CPJ Insider: July edition
CPJ summit spotlights journalist murders, press freedom climate in Mexico CPJ held a summit on press freedom in Mexico on June 18 with an array of local partners that engaged more than 400 journalists, activists, and government officials in frank conversations about how to tackle an epidemic of journalist murders and improve the media climate…
Challenges facing journalists trying to cover latest violence in Venezuela
The long-running political crisis in Venezuela escalated on April 30, 2019, after a civilian and military uprising was thwarted by the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to news reports. Opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, accompanied by members of the armed forces, congregated on a highway in eastern Caracas and called upon the armed…
Social media still blocked in Sri Lanka following terror attack
Several social media sites remained blocked in Sri Lanka today, according to NetBlocks, an independent, international civil society group that monitors internet censorship. Sri Lankan authorities blocked the sites, along with several messaging apps, throughout the country on April 21, following a terrorist attack that left more than 253 people dead, according to international news…
Under Abiy, Ethiopia’s media have more freedom but challenges remain
During a trip to Addis Ababa in January, it was impossible to miss the signs that Ethiopian media are enjoying unprecedented freedom. A flurry of new publications were on the streets. At a public forum that CPJ attended, journalists spoke about positive reforms, but also openly criticized their lack of access to the government. At…
Nazarbayev’s long rule leaves toxic legacy for Kazakhstan’s media
In 2011, I observed an astonishing spectacle in the Respublika newspaper offices in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital. Journalists were putting a modern-day twist on samizdat, a practice in the Soviet Union whereby dissidents laboriously copied illicit material to circumvent censorship.
Venezuelan police detain reporter Danilo Gil while covering protests, charge him with resisting authority
On March 30, 2019, police from Lagunillas, a municipality in Zulia state, beat and detained journalist Danilo Alberto Gil, a reporter for Venezuelan news outlet NotiRedVe–which operates on Twitter and Facebook–at around 9:30 a.m., while he was covering an opposition protest in the town of Ciudad Ojeda, according to posts on Twitter by NotiRedVe, local…
CPJ emergencies director meets journalists at Venezuela-Colombia border
Safety concerns for media escalate along with political tensions New York, March 7, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists traveled this week to Colombia, including its border with Venezuela, to meet with journalists and other press freedom organizations.
Venezuelan counterintelligence agents detain U.S. freelancer, Venezuelan fixer
Miami, March 6, 2019–Venezuelan authorities should immediately release a U.S. freelance journalist and a Venezuelan fixer who were detained after counterintelligence agents raided their homes this morning in Caracas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
UAE hired former NSA employees to surveil journalists and human rights activists
CPJ expressed concern that at least four journalists were surveilled under Project Raven, a United Arab Emirates cybersurveillance and hacking operation, according to a Reuters report. CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour called the involvement of U.S. intelligence officials in the operation “disturbing.” CPJ North America Research Assistant Stephanie Sugars took…