Gunmen kill Colombian vendor who collaborated on story
Bogotá, October 1, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Saturday’s murder of a Colombian newspaper vendor who had collaborated with journalists on exposing misbehavior by guards at a local prison, and calls on authorities to investigate.
CPJ examines press freedom under Obama
Upcoming report looks at leak investigations and surveillanceNew York, September 30, 2013– The Committee to Protect Journalists will release its first comprehensive report on press freedom conditions in the United States. Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor and now the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication,…
Tanzania suspends two leading newspapers
Nairobi, September 30, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by Tanzanian authorities to suspend two leading private Swahili dailies on accusations of sedition. The government issued a statement on Friday suspending Mwananchi and MTanzania for 14 and 90 days respectively.
Sakharov and the fight for a free press in Ethiopia
In 1968, Andrei Sakharov braved censorship and personal risk in the Soviet Union to give humanity an honest and timeless declaration of conscience. That same year, Ethiopia’s most prominent dissenter, Eskinder Nega, was born. In January 1981, a year into Sakharov’s exile in the closed city of Gorky, Reeyot Alemu, another fierce, Ethiopian free thinker,…
Photographer covering Greenpeace protest held in Russia
New York, September 27, 2013–Russian authorities should immediately release a freelance photographer who was detained nine days ago while covering a Greenpeace demonstration, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A court on Thursday ordered Denis Sinyakov to be held for two months pending an investigation into accusations of piracy, news reports said.
Honoring defiance of censorship and other threats
New York, September 26, 2013–Four journalists who face imprisonment or other persecution for exposing realities in Ecuador, Egypt, Turkey, and Vietnam will be honored with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2013 International Press Freedom Awards, an annual recognition of the courageous reporting that defines free media. “At a time when information has become a global…
In Peru, journalist handed suspended jail term
Peruvian journalist Humberto Espinoza Maguiña was convicted twice in two consecutive days in September 2013 on charges of defaming the governor of the northeastern state of Ancash, according to news reports. He received a two-year suspended prison sentence and was fined US$2,000 in damages.
Janet Hinostroza, Ecuador
2013 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee (Courtesy of Univision) To read Hinostroza’s acceptance speech, click here. As a leading television reporter and host in her native Ecuador, Janet Hinostroza has investigated human and arms trafficking, the Ecuadoran police, and extrajudicial killings. She is also a prime target in the government’s ongoing assault on free expression….
Bassem Youssef, Egypt
2013 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee (Courtesy of Univision) To read Youssef’s acceptance speech, click here. As a window for free expression opened in Egypt with the demise of the Mubarak era in 2011, cardiac surgeon Bassem Youssef began dissecting his society with a satirical newscast produced in his living room and posted on YouTube….