Americas

  
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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A poster of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is carried at a protest against government corruption revealed by the Daphne Project, in Valletta, Malta, on April 29. Reporting on corruption can be a dangerous assignment. (Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi)

Make solving journalist murders a priority, CPJ tells US Helsinki Commission

“Being a reporter in much of the world is dangerous work. Being an investigative reporter can be deadly,” CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission, at a briefing in Washington, D.C. today.

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Journalists watch as Marine One, with President Donald Trump on board, lifts off from the White House in March 2018. An already hostile environment for the U.S. press has worsened since Trump came to power. (AP/Susan Walsh)

Joint report on press freedom in US details worsening media environment

Journalists and news organizations in the U.S. face a range of intensifying challenges that threaten their right to freedom of the press, according to a report launched today by international press freedom and free expression advocacy groups to mark World Press Freedom Day.

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El Tiempo cartoonist Matador says he decided to stop publishing his work on social media after receiving a death threat. (María Fernanda Barberi)

Death threat drives Colombian cartoonist Matador offline

During his 15-year career satirizing public figures, Colombia’s best-known editorial cartoonist has made numerous enemies. In his drawings for the Bogotá daily El Tiempo, Julio César González, better known by his pen name, Matador, targets politicians of all stripes.

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Fans watch the Rio Olympic Games soccer match between Brazil and Germany in August 2016. Brazil's female sports journalists are campaigning for an end to the harassment they face covering matches. (AFP/Tasso Marcelo)

Brazil’s ‘Let her do her job’ campaign demands respect for female sports reporters

On March 25, not long before two of the biggest soccer matches of the season were about to kick off in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, a previously unknown group posted a video online that was of relevance to everyone involved in the game. The group had no name but they had a hashtag…

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