In Mexico, attackers steal Lydia Cacho’s reporting records, kill dogs
Mexico City, July 23, 2019 –Mexican authorities must immediately and credibly investigate the burglary of the residence of investigative reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro and guarantee her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
CPJ Insider: July edition
CPJ summit spotlights journalist murders, press freedom climate in Mexico CPJ held a summit on press freedom in Mexico on June 18 with an array of local partners that engaged more than 400 journalists, activists, and government officials in frank conversations about how to tackle an epidemic of journalist murders and improve the media climate…
Press freedom summit urges Mexico to reform journalist protections
On June 18, more than 400 people converged in Mexico City for CPJ’s Mexico Press Freedom Summit. Energized by a sense that the country is at a point of profound political change under the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the conference delved into the threats for Mexican journalists.
Press freedom in Mexico takes center stage at CPJ summit
Mexico City, June 18, 2019–Journalists, policy makers, and human rights experts gathered today at a press freedom summit in Mexico City, hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The event centered on the press freedom crisis in Mexico, which is the deadliest country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere and the deadliest in the world…
Online attacks by lawmakers force journalists to leave Colombia
Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri has once again been arrested by Nigerian authorities. Abiri was charged under the country’s cybercrimes, anti-sabotage, and terrorism prevention acts, to which he pleaded not guilty. Abiri was previously held without trial from July 2016 to August 2018. Also in Nigeria, new accreditation requirements have the potential to restrict press access…
San Francisco police raid journalist’s home; WhatsApp exploit detected
Last Friday, between eight and 10 police officers executed a search warrant on freelance journalist Bryan Carmody’s San Francisco home. Police opened the gate with a sledgehammer, handcuffed Carmody, and executed a second search warrant on his home office. These actions were done as part of an investigation into how the reporter obtained a confidential…
CPJ Safety Advisory: Spyware vulnerability found in WhatsApp
[EDITOR’S NOTE: See CPJ’s updated safety advisory here https://cpj.org/2019/11/cpj-safety-advisory-journalist-targets-of-pegasus-.php.] New York, May 14, 2019–A vulnerability that infects phones with spyware has been identified in the messaging app WhatsApp, according to reports. The attack targets users of Android and iPhone and involves calling users over WhatsApp. Those targeted report receiving a series of missed calls from…
‘I can’t wait to go to my newsroom,’ says freed Myanmar journalist
This week, a Colombian court sentenced former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000. Pereira was sentenced to 40 years and six months in prison for the attack, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). The court…
Mexico’s press question president’s commitment to press advertising reform
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador won Mexico’s presidential elections last year with a promise to drastically cut the millions of dollars the government spends on press advertising each year, it appeared to signal the end to an opaque system that has been criticized as a way for governments to encourage favorable coverage.
López Obrador’s anti-press rhetoric leaves Mexico’s journalists feeling exposed
During his daily press conference on April 15, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters, “If you go too far, you know what will happen.” López Obrador clarified his remarks the following day, saying he meant that the public would hold reporters who unfairly criticize the government to account. But in a country where…