Two U.S. journalists killed during live broadcast in Virginia
New York, August 26, 2015–Two journalists affiliated with the Virginia TV station WDBJ7 were killed early today during a live broadcast, according to news reports. Alison Parker, a reporter for the station, and Adam Ward, a photographer, were interviewing a woman about a shopping plaza in Moneta, a small community near Roanoke city, when they…
The Road to Justice
5. Building Pressure, Enforcing Compliance The United Nations has escalated its focus on journalist killings, declaring that unpunished attacks against journalists are a major threat not only to press freedom, but also to all major areas of the U.N.’s work. In recent years, it has adopted two resolutions addressing journalists’ safety and impunity and launched…
Forced to flee: A timeline of journalists’ flight into exile
Every year, dozens of journalists are forced to leave their homes under threat of imprisonment, torture, violence, or even death, because their work has angered the powerful. Over the past 12 months, the Committee to Protect Journalists has supported 42 journalists around the world who were forced to flee, with Syria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea responsible…
Support the #RightToReport
Revelations about surveillance, intimidation, and exploitation of the press have raised unsettling questions about whether the U.S. and other Western democracies risk undermining journalists’ ability to report in the digital age. They also give ammunition to repressive governments seeking to tighten restrictions on media and the Internet. When journalists believe they might be targeted by…
Remembering Camille Lepage
“Not sure I can talk about my ‘career’ just yet–I’m still just getting started!” freelance photographer Camille Lepage told the photography site Petapixel in October 2013.Less than a year later, Lepage’s body was found in a car in the Central African Republic, according to news reports citing the French government. She had been traveling with fighters of…
Advertising and Censorship in East Africa’s Press
The printed word is thriving in parts of Africa, but advertisers’ clout means they can often quietly control what is published. By Tom Rhodes Kenyans read election coverage in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, the capital, on March 9, 2013. One reason that advertising revenue trumps circulation for East Africa’s newspapers is that readers often…
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Uganda
Though attacks against the press diminished compared with recent years, authorities continued to crack down on journalists for critical coverage. Police were accused of being the perpetrators in a third of the assaults on journalists. The government instigated the longest arbitrary suspension of the press in recent years after police raided two dailies, The Monitor…
After Security Council, what next for journalist safety?
Speaking at a U.N. Security Council discussion about the protection of journalists, Associated Press Executive Editor and CPJ Vice Chair Kathleen Carroll remembered the 31 AP journalists who have died reporting the news and whose names grace the Wall of Honor that visitors pass as they enter the agency’s New York headquarters. Most were killed…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, May 2013
Gunman sentenced in murder of Philippine journalistCPJ has extensively covered the case of radio journalist Gerardo Ortega, who was killed in January 2011 in the Philippines, and has provided non-financial support for the Ortega family. Through our Global Campaign Against Impunity and the new digital component Speak Justice: Voices Against Impunity, CPJ has also pressured the Philippine government to…