Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora sentenced to 6 years in prison
After more than a year on trial, José Rubén Zamora, president of Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, was convicted of money laundering and acquitted on blackmail and influence peddling charges on Wednesday. He was sentenced to a six-year prison term and a fine. Zamora has been in pretrial detention since July 29, 2022, and has also been…
CPJ welcomes new board chair, Jacob Weisberg
CPJ announced today that Jacob Weisberg has been elected chair of its board of directors. His term will run from 2023 to 2026, and he will succeed Kathleen Carroll, who has been a member of the CPJ board since 2008 and chair since 2017. “When it comes to defending journalists and press freedom, CPJ has…
Joint statement by the Media Freedom Coalition – Consultative Network: More must be done to defend journalists and media freedom
Tallinn, Estonia, February 10, 2022 — The Media Freedom Coalition – Consultative Network[1], a group of 22 organizations representing civil society, press freedom and media development groups and journalists worldwide, calls on the Media Freedom Coalition to take stronger and more concrete actions to defend media freedom and the safety of journalists worldwide. Media freedom has…
Unidentified men attack crews with Georgian public broadcaster Pirveli Arkhi
New York, May 19, 2021 – Georgian authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate recent attacks on employees of the Pirveli Arkhi public broadcaster and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 17, unidentified men attacked and verbally harassed film crews working with the broadcaster in the…
Record number of journalists jailed worldwide
Editor‘s note: In 2019, CPJ published a new database of attacks on the press. Numbers for each subsequent prison census are liable to adjust yearly as CPJ learns of arrests, releases, or deaths in prison. For the most recent data, see cpj.org/data/imprisoned/. The number of journalists jailed globally because of their work hit a new high in 2020…
Proposed impeachment press restrictions | Two Iraqi journalists killed in protest
CPJ on Wednesday urged Senate authorities to reconsider proposed restrictions on journalists covering President Trump’s impeachment trial and to consider feedback from the Standing Committee of Correspondents. CPJ argued that increased restrictions would make it more difficult for journalists to cover a major news event and limit the public’s insight into the impeachment proceedings. In…
Deadly week in Mexico: Three journalists killed
Do you have five minutes? Please take this survey to help us improve this newsletter. Thank you! Three journalists were killed in Mexico in less than a week. CPJ is investigating to determine if they were killed in retaliation for their work. Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez, a reporter for the newspaper El Gráfico, was shot…
Journalists released in Nicaragua and Russia; Mexican journalist killed, another kidnapped
Nicaraguan journalists Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda Ubau were released Tuesday after nearly six months in jail. The charges were dropped under a controversial amnesty law passed last week. In Russia, prominent investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was released Tuesday following an international outcry and support from the Russian public and the journalistic community, including three…
Saudi Arabia arrests journalist on unknown charges
In Saudi Arabia, journalist Zuhair Kutbi was arrested on unknown charges, and Eman Al Nafjan and Hatoon al-Fassi, two of the four female journalists critical of the ban on women driving whom Saudi authorities arrested last year, were tried. They appeared in court Wednesday on charges under the cybercrime law, including supporting “hostile elements.” In…
