Illustration: Gianluca Costantini

Ahead of Khashoggi anniversary, the fight for justice continues

The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here.

Friday marks the second anniversary of the gruesome murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. CPJ continues our fight for justice in Khashoggi’s case, sending a message to the world that those responsible cannot get away with such a crime. In an op-ed for World Politics Review, CPJ’s Sherif Mansour and Michael DeDora outline paths the U.S. Congress could take to ensure accountability for Khashoggi’s death, despite the White House’s ongoing attempts at obstruction. 

In Ukraine, three suspects in the killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet, who died in a car bomb attack four years ago, are set to go on trial before the end of the year. But unanswered questions remain around who ordered the journalist’s killing, as well as what message it was meant to send.

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is posed to change the way the internet is governed by giving governments an even more central role in determining the rules for online content. CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch explores the program’s implications in a new article on Just Security, and what it means for internet freedom.

Global press freedom updates

  • At least 4 journalists injured covering Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
  • Honduran journalist Luis Alonzo Almendares shot and killed
  • CPJ condemns knife attack near the former Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. The attack served as a reminder that threats to journalists have not disappeared in the five years since the attack on the paper
  • Without offering proof, Salvadoran President Bukele alleges money laundering investigation into El Faro news website
  • CPJ condemns proposal to abolish federal trust fund to protect journalists in Mexico
  • Indigenous journalist Anastasia Mejía arrested in central Guatemala
  • Nicaraguan ruling party legislators propose law requiring some media to register as “foreign agents”
  • Exiled Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt attacked in Stockholm
  • Journalist facing criminal charges over reporting on homelessness in Oregon

Spotlight 

Radio shutdowns in Venezuela, 2009-2020. Data: Espacio Público; Image: CPJ
*2020 numbers through April

This week, CPJ published a feature on the alarming number of radio shutdowns in Venezuela in the last decade. According to data compiled by Venezuelan press freedom group Espacio Público and shared with CPJ, 180 radio stations have gone off the air since 2009.

(Data: Espacio Público)

As Venezuelans try to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic amid ongoing widespread shortages of basic necessities, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has continued to restrict reporting, and radio stations have continued dropping from the airwaves.

Radio is crucial to keeping Venezuela’s population informed, especially in remote areas, as many print newspapers have been forced to close, internet shutdowns have become more frequent, and television outlets have been censored. But this vital source of information is at risk of dying out.

Learn more and explore CPJ’s interactive map of radio shutdowns here.

A closer look | CPJ’s most-read features in September

What we are reading

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