Journalist investigates Bolivia’s ‘silent campaign’ for editorial control
At a bizarre news conference in April, Bolivia’s Communications Minister Amanda Dávila claimed that journalist Raúl Peñaranda, who was born in Chile, represented a dangerous “beachhead” for Chilean interests trying to deny landlocked Bolivia access to the Pacific.
Governor ‘cloned’ Cancún magazine to create fake covers with positive stories
The Cancún-based investigative magazine Luces del Siglo has won a court decision ordering the Quintana Roo state government to stop “cloning” the covers of its weekly editions and spreading the fake versions via social networks, according to news reports.
Open government is unsustainable without a free press
This week, as he takes office as lead chair of the Open Government Partnership, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto will reaffirm the commitment of the more than 60 countries that make up this multilateral initiative, which seeks to enhance governance, promote citizen participation, and improve governments’ accountability to citizens.
Back-to-back display killings of journalists unprecedented
The apparent back-to-back murders of two American freelance journalists by the same group are unprecedented in CPJ’s history. The beheadings on camera in a two-week period of first James Foley and then Steven Sotloff appear to be an acceleration of a pattern–dating at least to Daniel Pearl’s killing in 2002–of criminal and insurgent groups displaying…
First US-Africa summit short on press freedom, other human rights
Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.
No press freedom without Internet freedom
Four years ago, when CPJ launched its Internet Advocacy program, we were met with lots of encouragement, but also some skepticism. “Why do you need a program to defend the Internet?” one supporter asked. “You don’t have a special program to defend television, or radio, or newspapers.” But the Internet is different. Increasingly, when it…
Uruguay’s Edison Lanza has work cut out as new OAS special rapporteur on freedom of expression
The office of the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was created in 1997 to advance freedom of expression in the hemisphere, and over that period has contributed significantly to the protection and expansion of press freedom. So when Catalina Botero leaves the office in October, her successor–Edison…
Peru Interior minister under investigation in 1988 journalist murder
Some of Peru’s top government officials, including President Ollanta Humala, are former army officers who spent the 1980s fighting Maoist Shining Path guerrillas. Both sides committed massive human rights abuses, but now one particularly brutal episode is coming back to haunt the Humala administration.
TSA policy change could compound security concerns for journalists in transit
On Sunday, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced a new policy requiring that travelers to the United States turn on their devices at the request of airport security personnel. Devices that cannot be powered on will be barred from the aircraft, and passengers in possession of such devices may also be subjected to additional screening.…