USA / Americas

For data on press freedom violations in the U.S., visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a partnership between CPJ and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Read CPJ’s report On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom.

  
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen photographed on a COVID-19 illustration graphic background on March 25, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. CPJ and partners called on social media and content sharing platforms to preserve data amid the pandemic. (AFP/Olivier Douliery)

CPJ, partners call on social media and content sharing platforms to preserve data

The World Health Organization has called the novel coronavirus an “infodemic” and the topic of disinformation and “fake news” has remained at the forefront of this century’s worst pandemic, with social media and tech platforms playing a central role. COVID-19 has forced many companies to move to remote work, and tech platforms and social media…

Read More ›

A passenger walks through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on March 15, 2020, in Seattle, Washington. CPJ recently spoke with journalists covering the COVID-19 pandemic in Seattle. (John Moore/Getty Images via AFP)

Seattle journalists describe covering COVID-19 as ‘relearning how to do their jobs’

Washington state was the first COVID-19 hotspot in the United States. Since its first case was reported on January 21, more than 10,000 people have been infected with the virus, and at least 511 have died.

Read More ›

An entrance to a beach is closed on March 31, 2020, in Miami Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

University of Florida student journalist on covering COVID-19 amid campus closure

When university campuses across the U.S. began to send students home in response to growing coronavirus concerns, student journalists did not close their student papers, pack up, and leave. Instead, many student journalists across the country have emerged as their communities’ local coronavirus news reporters. The student journalists at The Independent Florida Alligator at the…

Read More ›

A journalist records a press briefing following the arrival of the USNS Comfort, a naval hospital ship with a 1,000 bed-capacity at Pier 90 in New York, on March 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

Speed, Clarity, Context: The New York Times’ Billie Sweeney on editing ‘Coronavirus Live Update’

In early February, only eight weeks ago but in a parallel universe that no longer exists, I invited Billie Sweeney, a senior staff editor at The New York Times, to tour the new CPJ office and visit with old friends. For nine years, from 2004 to 2013, Billie worked as CPJ’s editorial director, overseeing all…

Read More ›

The New York City Housing Authority's John Haynes Holmes Towers are seen on April 4, 2019. CPJ recently spoke with housing reporter Sadef Ali Kully about reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP/Mark Lennihan)

Covering COVID-19 as a housing reporter in New York City

For Sadef Ali Kully, a housing and land use reporter for the nonprofit news outlet City Limits, meeting with sources in-person was an integral part of covering her beat in New York City. However, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kully has needed to rethink how to perform the basics of her job.

Read More ›

Video journalist Jon Gerberg is seen on assignment in Brazil. Gerberg told CPJ about the challenges of reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic. (Gustavo Canzian)

U.S. video journalist shares tips for covering COVID-19: ‘We have to get creative’

In early March, Jon Gerberg was in Detroit, Michigan, covering the Democratic primaries as a video journalist with The Washington Post. But as the COVID-19 virus has spread in the United States and around the world, Gerberg’s coverage has changed to focus on the pandemic.

Read More ›

Governor Wanda Vazquez and National Guard general Jose Reyes tour screening stations established to detect the new coronavirus on arriving passengers at the Luis Muñoz Marin Airport in Carolina, Puerto Rico, on March 16, 2020. Reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa described the challenges of covering Puerto Rico’s coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa on covering Puerto Rico’s coronavirus outbreak

In the three years since Hurricane Maria hit the island, Puerto Rico has experienced a financial, political, and public health crisis, but reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa told CPJ that these events “have no comparison” to the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on the U.S. territory.

Read More ›

Government Technology Agency staff demonstrate Singapore's new contact-tracing smartphone app called TraceTogether, as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus on March 20, 2020. Bill Marczak, an expert in cellphone surveillance technology, told CPJ about the implications for journalists as governments ramp up their capacity to monitor citizens in a time of crisis. (AFP/Catherine Lai)

Expert Bill Marczak: What journalists should know about coronavirus cellphone tracking

Governments all over the world have been considering cellphone surveillance to help track and contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Read More ›

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls wear face masks during celebrations of the Purim festival in Bnei Brak, Israel, on March 10, 2020. CPJ recently spoke with Laura Adkins, an Orthodox Jewish editor at the Jewish Telegraph Agency. (AP/Oded Balilty)

Q&A: Covering the coronavirus outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Laura E. Adkins edited opinion pieces for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a syndicated nonprofit wire service that runs articles in Jewish publications. But as the virus has taken root in a number of Jewish communities in the United States and around the world, Adkins, who is based in New York and…

Read More ›

Demonstrators march on Las Americas highway demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 22, 2019. Rossello resigned in early August, but first signed two laws that obstruct the work of investigative journalists in Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

New laws obstruct work of investigative journalists in Puerto Rico

In July 2019, anti-government protesters gathered on the streets of Puerto Rico, motivated in part by the work of investigative journalists who had obtained and published over 900 messages exchanged by then Governor Ricardo Rosselló and his allies that disparaged political opponents and the island’s citizens. Before Rosselló gave in to public pressure to resign…

Read More ›