in Distress.

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…

Gene Roberts is a former chairman of CPJ and is the chairman of the Journalist Assistance Committee of CPJ’s board. He has taught at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland since 1991, following 18 years as the executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Journalist Assistance Program Associate Sheryl A. Mendez is an editor and photojournalist who has worked in international hot spots such as Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. She has a master’s degree in International Affairs specializing in conflict and security from the New School for Social Research in New York.