Pakistan

Dear President-elect Obama: I am writing as chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists to seek your leadership in reaffirming America’s role as a staunch defender of press freedom throughout the world. Journalists in many countries who risk their lives and liberty upholding the values of free expression look to the United States for support.

The news that BBC reporter Jonathan Head could face jail time in Thailand for alledgely insulting the Thai monarchy has recieved significant coverage over the holidays. Our alert on the incident from Wendesday has been cited in a number of outlets including The Associated Press, the UK-based Press Association, and the Irish Examiner. All three quoted CPJ’s…

March 28, 2008 Sean Langan, freelance ABDUCTED A Taliban-linked group kidnapped freelance British television journalist Sean Langan and his translator near the town of Torkham on the border with Pakistan. He was working in Afghanistan on a documentary series for publicly owned U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, according to U.K. news reports.

New York, December 18, 2008—For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history.

Our annual census of imprisoned journalists, which lists 125 journalists in jail, has gotten more coverage today and over the weekend. Geek has a story that focuses on our finding that the majority of those in prison are online journalists. The Web site ArsTechnica also examines this angle in its coverage, and Democracy Now! ran a similarly…

Making headlines today across the English and Spanish-language press is the brutal murder of Mexican crime reporter Armando Rodríguez.

New York, November 13, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by media reports in Pakistan and Canada that Khadija Abdul Qahaar, publisher of the Web site Jihad Unspun, was kidnapped Tuesday while traveling in the Bannu district in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, on the border with Afghanistan. 

CPJ is pleased to welcome three leading journalists to its board of directors: Kathleen Carroll of The Associated Press, Lara Logan of CBS News, and David A. Schlesinger of Reuters.

New York, November 10, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists extends its condolences today to the family and colleagues of Mohammed Shoaib, a reporter for the daily Azadi who was shot Saturday in the town of Mingora in the Swat Valley. 

The release of CBC correspondent Mellissa Fung, who had been abducted by a criminal gang in Afghanistan, is the focus of a few stories today. The Associated Press has coverage of her month-long ordeal, and that piece has been picked up by various papers including The Boston Globe and The Baltimore Sun.