Honoring courage in defiance of censorship
New York, October 4, 2011–Four outstanding journalists who have endured and defied media repression in Bahrain, Belarus, Mexico, and Pakistan will be honored with the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2011 International Press Freedom Awards, an annual recognition of courageous journalism. The awardees–Mansoor al-Jamri (Al-Wasat, Bahrain), Natalya Radina (Charter 97, Belarus), Javier Valdez Cárdenas (Ríodoce, Mexico),…
Obiang prize goes down to the wire
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is a stubborn man. In 2008, the president of Equatorial Guinea made a $3 million donation to UNESCO to underwrite a prize in the life sciences. But a groundswell of opposition from human rights groups, press freedom organizations, and governments appalled by Obiang’s record of kleptocracy and human rights abuses helped…
In Vietnam, crackdown on journalists in past six months
New York, October 3, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the recent crackdown on freedom of expression in Vietnam and calls on the government to immediately and unconditionally release all of the journalists detained in the country.
Burundi media defy censorship order
Tensions between the Burundi government and the local press are bound to increase as several media this week defied an order not to investigate or discuss a recent massacre. While officials say the measure is “temporary” and necessary to safeguard national unity and the course of justice, independent journalists are asserting their right to publish…
Jordan’s anti-corruption bill would restrict press
New York, September 30, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is disheartened by the passage in Jordan’s lower chamber of Parliament of a draft anti-corruption law which would allow heavy fines for publishing information on corruption, and calls on the upper chamber to reject the bill.
Mexico murder may be social media watershed
María Elizabeth Macías Castro’s killers made sure their actions were understood. In a macabre, carefully orchestrated mise-en-scene, they placed her body in front of a poster with the ominous note. Nearby they left a computer keyboard, with a pair of headphones on her decapitated head.
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, September 2011 Journalist ID’d in WikiLeaks cable, flees Ethiopia U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed last month by WikiLeaks cited Ethiopian journalist Argaw Ashine by name and referred to his unnamed government source, forcing Ashine to flee the country after police interrogated him over the source’s identity. It is the…
Mexican police reporter missing in Veracruz
New York, September 29, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Mexican journalist Manuel Gabriel Fonseca Hernández has gone missing from the city of Acayucán, in Veracruz state. Fonseca’s friends first reported him missing on September 20, police records show.
Egyptian police raid Al-Jazeera offices again
New York, September 29, 2011–Egyptian plainclothes police stormed the office of an Al-Jazeera affiliate today for the second time this month, detaining a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the raid and calls on the authorities to end what has become a policy of censorship and intimidation of the media.