Mission Journal: Media under growing pressure in Turkey
Turkey is awash in media. The newsstands of Istanbul are buried under some 35 dailies of every format and political stripe. The airwaves are thick with TV channels and Internet penetration is tracking an economy growing at Chinese speed. Yet quantity does not equal quality. Nor does the array of titles mean diversity and freedom…
Journalists held without due process in Turkey
Dear Minister Ergin: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the rights of journalists worldwide, is alarmed by the ongoing detention of journalists in Turkey. We are also concerned by the large number of criminal cases opened against reporters under the sweeping provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.
Ecuadoran editor and executives sentenced to prison
New York, July 21, 2011–An editor and three executives from the Ecuadoran news daily El Universo were sentenced to three years in prison and $40 million in fines on Wednesday for defaming President Rafael Correa, according to local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence today and called on Ecuadoran authorities to…
Tibetan magazine editor given four-year jail term
New York, July 6, 2011–The closed-door sentencing of a Tibetan magazine editor jailed without charge for over a year is another disturbing indicator of the lack of due process allowed to ethnic minority journalists in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Google+ for journalists at risk
When they’re creating new features, software designers talk in terms of “use cases.” A use case describes steps that future customers might perform with a website. “Starting a group with friends,” would be a use case for Facebook. “Buying a book” would be case for Amazon’s designers.
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, June 2011 CPJ welcomes new leadershipSandra Mims Rowe, a distinguished editor with a record of journalistic and civic leadership, has been elected chairman of CPJ. Rowe succeeds Paul Steiger, president and editor-in-chief of ProPublica. Steiger served as CPJ chairman since 2005.”We are immensely grateful to Paul Steiger for his untiring…
Subjectivity, advocacy in covering human rights
The tension between objective news reporting and advocacy was the subject of the final plenary panel that I moderated last week at the Global Media Forum in Bonn. Sponsored by Germany’s multi-language, government broadcast agency, Deutsche Welle, the three-day conference brought together journalists and experts from every continent to address but not necessarily resolve the…
U.N. secretary-general commits to defending press freedom
New York, June 23, 2011– Press freedom, particularly free expression online, will be a priority for newly re-elected U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. chief pledged today in a meeting with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.The heads of both organizations said they were encouraged by statements made by the secretary-general in…
In limbo – the journalists forced into exile
AFP and the Guardian were among the mayor news outlets that covered the release of CPJ’s 2011 Exile Report. The report, released on June 20, documents how nearly 70 journalists were forced into exile over the past 12 months, with more than half coming from Iran and Cuba.