CPJ joins call urging White House to protect encryption for journalists
Journalists are safest when their devices are secure by default. That is why the Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of nearly 150 civil society organizations, companies, trade associations, security experts, and policy specialists in sending a joint letter to U.S. President Barack Obama. The letter urges the president to support the broad…
China’s Great Cannon: New weapon to suppress free speech online
China, rated as the eighth most censored country in the world, in a report released by CPJ today, has long had a strong line of defense against free speech online. Its Golden Shield Project, launched by the Ministry of Public Security in 1998, relies on a combination of technology and personnel to control what can…
UPDATE: Google, Mozilla revoke authority of CNNIC after breach of trust
San Francisco, April 2, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Google’s plan to revoke the authority of root certificates belonging to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) following CNNIC’s major breach of the trust placed in them to underpin global Internet security. Mozilla also said it will not trust any CNNIC certificates dated after April…
China’s CNNIC issues false certificates in serious breach of crypto trust
In a major breach of public trust and confidence, the Chinese digital certificate authority China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) certified false credentials for numerous domains, including several owned by Google. The deliberate breach had the potential to seriously endanger vulnerable users, such as journalists communicating with sources. The breach was discovered by Google and…
Yahoo! End-to-End email preview promises greater protection for journalists
Good news for journalists wanting added protection from surveillance. Yahoo! has announced a technical preview of its email security tool End-to-End, which it has been developing in collaboration with Google. This is another milestone in the tech companies’ efforts to protect users not just from outsiders, but also from the companies themselves.
How CPJ is working to ensure journalists can protect themselves
Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Internet Advocacy team was in Valencia, Spain, for the first Circumvention Tech Festival: a mashup of journalists, activists, technologists, and human rights defenders united by a desire to fight censorship and surveillance. More than 500 registered participants from 40 countries shared their skills, strategies, and experiences in combating…
CPJ calls on U.N. to protect use of encryption for journalists
For journalists to work safely they must be able to protect themselves and their sources, which is why encryption is such a vital tool. On February 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press submitted a joint letter to the U.N. urging it to ensure that long-standing freedom…
UK police used anti-terror legislation to uncover journalists’ sources
San Francisco, February 4, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about reports that police agencies in the United Kingdom made more than 600 applications under anti-terror legislation to uncover journalists’ confidential sources in the past three years. Today’s revelation in the Guardian, citing the interception of communications commissioner, Anthony May, comes amid criticism…
Classifying media and encryption as a threat is danger to press freedom
The U.K. prides itself on its commitment to free expression, but the latest revelations of surveillance of journalists and calls by Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, to ban secure messaging belie the country’s drift toward a more restrictive environment for the press. The revelations further underscore the threat surveillance by Western democracies poses to journalism,…
CPJ welcomes Facebook move to enable access via Tor hidden service
San Francisco, November 3, 2014 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Facebook’s move to enable access via a Tor hidden service, which came into effect on Friday. The step protects journalists and other users who are at risk of surveillance, censorship, or online attack.