Rana Ayyub, is one of India’s most high-profile investigative journalists, with a Washington Post column, a Substack newsletter, a popular Twitter presence with an audience of 1.5 million, as well as a controversial 2016 book alleging that government officials were implicated in the 2002 riots that killed Muslims in Gujarat. But in recent months Indian…
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined other civil society groups and press freedom organizations in a joint statement on Wednesday welcoming recent steps by the Council of Europe to limit abusive lawsuits aimed at restricting public speech. A Committee of Experts with legal and media freedom backgrounds is set to draft a Recommendation for the…
When reporters flee their home countries, many are forced to leave the profession after finding few opportunities in journalism and facing other pressures in exile. CPJ recently spoke with a Pakistani refugee reporter who not only stayed in journalism, but saved a local newspaper in his adopted country, Canada. In 2002, Mohsin Abbas was a…
As Israel grapples with the aftermath of explosive allegations that police illegally spied on dozens of Israelis, the country’s journalists are calling to be exempt from possible future legislation to oversee surveillance of citizens through spyware. Israel’s justice ministry last month denied a report by Israeli tech site Calcalist about the allegedly unlawful use of…
As journalists flee Russia fearing prosecution for their coverage of the invasion of Ukraine or their affiliation with outlets deemed “foreign agents,” the country’s Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU) is trying to help them. A non-governmental trade union with some 600 active members, the group defends labor rights, provides assistance to journalists, and stands…
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 57 other civil society groups in a letter on Wednesday, March 23, calling for the U.S. Congress to reauthorize and strengthen the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The 2016 law allows the U.S. to place targeted economic and visa sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for serious human…
On the morning after Boris Yeltsin stunned the world by resigning and turning over the Russian presidency to Vladimir Putin, The New York Times published a “man in the news” column that struggled to define the new leader. Putin was a man who “would never deceive you,” promised his political mentor and former St. Petersburg…
In 2017, Simon Mkina was the publisher and chief editor of the muckraking Tanzanian newspaper Mawio when authorities announced that they were suspending the publication for “jeopardizing national security” by reporting on two former presidents’ alleged links to mining misconduct. Mkina was forced to lay himself off, along with 57 other employees, and he became…
The Kremlin was infuriated by editor Galina Timchenko’s coverage of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. So it pressured her boss to fire her. Timchenko left Moscow with much of the staff from her popular website, moving to Riga, Latvia, where they could work free of Kremlin censorship. That may sound like today’s news, but it actually…
Brent Renaud was renowned not just for his war reporting, but for the compassion he brought to his work. From Iraq to Somalia to Mexico, his videography explored human vulnerability and human connection at the worst of times. A U.S. soldier in Fallujah calls his mother on Mother’s Day; a physical therapist coaxes a young…