CPJ
2009
Family’s ‘truth teller’ speaks: Kati Marton at CPJ
Author and CPJ board member Kati Marton’s parents worked as foreign correspondents in Budapest during the Cold War in the 1950s, exposing Marton to the grit of living in a Communist state. She described feelings of alienation and displacement she felt as a child to an audience at CPJ’s New York offices today. “We lived…
Clinton raises impunity in journalist murders in Russia
When CPJ issued its recent special report Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia, we called on world leaders to join us in engaging Russian leaders on human rights, press freedom, and impunity. We were pleased to hear Secretary Hillary Clinton do just that today when she spoke about impunity at a…
It’s an honor
Yesterday, CPJ received the Thomas J. Dodd Prize for International Justice and Human Rights at an outdoor ceremony at the University of Connecticut. It was one of those perfect, crisp fall mornings in New England with a strong wind blowing clouds across the sun and shaking the first leaves from the maples, which have already…
CPJ receives Dodd human rights prize
New York, October 5, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists was honored today with the fourth biennial Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights. The $75,000 prize is given “to an individual or group who has made a significant effort to advance the cause of international justice and global human rights.” CPJ was…
Russia, EU tell CPJ they will act on Russian murders
On September 15, a CPJ delegation released a special report in Moscow on impunity in journalist killings committed in Russia under the country’s current leadership. The report, Anatomy of Injustice, garnered an unusual amount of attention from the Russian media. Our press conference at the Independent Press Center was packed with journalists, both domestic and…
Walter Cronkite: ‘He still believed in it all’
The projected image of Walter Cronkite smiled out at a crowd of hundreds of journalists, family, and friends at a memorial in Manhattan today. From a lectern beneath this image, President Barack Obama spoke about the late CBS anchor’s steadfast professionalism, a quality never more needed than today, in the midst of severe political and…
Correcting the record on journalists (female or male, young or old)
Postings this week on two Web sites erroneously attributed statements about young female journalists to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Because the statements are completely contrary to our fundamental principles, we are taking a moment to make sure the record is clear.
Meeting Sami al-Haj
In conjunction with the International Freedom of Expression Exchange general meeting, the Norwegian government hosted a Global Forum on Freedom of Expression featuring three days of discussions, seminars, and lectures from leading experts. For me, a highlight was finally meeting Sami al-Haj, at left, the Al-Jazeera correspondent who was held for six years at Guantanamo…
Speaking out in Oslo
Oslo is reputed to be the world’s most expensive city, and while I can’t absolutely affirm it, I can tell that I paid $15 for a beer and $5 for a coffee. The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a network of press freedom organizations from around the world, is holding its general assembly here in…
Obama, Clinton acknowledge World Press Freedom Day
Barack Obama first addressed press freedom as a global issue back when he was visiting his father’s native Kenya as a senator in 2006. “Press freedom is like tending a garden, it’s never done,” Obama told reporters in Nairobi after a recent Kenyan government crackdown on the press. “It continually has to be nurtured and…