Protests not newsworthy to Kremlin-controlled media
Following Sunday’s elections to the Russian Duma, news reports abound of the wave of opposition protests that have hit Russia’s current and historic capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In demonstrations unprecedented in the past decade, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets chanting “Russia without Putin!” and calling for the vote to be annulled,…
Six years later: Hayatullah Khan’s family calls for justice
Six years after the murder of journalist Hayatullah Khan, his brother Ahsan Ahmad Khan has asked CPJ to put pressure on the government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan to ensure that a special investigation carried out in September 2006 into the journalist’s death be released. (A copy of Ahsan Ahmad’s message can be found…
The silent funeral of an exiled Rwandan journalist
The crime reporter for Uganda’s vibrant Daily Monitor, Andrew Bagala, went to an odd funeral over the weekend. Last week, he covered the murder of online journalist Charles Ingabire, 32, who was shot dead in the early hours of Thursday morning by unknown gunmen at a bar in a Kampala suburb. “I decided to follow…
Solomon Abera, who voiced end of Eritrean free press, dies
The name Solomon Abera will forever be etched in the collective memory of Eritrea’s press corps. On September 18, 2001, as the world focused its attention on the terrorist attacks on the United States, the government of Eritrea borrowed Abera’s voice to sound the death knell, on state-controlled airwaves, of the Red Sea nation’s independent…
Q & A: Khudaiberdiyev on Kyrgyz trial, press freedom
In late October, a regional court in Jalal-Abad, southern Kyrgyzstan, convicted and sentenced in absentia to hefty prison terms two ethnic Uzbek media owners, Dzhavlon Mirzakhodzhayev of Mezon TV and Khalil Khudaiberdiyev of Osh TV. Both men were tried in connection to the ethnic conflict that ravaged southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. Authorities accused both…
Justice pins Gbagbo, but not yet Ouattara’s forces
This week, former Ivory Coast ruler Laurent Gbagbo was extradited to the Hague to account for alleged human rights violations before the International Criminal Court. Justice appears to be slower in coming to rival fighters loyal to current President Alassane Ouattara. According to CPJ research, Ouattara’s forces have been involved in the deaths of two…
Clinton must tread carefully in Burma
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets this week with Burmese President Thein Sein, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and senior ranking members of the military establishment, she conspicuously will not have the opportunity to meet with journalist Sithu Zeya. Sithu was detained by police after recording the impact of a bomb that…
What we have learned from fighting impunity
Press freedom groups worldwide are banding together today, the International Day to End Impunity, to demand justice for hundreds of journalists murdered for their work. On this day, the Committee to Protect Journalists and dozens of other members of the International Freedom of Information Exchange are remembering journalists killed, and urging governments to take action…
Awardees to their colleagues: Buck the system
The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria might seem like an odd venue to stage a call for resistance. Nine hundred people in tuxedos and gowns. Champagne and cocktails. Bill Cunningham snapping photos. This combination is generally more likely to coax a boozy nostalgia than foment a revolution. But the journalists honored last night at…
A call to continue the struggle against impunity
Last night, hundreds of journalists and members of New York’s press freedom community met at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan for the Committee to Protect Journalists’ XXI annual International Press Freedom Awards. At the event–celebrating the extraordinary courage of five journalists from across the globe–guests and award recipients unanimously expressed their commitment to fighting…