Ferial Haffajee, South Africa
2014 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee (Courtesy of ABC News) Ferial Haffajee is the editor-in-chief of the local privately owned weekly City Press in South Africa. She was also the editor-in-chief of the weekly investigative paper the Mail & Guardian. Under her leadership, both papers have broken important stories, including “Nkandlagate”–the controversy around the alleged…
Critical Chinese writer Tie Liu arrested, home raided
New York, September 15, 2014–Police raided the home of a critical Chinese writer and publisher on Sunday, and detained him on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to his family and news reports. Huang Zerong, 81, had recently written articles criticizing restrictions on press freedom in China, according to news reports.
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, August 2014
US-Africa Leaders Summit President Barack Obama hosted the first US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C. this month. The discussion focused on trade and investment, but CPJ helped put press freedom on the agenda. At a time of unprecedented growth and change in Africa, journalists are under increasing pressure, with spikes in repression from Ethiopia to…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, July 2014
CPJ conducts fact-finding mission in Ukraine Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Research Associate, traveled to Kiev on July 6 on a week-long fact-finding mission and spoke to more than a dozen local and international journalists about press freedom conditions in the country. Suleymanov also met with journalists who had covered or were covering…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, June 2014
CPJ releases annual exile report In the run-up to World Refugee Day on June 20, CPJ brought the human toll of exile to the fore in its annual special report on exiled journalists. The report found that Syria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea are responsible for the most cases of journalists who flee. The report spotlights the…
Journalists in Exile 2014
Recommendations Since 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Rory Peck Trust, and Reporters Without Borders have worked together to jointly support and advocate on behalf of refugee journalists worldwide. Every year, our organizations support dozens of journalists, a large number of whom are freelancers, who have been forced to flee their homes for fear…
Journalist killed, another injured amid Iraq clashes
New York, June 16, 2014–At least one journalist was killed and another injured Sunday in an attack in northern Diyala province, the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate and Iraqi news outlets reported. The killing comes amid escalating clashes between the Iraqi government and its allies against an insurgency spearheaded by the Al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of…
A year after Snowden revelations, damage persists to freedom of expression in Pakistan
In Pakistan, where freedom of expression is largely perceived as a Western notion, the Snowden revelations have had a damaging effect. The deeply polarized narrative has become starker as the corridors of power push back on attempts to curb government surveillance. “If the citizens of the United States of America cannot have these rights, how…
Forced to flee: A timeline of journalists’ flight into exile
Every year, dozens of journalists are forced to leave their homes under threat of imprisonment, torture, violence, or even death, because their work has angered the powerful. Over the past 12 months, the Committee to Protect Journalists has supported 42 journalists around the world who were forced to flee, with Syria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea responsible…
Support the #RightToReport
Revelations about surveillance, intimidation, and exploitation of the press have raised unsettling questions about whether the U.S. and other Western democracies risk undermining journalists’ ability to report in the digital age. They also give ammunition to repressive governments seeking to tighten restrictions on media and the Internet. When journalists believe they might be targeted by…