Americas

2018

  
Google's logo is seen outside its office in Beijing. If the company were to launch a censored news app in China, it would send a message to other companies and other countries that trading press freedom principles for access to lucrative markets is acceptable. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Google complicity in Chinese censorship could endanger press freedom elsewhere

In 2010, after four years of offering Chinese users a heavily censored version of its search engine, Google decided it would no longer block search results at the request of the Chinese state. “Our objection is to those forces of totalitarianism,” Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, told The New York Times at the time, adding that…

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An audience member protests the news media during a President Donald Trump campaign rally in Washington Township, Michigan, on April 28, 2018. (AP/Paul Sancya)

CPJ’s backgrounder on US press freedom

In recent weeks CPJ has noticed an uptick in interest from editorial boards of U.S. publications on issues related to press freedom in the United States. In light of this, the following data and reporting may be helpful. CPJ systematically tracks the killing and imprisonment of journalists around the world, and reports on threats and…

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At a national dialogue with President Daniel Ortega in May 2018, a woman holds up a newspaper showing images of people who died in protests in Nicaragua. More media outlets are providing hard-hitting news about the violent crackdown. (AP/Alfredo Zuniga)

In Nicaragua, Ortega’s control over the media slips even as a government crackdown intensifies

Nicaragua’s four-month-old popular uprising has not only weakened President Daniel Ortega’s grip on power: it has eroded his government’s control over the news.

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Press photographers at a 2018 World Cup match in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on July 2. At least four female sports journalists were grabbed or sexually harassed while covering the soccer tournament. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

World Cup harassment highlights issues female sports journalists face on daily basis

With the World Cup final just a few days away, female sports journalists say the experiences of at least four reporters who were grabbed, groped, or sexually harassed on air while covering the tournament in Russia have highlighted the harassment they face.

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In a photo taken by St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Christian Gooden, Black Lives Matter protesters and others burn U.S. flags during a protest in September 2017. Gooden was hit by pepper spray while covering the protests. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Non-white journalists describe risks and repercussions of covering protests in the US

“I was just another in a sea of black faces on the other side of a police line,” said Christian Gooden, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer who was hit by pepper spray while covering a protest on September 29, last year. Gooden said that he turned his head when police sprayed indiscriminately, then resumed photographing…

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Zack Stoner, left, pictured with two members of Good Brothers, a community group he was part of. Stoner was shot dead in Chicago in May. (Charles Preston)

With Zack Stoner’s killing, Chicago loses vital voice covering overlooked community

I weighed the possibility of being killed for writing this. Seriously. I know that shedding light on or speaking about particular persons and issues can increase the likelihood of being murdered, especially in Chicago. To some this may seem like hyperbole or another introduction to a hit-piece on the city’s violence, exaggerating statistics and depicting…

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Protests in Managua. Journalists in Nicaragua say they have been beaten, attacked, and had equipment stolen during months of protests against President Daniel Ortega. (Shannon O'Reilly)

Nicaragua’s press defiant in the face of arson attacks and mob violence

At the temporary office of Radio Darío in the Nicaraguan city of León, reporters have set up two emergency escape routes: a trap door that opens into the dining room of the house next door and a ladder leading to the roof.

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A lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee, photographed in Washington in April, accuses WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, Russian operatives and others of a conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 election by stealing and publishing tens of thousands of emails and documents. (AP/Alex Brandon)

By suing WikiLeaks, DNC could endanger principles of press freedom

In 1993, WILK radio host Frederick Vopper broadcast a conversation intercepted by an illegal wiretap and sent anonymously to the Pennsylvania radio station, in which two teachers union officials discussed violent negotiating tactics. The officials sued Vopper, arguing that he should be liable for the illegal wiretap that captured their comments. But the Supreme Court…

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People attend the YouTube Fanfest in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2016. Google released its first YouTube-specific transparency report in May. (Reuters/Beawiharta)

Greater transparency welcome but social media sites should allow independent audits of content takedowns

In recent days, some of the world’s largest tech companies released new transparency reports, opened up their content moderation guidelines, and adopted approaches to fighting pernicious content as they tried to head off government regulation amid concerns about “fake news,” harassment, terrorism and other ills proliferating on their platforms.

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A demonstration calling for LGBT rights in Trinidad and Tobago on April 12. Journalists covering LGBTQ issues say they often face retaliation for their work. (Reuters/Andrea de Silva)

Covering LGBTQ issues brings risk of threats and retaliation for journalists and their sources

To mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, CPJ spoke with journalists and news outlets based in Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, the U.S., Uganda, and Russia, about the challenges they face reporting on LGBTQ issues.

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2018