Australia’s journalist union on Facebook, Google, and who should pay for news
Facebook threatened to prevent Australian users and publishers from posting news on its platform last week, raising questions about who benefits when people share journalism on social media—and who has the power to stop them. The company was responding to drafts of a news media bargaining code and related legislation published on July 31 by…
Facebook India executive files criminal complaint against journalist
New Delhi, August 19, 2020 – Facebook regional director Ankhi Das should withdraw her criminal complaint against journalist Awesh Tiwari, and respect citizens’ rights to criticize her, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 16, Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South, and Central Asia, filed a criminal complaint with the cyber…
Tech platforms struggle to label state-controlled media
Twitter announced last week that it would start labeling some accounts run by media outlets and their top editors as “state-affiliated,” a descriptor intended to improve transparency about the source of information being shared on the platform. Since disinformation became a flash point in the debate over content moderation on social media, distinguishing propaganda from…
Journalist Patricia Devlin on working in Northern Ireland: ‘I feel vulnerable and I feel threatened’
Over the past two years, crime and paramilitary and sectarian attacks have risen in Northern Ireland, fueled by economic stagnation, a power vacuum in the regional government, and the fallout from Brexit, according to news reports. In this climate, journalists are also increasingly at risk: freelance reporter Lyra McKee was killed in April 2019, and…
Hackers delete social media content of independent Azerbaijani news outlet Meydan TV
On June 18, 2020, anonymous hackers deleted nearly all of the content from the Azeri-language Facebook page of Meydan TV, an independent Germany-based news outlet that covers Azerbaijan, according to Matthew Kasper, the outlet’s project head, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. The hackers deleted all of Meydan TV’s Facebook posts since 2018,…
Bangladeshi authorities investigate 5 journalists, detain 2 under Digital Security Act for COVID-19 reporting
New York, June 22, 2020 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in Bangladesh to immediately and unconditionally release political cartoonist Kabir Kishore and writer and commentator Mushtaq Ahmed and to stop using the Digital Security Act to silence critical reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. On May 6, Kishore, Ahmed, and three…
In Colombia, a shipping container on wheels brings a roving reporting workshop to news deserts
Can the key to ending news blackouts in isolated areas of Colombia come from inside a shipping container? The Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) thinks so. In an experiment to turn community activists into reporters in regions that lack local news outlets, FLIP has converted a shipping container into a roving journalism classroom. For…
Authorities in India continue to investigate, detain journalists amid COVID-19 pandemic
Local authorities across India filed legal notices against, questioned, or detained at least eight journalists between March 29, 2020, and May 17, 2020, amid the country’s lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to CPJ interviews with the journalists and media reports. According to Om Sharma, a journalist with Hindi daily Divya Himachal in…
Gunmen attack daughter of murdered Mexican reporter Maria Elena Ferral in Veracruz
Mexico City, May 26, 2020 – Mexican authorities must immediately investigate an attack by gunmen on journalist Fernanda de Luna Ferral, bring those responsible to justice, and re-evaluate protective measures provided to her by the government, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Puerto Rico authorities subpoena Facebook for information from student media outlets
On September 27, 2019, Denis Márquez, a member of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives, told the staff of Pulso Estudiantil, a student-run newspaper based at the University of Puerto Rico, that the island’s Justice Department had acquired information from the paper’s Facebook account, as well as from Diálogo UPR and the Center for Student Communication,…