Features & Analysis

2015

  
Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez on his 87th birthday last year. The Nobel laureate played a vital role in protecting journalists but more needs to be done. (AFP/Yuri Cortez)

Why García Márquez’s work to improve press protection in Colombia is still vital

To coincide with Colombia’s national day for journalists the Colombian organization Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) has published its annual report on press freedom conditions. The review of challenges faced by the media in 2014 comes as we remember the loss last year of one of the great defenders and promoters of Colombian…

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A sand sculpture in Mumbai for victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack. An editor arrested after complaints over her decision to publish an image of the French magazine's cover has gone into hiding in India. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

In India, laws that back the offended force editor into hiding

Mumbai may be 7,000 kilometers from Paris but the debate on freedom of expression sparked by coverage of the January 7 attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo is close to home for large parts of the Indian press.

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A newspaper kiosk in Khartoum. Journalists in Sudan are cautious about the freedom of information law recently passed in parliament. (AFP/Ashraf Shazly)

Sudan passes freedom of information law but journalists remain wary

The Sudanese government has boasted that its freedom of information law, passed by parliament at the end of January, will increase transparency by giving citizens the right to access and publish public information. But with a long history of censorship and harassment from authorities, journalists suspect the law will be used as another way to…

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Mission Journal: Finding a legal solution to siege of Pakistan’s media

Pakistan’s media, long under siege, face new challenges. “We had managed to get the genie out of the lamp,” was the way one Pakistani journalist explained it to me during a trip there last month. “But now, the military has pushed it back in and I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get it…

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A rally demanding justice for Hrant Dink is held in Ankara on January 19 to mark the eighth anniversary of the journalist's murder. (AFP/Adem Altan)

Hope for justice still frail in Hrant Dink’s 2007 murder case

The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, founder and managing editor of the weekly Agos newspaper, is still under investigation in Turkey. But despite arrests last month in the eight-year-old case, Dink’s family and colleagues are worried justice will still not be served.

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China doubles down on counterproductive censorship

In a move unlikely to surprise those who access the Internet from mainland China, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently blocked several popular tools used to bypass the “Great Firewall” national Internet censorship system. Citing the need to protect “cyberspace sovereignty” and to “maintain cyber security and steady operation,” the Ministry changed…

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Supporters of Kenji Goto gather outside the Japanese prime minister's Tokyo residence at a rally for the journalist, who is being held hostage by the Islamic State. (Reuters/Yuya Shino)

Kenji Goto’s reporting is voice of humanity in times of atrocity

Kenji Goto, the 47-year-old television journalist held captive by the Islamic State (IS), is not a typical reporter, nor is he typically Japanese. But his courage and commitment to broadcasting humane stories from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones would put him at the pinnacle of his profession anywhere in the world. It…

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After Charlie Hebdo attack, vigils, protests and publishing bans

Protests against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were held in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and parts of Africa over the weekend, as crowds demonstrated against the magazine’s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, according to news reports.

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Fight for justice in Kurdistan as suspect in journalist’s murder is exonerated

The family of Kawa Garmyane, a journalist shot dead in Kurdistan in December 2013, has vowed to continue the fight for justice after Mahmoud Sangawi, a military commander charged with ordering the killing, was exonerated on Sunday by a court in Kalar. The court also upheld the death penalty handed to Twana Khaleefa, who was…

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Uneasy alliance: State Department and journalists discuss rise in violence

Doug Frantz spent more than three decades in the journalistic trenches covering wars, overseeing investigative reporting, and directing national security coverage. He did stints at The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. Today Frantz works for the State Department, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Alarmed by…

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2015