Slideshow: Journalists freed
While just under 200 journalists are behind bars, CPJ witnessed several memorable releases in 2015, including in Vietnam, Ethiopia, and even secretive Eritrea. Some of the journalists had spent years behind bars; they endured isolation and several say they were tortured. This year, CPJ’s advocacy contributed to the release of at least 31 journalists. Some…
Inter-American Human Rights System, campaigns against defamation laws keep journalists from jail in Americas
When a prison guard told Ángel Santiesteban Prats that he would be released from jail on a scorching summer day in July, the Cuban independent writer and blogger decided to ignore him, brushing off the news as a cruel joke. By then, Santiesteban had already spent two years and five months in prison, half of…
Exile the price of freedom for Vietnamese blogger Ta Phong Tan
Nearly two months after her early release from a decade-long prison sentence, Vietnamese blogger Ta Phong Tan is settling into life in exile in the U.S. Hers was the latest in a series of U.S. State Department-negotiated releases of political prisoners held on anti-state charges on condition they promptly leave Vietnam, removed from their families,…
China, Egypt are worst jailers of journalists worldwide
Total number imprisoned globally falls slightly, CPJ finds New York, December 15, 2015–China is holding 49 journalists behind bars, the highest number ever recorded there, making it the worst jailer of journalists worldwide for the second year in a row, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. The number of journalists jailed in Egypt and…
The EU must engage with Turkey on press freedom
CPJ joins calls for Brussels to push for release of jailed journalists Brussels, December 15, 2015–The European Union must not allow the challenges of the refugee crisis to deter it from confronting Turkey about its poor press freedom record, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the European Federation of Journalists said at…
“Security and Privacy: Internet Capacity for Non-Profits and NGOs.”
The Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) and The Internet Policy Forum of the Washington DC Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-DC) are hosting a 3 event series of the Pathfinder Initiative about Building Internet Capacity for Non-Profits and NGOs. This kick-off event, December 14, will focus on Internet Security, with CPJ…
“EU must stop its double standards with Turkey”
Press freedom groups to hold press conference in Brussels New York, December 11, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists will take part in a joint press conference on Turkey’s press freedom record, alongside Reporters Without Borders and the European Federation of Journalists. The press conference, “EU must stop its double standards with Turkey,” will be held…
CPJ urges South Africa to revise cybercrime bill that limits press freedom
New York, December 10, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the South African government to revise provisions in the proposed Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill that would limit journalists’ ability to work. Under the bill, journalists and members of the public could be prosecuted for possessing or disclosing state information, reports said.
CPJ calls on Egypt’s prosecutor general to support request to free Shawkan
Dear Prosecutor General Nabil Sadiq. The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you because of our deep concern for photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, who is due to stand trial in Cairo Criminal Court on December 12, 2015. Shawkan’s lawyers told CPJ they will ask the court to release him from custody We request that you support this request. Shawkan was at Rabaa Al-Adawiya in August 2013 not as a protester or a criminal, but as a journalist.