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My chance encounter last year with Los Paisas, a criminal gang that operates in northern Colombia, began a nightmare that continues today. I was heading to an assignment in a tourist area south of Montería on July 9, 2009, when Los Paisas gang members blocked my car. The gang was meeting with local landowners nearby–and…

CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney is quoted in an article in MediaGlobal about the dangers faced by journalists when they expose societal ills and injustice. In the article entitled “Is the pen still mightier than the sword? The plight and protection of journalists” Mahoney tells how “Most journalists are targeted. They aren’t caught in a…

Jordanian journalists succeeded this week in turning back some of the most repressive aspects of a new law on cyber crimes. The initial version of the law, approved by the cabinet of ministers on August 3, included broad restrictions on material deemed by the state to be defamatory or to involve national security. It also…

New York, September 2, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Kuala Lumpur to drop a criminal charge against blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman. He was charged today with “intent to hurt” in connection with a satirical entry on his blog, nose4news, that made fun of Malaysia’s state-run power company Tenaga, news accounts said.

The discussions between Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, and governments such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India continue to hit the headlines. In each case, disagreements center on providing customer communications to security and law enforcement services. The rumblings from these nations over monitoring powers aren’t just limited to RIM:…

New York, September 1, 2010–Unknown assailants fatally stabbed radio journalist Abdullahi Omar Gedi in the Galkayo district of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, on Tuesday evening. Gedi, 25, had just left work at Radio Daljir when attackers stabbed him repeatedly and left him unconscious, the station’s managing partner, Jama Abshir, told CPJ. Gedi died…

Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral, a rallying point for civil rights action during apartheid, was the site of the public launch on Tuesday of a mass campaign aimed at stopping a secrecy bill seen as a major threat to South Africans’ hard-won freedom.

New York, August 31, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns threatening comments made by President Bingu wa Mutharika against Malawian news outlets last week. Mutharika threatened to close newspapers that report critically about his administration after the private weeklies Malawi News and Weekend Nation cited a regional agency’s report forecasting food shortages in the country,…