As police investigate fresh attack amid Charlie Hebdo trial, French media unify around free expression
The knifings of two employees of a French TV production company outside the former Charlie Hebdo office on Friday, which occurred as a high-profile trial on the 2015 attacks on the newspaper was underway, was a stark reminder that threats to journalists have not disappeared in the five years since the deadly assault. The megatrial had started on September…
CPJ joins call for California attorney general to investigate technology used in Belarus censorship
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined free expression and digital rights groups on September 23 in calling on Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, to investigate technology sales by Sandvine Inc. after the company acknowledged that its products were being used to block news and other websites amid anti-government protests in Belarus. The call, co-signed by…
Bertha Foundation: Omar Radi’s arrest blocked Moroccan land rights exposé
The 10th time journalist Omar Radi was summoned by Moroccan police this summer, he was arrested on multiple charges including undermining state security and sexual assault, as CPJ documented in July. He was placed in solitary confinement in the Oukacha Prison in Casablanca to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19, and remained there as…
Former VOA staffer Al Pessin on VOA’s role amid the Trump-appointee shakeup
At the end of August, journalists with the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America (VOA) took the extraordinary step of ringing a public alarm bell about moves by the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA and several other outlets. VOA broadcasts in 47 languages and employs both U.S. citizens…
As ruling party fans spew online abuse, Pakistan’s female journalists call for government action
On August 16, Ramsha Jahangir should have been celebrating a journalistic triumph, the release of a long, deeply reported cover story for the weekend magazine of Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper on the government’s social media strategy and image-building. Instead, she spent the day watching in horror as a torrent of abuse filled her social media feeds. Eventually, she went offline. …
CPJ joins call to revise Nigeria’s draft data protection bill
The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined Paradigm Initiative, a Nigeria-based digital rights group, and the NetRights Coalition of over 100 global civil society groups to submit comments on Nigeria’s draft data protection bill, which is undergoing a public consultation process. The submission said that the bill should “protect those fulfilling their duty as journalists”…
Crimean Tatar civic journalists risk persecution to cover their community in Russian-annexed Crimea
After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, some Crimean Tatars–the indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula–had to flee for the Kyiv-controlled part of Ukraine. But most have chosen to remain. As the Russian-appointed new authorities established blanket censorship, squeezing out independent media outlets, a new phenomenon emerged–civic journalism. Members of the Crimean Tatar community–who had not…
CPJ reminds EU that ‘e-evidence’ rules should protect journalists
CPJ today prompted the European Parliament to safeguard press freedom and human rights in a proposed regulation known as the ‘e-evidence’ proposal, co-signing a letter with European Digital Rights and other digital and media organizations. CPJ has expressed concern about the lack of safeguards in the proposed Regulation on European Production and Preservation Orders, which…
In an era of global protest, France and Israel stand out for use of dangerous ammunition
With the world gripped in a historic wave of unrest, journalists in no fewer than 65 countries – about a third of the world – have been attacked covering protests since 2015, according to a report I authored for a U.N. agency that was published today. One thing that stood out during my research for the report Safety…
When police patrol protests in military gear, journalists face a hostile reporting environment
When St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson was covering protests against police violence in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, he said other reporters often asked him what it was like to get teargassed night after night. These days, he told CPJ, he rarely gets asked that question: “Now all of my journalist friends have been teargassed.” Tear gassings, rubber…