Features & Analysis

  
RAI journalist Stefania Battistini reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Lombardy, northern Italy. (Photo courtesy Stafania Battistini)

Q&A: RAI journalist Stefania Battistini on covering Italy’s coronavirus outbreak

Stefania Battistini, an experienced reporter for Italian public broadcaster RAI, has covered terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and Syria’s civil war for the channel’s news program. Now, she is confronting the biggest challenge of her career: the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging Lombardy, northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit regions in the world. Battistini, who is based…

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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.

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Independent Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli speaks in Baku, Azerbaijan ,,on Sunday, March 2, 2014. Mukhtarli spoke to CPJ after his release from prison in Azerbaijan on March 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Aziz Karimov)

Journalist Afgan Mukhtarli: ‘Azerbaijani prisoners are facing death under coronavirus quarantine’

Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was released from prison on March 17, 2020, after nearly three years in jail, and flown to Berlin, where he was reunited with his wife and daughter. He served half of his six-year sentence on charges that Azerbaijani authorities brought in retaliation for his investigative reporting, as CPJ research shows.

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Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov is seen in Bishkek on December 25, 2019. Khadicha Askarova, the wife of imprisoned journalist Azimjon Askarov, recently wrote a letter to Jeenbekov pleading for the journalist’s release. (AFP/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Wife of imprisoned journalist Azimjon Askarov calls for his release as COVID-19 hits Kyrgyzstan

On March 11, Khadicha Askarova, the wife of imprisoned journalist Azimjon Askarov, wrote a letter to Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbay Jeenbekov pleading for the journalist’s release.

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Members of the media watch as the Olympic Flame is transported to Japan, at Haneda international airport in Tokyo on March 18, 2020. CPJ recently joined a call for transparency and press freedom at the Olympics and other major sporting events. (Reuters/Issei Kato)

CPJ joins call for transparency in Olympics and other sport events amid COVID-19

The Sport and Rights Alliance, a coalition of non-governmental organizations co-founded by the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement on March 20 calling on global sports organizations to maintain high standards of transparency and press accessibility amid the COVID-19 pandemic as assessments are made around sporting events, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

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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…

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An Iranian woman wearing a protective face mask chooses traditional items ahead of Nowruz, the national New Year celebration, at the Tajrish Bazaar in the capital Tehran on March 19, 2020, despite the heavy death toll due the novel coronavirus in the country. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government has covered up crucial information and threatened journalists. (AFP/Stringer)

Amid coronavirus pandemic, Iran covers up crucial information and threatens journalists

In recent months, the stability of the Iranian government has been threatened by widespread protests in late 2019 and the shooting down of a Ukrainian civilian aircraft in January 2020 amid heightened tensions with the U.S. The latest threat is the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Iran harder than any country except China or Italy.…

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A screen shot of Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov broadcasting on one of his YouTube channels. Abdurakhmanov, a prominent blogger critical of the Chechen authorities, survived a violent assault in his home in Swedish town of Gävle on February 26, 2020.

Chechen blogger and government critic Tumso Abdurakhmanov: ‘I am constantly at risk’

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a prominent blogger critical of the Chechen authorities, survived a violent assault in his home in Swedish town of Gävle on February 26, 2020. Two Russian nationals have been arrested in connection with the attack, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. CPJ documented the incident and spoke to the blogger after his…

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Newspapers are seen in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 19, 2018. CPJ recently joined other press freedom groups in calling on Turkey's ad regulator to lift its ban on the leftist daily Evrensel. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

CPJ joins calls on Turkey to lift ad ban on Evrensel daily

CPJ joined the International Press Institute, Reporters Without Borders, the Journalists Union of Turkey, the European Federation of Journalists, and 20 other Turkish and international groups in a joint letter today calling for Turkey’s Press Ad Agency, the state regulator of government advertisements in print media, to lift its ban on advertising in critical leftist…

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A screen shows a CCTV state media broadcast of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Wuhan at a shopping centre in Beijing on March 10, 2020. Researchers at Citizen Lab have documented Chinese platforms censoring keywords related to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Q&A: Citizen Lab documents Chinese censorship of coronavirus keywords

Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who was reprimanded for warning colleagues of a new coronavirus earlier this year, used the messaging app WeChat to share his concerns on December 30, 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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