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…
Bossa Nova’s home and Olympics host is risky for press
The jagged mountains ringing Rio de Janeiro descend to a temperate valley with two storied beaches on the Atlantic. Here is the city that gave the world a new, eclectic musical beat with the Bossa Nova, the South American jewel that will host the summer Olympic Games in 2016. Yet Rio has also been the…
Daniel Pearl Act would shine light on overlooked abuses
This week CPJ congratulated the House sponsors of a bill that would expand the breadth and depth of the State Department’s annual reporting to Congress on press freedom abuses worldwide. The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act passed the House last month; now the bill is being redrafted for the Senate by the Committee…
In Rio de Janeiro, armed men threaten photographers covering political campaign
New York, July 28, 2008–Armed and hooded men threatened three Brazilian photographers covering a weekend visit by Sen. Marcelo Crivella, a Rio de Janeiro mayoral candidate, to a poor city neighborhood. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Brazilian authorities to ensure that journalists covering sensitive issues such as drug trafficking and organized crime…
Brazil: CPJ appalled by reported torture of journalists, driver
New York, June 2, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked by allegations that a paramilitary group with links to local police kidnapped and tortured two journalists and a driver working undercover in a Rio de Janeiro slum. CPJ called on Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation. “We are appalled by O Dia’s allegations…
Attacks on the Press in 2005: Introduction
By Ann CooperOn May 2, when the Committee to Protect Journalists identified the Philippines as the world’s most murderous country for journalists, the reaction was swift. “Exaggerated,” huffed presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who was practiced at dismissing the mounting evidence. He had called an earlier CPJ analysis of the dangers to Philippine journalists “grossly misplaced…
Attacks on the Press 2005: Brazil
BRAZIL Brazil’s constitution guarantees free expression and prohibits censorship. But in practice, the news media are impeded by defamation lawsuits so common they’re known as the “industry of compensation” and by lower court judges who routinely interpret Brazilian law in ways that restrict press freedom. Authorities won important convictions in the recent murders of two…
Brazilian jury convicts suspected drug lord in Lopes murder
New York, May 25, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s conviction of a suspected drug lord in the brutal 2002 slaying of Brazilian investigative reporter Tim Lopes. A jury in Rio de Janeiro also sentenced the defendant, Elias Pereira da Silva, to 28 and a half years in prison, according to press reports.