Impunity Summit: Solidarity in fighting journalist murders
Every day at CPJ, we count numbers: 18 journalists killed in Russia since 2000, 32 journalists and media workers slaughtered in the Maguindanao massacre, 88 journalists murdered over the last 10 years in Iraq. But on Tuesday night at CPJ’s Impunity Summit at Columbia University, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon clarified why we were gathered:…
Getting Away With Murder
CPJ’s 2010 Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free New York, April 20, 2010—Deadly, unpunished violence against the press has soared in the Philippines and Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail…
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, April 2010 More than 3,500 petition Iran to free journalists, writersAs the leading sponsor of “Our Society Will Be a Free Society,” a joint campaign with 15 other human rights organizations seeking the release of dozens of jailed journalists in Iran, CPJ helped gather more than 3,500 signatures on a…
Microsoft, piracy, and independent media in Kyrgyzstan
When the independent television outlet Stan TV was raided by Kyrgyz financial police on April 1, authorities claimed they were investigating the use of unlicensed software. The timing of the raid implied a different motivation. As CPJ reported at the time, the day before, the Kyrgyz courts had shut down the pro-opposition newspaper Forum. In…
CPJ seeks information on Estemirova murder in Russia
New York, February 26, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities investigating the July 2009 murder of prominent Russian journalist and human rights defender Natalya Estemirova to publicize their progress on the case seven months after the crime. The New York Times reported on Thursday that a top investigator with the Investigative Committee of…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Belarus
Top Developments• Restrictive law requires media obtain government registration.• Administration eases some repressive tactics to gain EU favor. Key Statistic 13: Independent papers blacklisted by state-controlled distributors. Authorities eased their heavy-handed tactics of repression for much of the year even as a restrictive new media law took effect. The change in tone coincided with the European Union’s…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Russia
Top Developments• International community intensifies pressure to halt impunity.• Authorities restart investigations into Klebnikov, Politkovskaya murders. Key Statistic 19: Journalists murdered in retaliation for their work since 2000. Murder convictions have been won in one case. After a deadly decade for the press, the tone set by the Kremlin appeared to have changed. President Dmitry Medvedev said…
Impunity: stopping the killers
Index on Censorship has posted an article by CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon about the issue of impunity in the murders of journalists. The post outlines how press freedom advocates can combat the culture impunity and find justice in the cases of murdered journalists.
Beketov still recovering from attack a year later in Russia
Those familiar with Mikhail Beketov’s ordeal describe his survival as nothing short of a miracle. The once fit, towering 51-year-old who campaigned on environmental issues and criticized his city government’s policies through the pages of his newspaper is now gone. But the former editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda, an independent publication that exposed the blunders of the Khimki…
Natalya Estemirova case must be solved, say CPJ, PEN
President Medvedev: On the day PEN American Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists join together for a public tribute to slain independent journalist and human rights defender Natalya Estemirova, we call on you to ensure that both her assassins and those who sent them to her doorstep are brought to justice.