Audio report: Impunity on trial in the Philippines
In our special report, “Impunity on trial in the Philippines,” CPJ examines the troubled prosecution of defendants in the 2009 massacre of more than 30 journalists and media support workers in Maguindanao province. Among other problems, CPJ found that local investigators mishandled forensic evidence and failed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Listen to the mp3…
Lauría interview on CNN Español
CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría was interviewed by CNN Español about the dangers facing journalists in Mexico. The interview took place in Washington where Lauría was participating in the event Silence or Death in Mexico’s Press at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The segment on press freedom in Mexico aired on November 8. Please…
Convictions are what are urgently needed
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon was quoted in an article on CNN.com carried on November 6 about the nearly fatal attack against Russian journalist Oleg Kashin: “By failing to prosecute those who have carried out crimes against journalists in the past — including 19 murders committed in the Putin era — the Russian government has created…
Abdel Dayem quoted in New York Times
The New York Times quotes CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem in the article “Baghdad Studio of Feisty TV Station Shut Down in Dispute With Iraqi Government” carried on November 4:”The arrests and the forced closing are emblematic of the changing news environment, in which journalists are less likely than…
Moroccan authorities impeding Spanish journalists
New York, November 9, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an increasing climate of hostility for Spanish journalists in Morocco, highlighted by official measures to prevent Spanish journalists from covering clashes in the Western Sahara. CPJ calls on Rabat to allow journalists to do their work unimpeded.
Program to protect reporters raises doubts in Mexico
The Mexican government is currently putting together a program, it says, that will help reduce one of the most brutal problems for journalists: their lack of protection from death threats from drug cartels, government officials, and ordinary criminals. Senior officials at the Ministry of Interior told CPJ that they expect to offer at-risk journalists a…
Help journalists in need: An appeal
Mikhail Beketov is lucky to be alive, although I’m sure there are days when he doesn’t think so. On November 13, 2008, the environmental reporter who campaigned against a highway that would have destroyed a forest in Khimki, a town outside Moscow, was beaten nearly to death by men with metal bars. The attackers made…
In France, is Sarkozy spying on journalists?
Every Wednesday morning in France, rain or shine, half a million people eagerly wait for the satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchainé. Some wait for it nervously. The old-fashioned broadsheet, a venerable media institution that has no real equivalent in other European countries, posts its motto defiantly on its front page: “Freedom of the press wears…
CPJ welcomes release of Puntland journalist
New York, November 8, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the presidential pardon and release today of radio journalist Abdifatah Jama, who was imprisoned in August for airing an interview with an Islamist rebel leader in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. CPJ had repeatedly called for his release.Jama, deputy director of Horseed Media, had begun serving a six-year prison sentence after being…