Afrah Nasser, Yemen
CPJ is honored to present its 2017 International Press Freedom Award to Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni reporter and blogger living in exile in Sweden. Afrah Nasser, an award-winning exiled Yemeni independent reporter and blogger, reports from Sweden on human rights violations, women’s issues, and press freedom in her home country. Nasser began contributing to the…
Pravit Rojanaphruk, Thailand
CPJ is honored to present its 2017 International Press Freedom Award to Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk. Pravit Rojanaphruk is one of Thailand’s most prominent critical reporters and a long-time advocate for press freedom. He is currently a columnist and senior staff writer for Khaosod English (Fresh News), a website established in 2013 that publishes critical…
Patricia Mayorga, Mexico
CPJ is honored to present its 2017 International Press Freedom Award to Mexican journalist Patricia Mayorga. Patricia Mayorga is a correspondent for Proceso, a news magazine based in Mexico City. Her reporting includes stories on forced disappearances of indigenous people in Mexico, and alleged links between the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and organized crime.…
Ahmed Abba, Cameroon
CPJ is honored to present its 2017 International Press Freedom Award to Cameroonian journalist Ahmed Abba. Ahmed Abba, 38, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale’s (RFI) Hausa service, was arrested in July 2015 as he left a press briefing at the office of a local governor in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s far north region,…
Memory of Mexico’s investigative reporter Javier Valdez will live on through his work
Two months have passed since Javier Valdez Cárdenas, the Mexican investigative reporter and recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, was murdered. The grief over his killing in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, has left many looking for answers as to why the investigation into his murder appears to have yielded few results so…
Nigerian court orders journalist facing false reporting charge to be detained
New York, July 17, 2017–Nigerian authorities should drop all charges against Luka Binniyat and release the journalist from jail immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A judge ordered the journalist to be detained on charges of “breach of public peace” and false reporting over an article he wrote for the daily, Vanguard, according…
Russia-backed separatists holding Ukrainian journalist, accuse him of espionage
New York, July 17, 2017–Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east should immediately release Donetsk-based journalist Stanyslav Aseyev, who has been detained by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Aseyev, who has contributed to the Ukrainian service of the U.S.-government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty under the pseudonym Stanyslav Vasin, went…
Online defamation law amendments fall short in Myanmar
Bangkok, July 17, 2017–A ministerial proposal to amend Myanmar’s 2013 Telecommunications Law falls short of the changes needed to guarantee press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The statute has been repeatedly abused to stifle online speech and jail journalists, CPJ has found.
Meryl Streep
Award-winning actor and activist Meryl Streep addressed attendees at CPJ’s 2017 International Press Freedom Awards on November 15, 2017, in New York, where she presented an award to Mexican journalist Patricia Mayorga. These are her remarks as prepared for delivery: First please let me say what an honor it is to be here with you,…
Security forces raid Ukrainian media group
New York, July 14, 2017–Ukrainian authorities should cease harassing journalists and employees of the Vesti media company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. National police and military prosecutors today raided the Kiev office of Media Holding Vesti, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr.com, according to its editor…