Features & Analysis

2015

  
Gao at a press freedom conference in Paris, in April 2008,(AP/Jacques Brinon)

Jailed journalist Gao Yu saw what was coming. So should the IOC

Gao Yu was right, I was wrong. Gao, who was handed a seven-year prison sentence in a Beijing court on Friday, and I met at a conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris in April 2008, a few months before the Beijing Olympic Games were to get underway. CPJ…

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Residents sit under Somaliland's Independence memorial in Hargeisa. Journalists there say conditions are improving, but they remain wary. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Mission Journal: Fewer arrests but fear still lingers for Somaliland’s press

Conditions for the press in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland may, on the surface, appear to be improving. But without a functioning media law to lend protection, and pending legislative elections, journalists remain wary of state harassment.

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A picture taken on April 9, 2015, shows a note on the window of a newsroom at French television network TV5Monde headquarters in Paris, after TV5Monde was hacked by individuals claiming to belong to the Islamic State group. (AFP/Thomas Samson)

Cyberattacks rattle French, Belgian media outlets

The headquarters of Le Soir in the center of Brussels, two blocks away from the Parliament, look serene in the spring sunshine. No sign of violence scars the glass and stone facade. But the leading Belgian francophone daily, the flagship of the Rossel media group, has suffered a concussion. On Sunday a wave of hacking…

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The Formula One track, above, in Bahrain is a source of national pride but a short drive from the spectacle of race day is the overcrowded Jaw Prison. (AFP/Tom Gandolfini)

Glitz of Formula One must not divert attention from Bahrain’s jailed journalists

When the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) hosted Formula One for the first time in 2004, it was nearly a false start for the $150 million facility. Drivers told the BBC they feared desert sand would damage their racecars. So track employees began a perpetual fight against nature, even spraying glue over the surrounding desert in…

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Chinese journalist Gao Yu, pictured at a Hong Kong press conference in 2007, is expected to be sentenced in China on April 17. (AFP/Mike Clarke)

Veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu awaits her fate

A verdict is expected Friday in the case of veteran journalist and staunch government critic Gao Yu. The 71-year-old freelance journalist, who writes about politics, the economy, and social trends for Chinese media in Hong Kong and overseas, was tried in November for disclosing state secrets.

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(Geo News)

One year later: Hamid Mir on the attempt to kill him and what came next

Hamid Mir and I last saw each other in Islamabad in late January at a meeting of the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety. Mir, a senior anchor for Geo News, seemed as if he was on the road to recovery, but he was obviously still in pain from injuries he sustained during an assassination attempt…

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Students light candles at the edge of the Tigris to mark a June 2014 massacre of army cadets by Islamic State. As the militants are pushed out of Iraq, the toll of destruction on Iraqis, including journalists, is only just coming to light. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

In Iraq, Islamic State exacts heavy toll on journalists and their families

The militant group Islamic State swept through Iraq last summer, taking over city after city and leaving a wave of destruction of a scale only just being discovered. Even now it is difficult to understand how much damage was inflicted, including on the Iraqi journalist community, where rumors of missing or killed journalists are swirling…

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Egyptian journalist Shawkan on his 600 days in prison

“Photography is not just a hobby for me. It is an actual way of life. It’s not just how you hold a camera and snap a picture. It’s the way that you see life and everything around you.”

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Copies of Tal Cual are read in Caracas in 2007. The critical Venezuelan newspaper has been forced to downsize in an effort to survive. (AP/Leslie Mazoch)

In Venezuela, Tal Cual under pressure but not defeated

Tal Cual, one of the few remaining Venezuelan newspapers critical of the government, is so shorthanded there’s often no receptionist on hand to let people in. Visitors must bang on the front door until someone in the newsroom notices. That can take a while because there are hardly any editors or journalists left.

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CPJ

David Laventhol: Dedicated and generous press freedom advocate

David Laventhol, the former publisher of Newsday and the Los Angeles Times passed away on Wednesday, aged 81. Dave served as chairman of CPJ from 2002 to 2005, using his low-key approach and savvy news sense to help guide the organization’s response to the unprecedented turmoil of the Iraq War.

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2015