Audio slideshow: A look at missing journalist James Foley
James Foley, a U.S. freelance journalist, was abducted in Syria in November. His colleague and friend Nicole Tung, a freelance photographer, spoke to CPJ about her experience working and traveling with Foley. A petition appealing for Foley’s release can be signed here.
CPJ welcomes Lucy Westcott as 2018 James W. Foley Fellow
New York, July 11, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists is pleased to announce that Lucy Westcott has joined CPJ as the 2018 James W. Foley Fellow. During her fellowship, Westcott will focus on safety issues for women journalists in non-hostile environments.
Islamic State militants extradited to US to face charges for murders of journalists Foley and Sotloff
This is the 100th edition of The Torch. We would like to thank our readers for their support the past two years. Send us an email if you have feedback for us, and if you are interested in receiving additional press freedom updates for a specific region, sign up here. This week, two Islamic State…
Solidarity in wake of Foley’s murder inspires jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy
Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy has been languishing in an Egyptian prison since December. He is waiting for an appeal hearing on his seven-year sentence for “conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood,” but it is the murder of American freelancer James Foley, rather than his own unjust sentence, that has made the Cairo bureau chief furious.…
The Best Defense
Threats to journalists’ safety demand fresh approach Reporting on wars and natural disasters is inherently dangerous, but the spread of insurgent and criminal groups globally poses an unprecedented risk to journalists. Since the videotaped killings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff in 2014, public awareness of the risks has increased exponentially, but the dangers persist.
Broadcasting murder: Militants use media for deadly purpose
News of the August 19, 2014, murder of journalist James Foley broke not in the media but instead on Twitter. News organizations faced the agonizing questions of how to report on the killing and what portions of the video to show. If a group or individual commits an act of violence, and then films it,…
A first step toward better safety for freelancers
The murders of freelancers James Foley and Steven Sotloff last year put the news industry on the spot. What could news executives, press freedom groups, and individual journalists do to improve safety? The issue was not new. International news organizations had been grappling with their responsibility towards freelancers and locally hired media workers for years.…
Journalist beheadings in Syria reignite debate over risk and safety for freelancers
Now that the initial wave of revulsion at the beheading of two young journalists has passed, the international media is wringing its hands and asking how it can spare others the heartbreak of the families of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Back-to-back display killings of journalists unprecedented
The apparent back-to-back murders of two American freelance journalists by the same group are unprecedented in CPJ’s history. The beheadings on camera in a two-week period of first James Foley and then Steven Sotloff appear to be an acceleration of a pattern–dating at least to Daniel Pearl’s killing in 2002–of criminal and insurgent groups displaying…