Internet blackouts in Venezuela, and fighting for justice in the Maldives
John Otis, CPJ’s Andes correspondent, reports on Venezuela’s internet blackout and the impact it has had on Venezuelans’ ability to access news and information. Three journalists have been killed in the last week, in Afghanistan, Honduras, and Mexico. CPJ Asia Program Research Associate Aliya Iftikhar recently returned from a reporting mission to the Maldives, where…
UAE hired former NSA employees to surveil journalists and human rights activists
CPJ expressed concern that at least four journalists were surveilled under Project Raven, a United Arab Emirates cybersurveillance and hacking operation, according to a Reuters report. CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour called the involvement of U.S. intelligence officials in the operation “disturbing.” CPJ North America Research Assistant Stephanie Sugars took…
Islamic State recedes but threats to journalists in Iraq and Syria remain
After three years of fighting in Iraq and Syria, the militant group Islamic State has been forced out of large swathes of territory. But local journalists and press freedom groups with whom CPJ spoke said that the defeat of Islamic State doesn’t necessarily mean that journalists will be any safer.
Kurdish journalist killed, others attacked amid post referendum tensions
New York, October 30, 2017– CPJ today condemned attacks against the Kurdish media in Iraq and called on all parties to refrain from targeting the press as political and military tensions escalate over a Kurdish independence bid. In recent days, attackers stabbed to death a journalist, a mob attacked two TV crews, and Iraq’s media…
Global Magnitsky Act could be powerful weapon against impunity in journalist murders
Last week, the proposed Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act emerged from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee with approval. The bill was passed by the Senate last year. If passed by the full House of Representatives and signed into law by the president, it has the potential to offer partial redress to one of…
Outlets banned in Bahrain and Syria over allegations of false news
New York, August 7, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bahrain and the Kurdish-run territory of Syria to rescind two separate decisions this week to suspend the operations of three news outlets that fill a critical journalistic space in their respective areas. The three outlets have been accused of spreading false news…
In Iraq, Islamic State exacts heavy toll on journalists and their families
The militant group Islamic State swept through Iraq last summer, taking over city after city and leaving a wave of destruction of a scale only just being discovered. Even now it is difficult to understand how much damage was inflicted, including on the Iraqi journalist community, where rumors of missing or killed journalists are swirling…
Impact: A year in review
The past year has been a traumatic one for the press, with the high number of journalists killed and imprisoned underscoring the perils of a profession that requires being on the front line of history. Amid growing animosity by governments, and the threats posed by organized crime and militant groups such as the Islamic State,…