CPJ Highlights: September edition
Press Freedom Tracker continues to document press freedom incidents in the U.S. “I’m really doing this to show you how damned dishonest these people are,” President Trump said during his August rally in Phoenix. “Truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories. … They don’t report the facts.”
US Senate report on leaks and national security is deeply flawed
Last week, Republicans on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report on leaks to the media. The report, which was led by Chairman Ron Johnson, asserts that “an avalanche” of leaks under the Trump Administration is harming national security. It lists at least 125 news articles and their bylines -…
Burton Benjamin Memorial Award
From 1991 to 2016, CPJ presented the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award to individuals who show extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom. The Burton Benjamin Award is named for Burton Benjamin, who was senior executive producer at CBS News and served briefly as chair of CPJ’s board of directors before his death…
Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award
In 2017, CPJ’s Burton Benjamin Memorial Award was renamed the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award to honor the veteran journalist and former CPJ board member, who died in 2016. The award is presented annually to an individual who has shown extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom. Ifill was the award-winning moderator…
Jammu and Kashmir state government censors 22 social media services
New York, April 26, 2017–Indian officials in the state of Jammu and Kashmir should immediately revoke a one-month ban on access to social media services, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The order, announced today, directed all internet service providers to block users’ access to 22 platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and YouTube,…
Zone of Silence
The public is robbed of information when journalists are murdered By Robert Mahoney Journalist Avijit Roy founded the blog “Mukto-Mona,” or Free Thinker, as a forum for free expression and ideas that challenged the growing religious intolerance in his native Bangladesh. His blog for intellectual freedom cost him his life.
Eluding the Censors
For all its faults, Facebook is a lifeline for journalists in less developed countries By Karen Coates Squeezed between China and Vietnam, Phongsali is the northernmost province of Laos, a land of mountains, valleys and isolated villages that is home to more than 15 ethnic groups. As recently as a few years ago, news traveled…
Right Is Might
We have the laws and institutions to fight attempts at information control By David Kaye Yevgeny Zamyatin’s strikingly original 1920s Russian novel We gets read far less than its canonical English-language descendants, Brave New World and 1984. Yet George Orwell knew of and clearly drew from Zamyatin’s book in creating 1984. The homage-paying is obvious:…