Attacks on the Press in 2013: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Despite the immense differences between the Israeli government, Fatah, and Hamas, they shared a common trait in 2013: a consistent and troublesome record of silencing journalists who reported dissenting perspectives. The revolving door on Israeli prisons continued to spin, as the government arrested multiple Palestinian journalists while releasing others. Palestinian journalists are often held under…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, January 2014
Chilling conditions for the press ahead of Sochi Games CPJ’s special report, “Media suffer winter chill in coverage of Sochi Olympics,” which was released on January 28, garnered significant coverage in the local and international media, including CBS Sports, the Huffington Post, Al-Jazeera America, and other outlets. CPJ also issued a Russian translation of its…
Media suffer winter chill in coverage of Sochi Olympics
In the run-up to the Sochi Winter Games, official repression and self-censorship have restricted news coverage of sensitive issues related to the Olympics, such as the exploitation of migrant workers, environmental destruction, and forced evictions. The information vacuum comes amid a generally poor climate for press freedom across Russia. A CPJ special report by Elena…
Bangladeshi editor jailed for seven years for critical writing
New York, January 10, 2014–A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced an editor to seven years in prison in connection with his articles about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh that allegedly showed the country in a critical light.
Ethiopian journalist on prison odyssey needs medical care
“When I grow up will I go to jail like my dad?” This was the shattering question that the five-year-old son of imprisoned Ethiopian journalist Woubshet Taye asked his mother after a recent prison visit. Woubshet’s son, named Fiteh (meaning “justice”), has accompanied his mother on a wayward tour of various prisons since his father…
Q&A: Paul Mooney on reporting in China
I’ve known Paul Mooney since we worked together at Time Warner’s Hong Kong-based magazine Asiaweek, which closed in December 2001. After that we’d overlapped in Beijing for several stints. A lot has been written about China’s refusal to give him a visa to let him go back to Beijing to work as a features writer…
The Obama Administration and the Press
Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America U.S. President Barack Obama came into office pledging open government, but he has fallen short of his promise. Journalists and transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified…
Libyan journalist allowed medical treatment abroad
A judge in Tripoli on August 21, 2013, lifted the travel ban placed on Amara al-Khatabi, editor of the daily Al-Ummah, and ordered the return of the journalist’s passport, al-Khatabi’s lawyer, Ramadan Farag Salem, told CPJ and human rights organizations.