For journalists, danger lurking in your email
This week, Morgan Marquis-Boire and Bill Marczak of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab provided a disturbing look into the likely use of a commercial surveillance program, FinFisher, to remotely invade and control the computers of Bahraini activists. After the software installs itself onto unsuspecting users’ computer, it can record and relay emails, screenshots, and…
The New York Times takes on China’s censors
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after The New York Times’ soft launch of its Chinese-language edition and accompanying microblog accounts, Berkeley-based China Digital Times website reports that the @nytchinese Sina Weibo feed is no longer accessible in China, along with two accounts hosted by Netease and Sohu. We couldn’t pull them up this…
Greek far-right party casts shadow on Europe press freedom
The celebration Tuesday of the 50th anniversary of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) should have been a joyful and lighthearted affair. Dozens of journalists from all parts of the European Union had traveled to Brussels to share memories, new projects, champagne, and petits fours.
In UK talks, some practical solutions for Pakistani press
Amid political tumult in Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and a team of six ministers are in London for far-ranging meetings today through May 13. The Pakistan-U.K. Enhanced Strategic Dialogue will review education, health, defense, security, and cultural cooperation. CPJ has written a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron to urge that press…
Cameron and Gilani should discuss journalist security
Dear Prime Minister Cameron: As you begin your meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review the Pakistan-U.K. Enhanced Strategic Dialogue, we would like to draw your attention to concerns regarding the protection of journalists in Pakistan. CPJ data show that the country has been ranked the deadliest in the world for journalists for two consecutive years. This year, Pakistan also placed 10th on CPJ’s Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are regularly murdered and their killers go free.
UK surveillance plan must be watched carefully
When journalists make enemies in high places, they become vulnerable to the powers those figures wield. One such power is the state’s capacity to wiretap and obtain personal records from communications companies. From Colombia’s phone-tapping scandal to last year’s case of Gerard Davet–a Le Monde reporter whose phone records were obtained by the French intelligence…
Defending the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights is a victim of its success. In 2011, more than 60,000 people sought its help after exhausting all judicial remedies before national courts. But now, some member states of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe are pushing for reforms of the prestigious institution and are pointing at the number of…
High-tech security information needs better dissemination
After the London launch of CPJ’s Attacks on the Press at the Frontline Club this week, I had an opportunity to talk to a number of young journalists setting out to regions where reporters are frequently at risk. As CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon noted, these discussions took on an extra poignancy the next day,…
Recalling Marie Colvin, the ‘greatest of our generation’
In her final hours, Marie Colvin gave this damning report to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Bravery, generosity, and commitment: These are the three characteristics of Marie Colvin that have surfaced, again and again, in the many tributes spoken and published since the veteran Sunday Times reporter was killed Wednesday in the besieged city of Homs by…