International journalists face intense harassment, threats of violence while covering flooding in China
Taipei, July 26, 2021—Chinese authorities should ensure that all journalists can report without fear of violence and harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 24, a crowd of angry bystanders in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, surrounded and confronted journalists from the Los Angeles Times and the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle while…
Journalist Alan Weisman arrested, strip-searched while covering anti-pipeline protest in Minnesota
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2021 — Authorities in Minnesota’s Hubbard County should explain their reasoning for detaining and strip-searching journalist Alan Weisman and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At about 5 p.m. on June 7, an officer with the local sheriff’s department in Hubbard County, Minnesota, arrested Weisman,…
Foreign correspondents in China face COVID-19 restrictions and expulsions, FCCC finds
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China found that “media freedoms deteriorated significantly in 2020” in its annual report, released Monday. The report, titled “Track, Trace, Expel: Reporting on China Amid a Pandemic,” surveyed 150 club members representing news organizations from 30 countries and regions. In 2020, China used the COVID-19 pandemic to impose restrictions on…
Unidentified armed men ransack home of Ethiopian journalist Lucy Kassa, question her about conflict coverage
On February 8, 2021, at about 10:30 a.m. in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, three armed men in plain clothes forced their way into the apartment of freelance reporter Lucy Kassa, searched her home, questioned her, and confiscated her reporting materials, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app and email,…
Chinese authorities detain, assault Los Angeles Times bureau chief, force her out of region
In early September 2020, police in Hohhot city, in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, detained Los Angeles Times Beijing Bureau Chief Alice Su for more than four hours and released her without charge, according to an account in her newspaper and an Associated Press report. Su wrote the account in the Los Angeles Times without…
LA Press Freedom Week to celebrate the power of journalism
New York, September 05, 2019—The Committee to Protect Journalists will participate in LA Press Freedom Week, a multi-day celebration of press freedom and the importance of the First Amendment, in Los Angeles from September 16-20. The event is sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Los Angeles Times, in collaboration with CPJ, the…
White House setting wrong example at Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi
Washington, D.C., February 27, 2019–The White House today barred four journalists from covering a dinner in Hanoi between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “sensitivities over shouted questions,” according to news reports. The unusual move came a day after Vietnamese officials relocated the White House press corps filing center from…
CPJ welcomes district court’s reversal in L.A. Times prior restraint case
New York, July 17, 2018 — U.S. District Judge John F. Walter today vacated a temporary restraining order that he had issued three days earlier prohibiting the Los Angeles Times from publishing details of a sealed plea agreement that had mistakenly been made public. The decision came in the wake of an outcry from media…
Reporters barred from U.S. press secretary briefing
New York, February 24, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the decision today to bar nine news outlets from an informal briefing known as “a gaggle” by President Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Separately, at the Conservative Party Action Conference in Maryland today, Trump said that journalists should not be…
David Laventhol: Dedicated and generous press freedom advocate
David Laventhol, the former publisher of Newsday and the Los Angeles Times passed away on Wednesday, aged 81. Dave served as chairman of CPJ from 2002 to 2005, using his low-key approach and savvy news sense to help guide the organization’s response to the unprecedented turmoil of the Iraq War.