Attacks on the Press in 2011: Guatemala
Journalists increasingly practiced self-censorship as Mexican drug cartels expanded their presence in Guatemala. In May, criminals in four provinces hung banners in public places, threatening journalists with harm if gang activities were covered. A television journalist in southern Escuintla province was killed under unclear circumstances after receiving several threats. While the rise of criminal groups…
In Mexico mission, PEN speaks for a silenced press
The leading American author Russell Banks set the tone on Sunday as he stood among international writers and their local colleagues in Mexico City: “A nation’s journalists and writers, like its poets and story-tellers, are the eyes, ears, and mouths of the people. When journalists cannot freely speak of what they see and hear of…
For journalists, cyber-security training slow to take hold
For centuries, journalists have been willing to go to prison to protect their sources. Back in 1848, New York Herald correspondent John Nugent spent a month in jail for refusing to tell a U.S. Senate committee his source for a leak exposing the secret approval of a treaty with Mexico. In a digital age, however,…
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, December 2011 The year in press freedom This year was marked by a wave of anti-press violence as social unrest stirred millions into action. Journalists from Belarus to Egypt and Mexico to Beijing continued exposing the truth despite being attacked for their reporting. The Committee to Protect Journalists’…
The press silenced, Nuevo Laredo tries to find voice
You don’t notice it at first. Not with the people seemingly moving as normal on the sidewalks and the happy recorded music blaring across the plaza in front of city hall to announce the annual cowboy parade. No, at first Nuevo Laredo looks like a regular border town, until the military armored car goes by…
Ríodoce attack shows need for denial-of-service defenses
A founder of Mexican news weekly Ríodoce, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, traveled to New York in November to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award at our annual benefit dinner. No sooner had he returned to Mexico than Ríodoce’s website was thrown offline by a denial of service (DOS) attack, in which multiple computers are used to…
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, November 2011 Honoring those who buck the system CPJ and about 900 supporters recently embarked on an emotional journey with four journalists from Bahrain, Belarus, Mexico, and Pakistan. At the 2011 International Press Freedom Awards in New York’s Waldorf Astoria on November 22, we celebrated their daring reporting…
Most countries fail AP’s test of right-to-know laws
The right to information is at the heart of CPJ’s advocacy for press freedom, so we naturally support legislation granting that right, whether it is to journalists or ordinary citizens (or those in the expanding area between). But laws purporting to uphold the people’s right to information are only as good as their implementation. Today,…