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.
At least seven journalists have been killed covering the war in Ukraine, and CPJ is investigating five other journalist deaths to determine if they were work-related. Watch this moving tribute that chronicles the stories of the journalists killed and includes testimonies from their friends, colleagues, and family.
CPJ observed World Press Freedom Day this week by renewing its call for the protection of journalists covering the war and hosting Truth, Lies, and War – a conversation about the importance of factual, independent reporting during the conflict. CPJ experts spoke about worldwide press freedom conditions to various media outlets. The organization’s new president, Jodie Ginsberg, talked to BBC World News, CNN’s Reliable Sources, and Al-Jazeera English.
Check out CPJ’s Russia-Ukraine Watch, updated weekly on Thursdays here, and sign up to receive a daily digest of our coverage of the war and press freedom here.
- Imprisoned Egyptian journalist Alaa Abdelfattah’s sister Sanaa Seif: ‘Since the book is out, his voice is out too’
- ‘Red-tagging’ of journalists looms over Philippine elections
- Botswana journalists remain ‘vigilant’ under new surveillance law
- Iryna Danilovich missing in Crimea, unidentified men search family’s home
- Armenian law enforcement obstruct journalists covering protest in Yerevan
- Gunfire at Chilean workers’ demonstration injures 3 journalists; 1 in critical condition
- CPJ condemns additional trial delay for the alleged killers of Brazilian journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira. Read more about Oliveira’s son and his fight for justice here
- CPJ joins call for Brazilian authorities, electoral candidates to respect press freedom
- Serbian journalist Dinko Gruhonjić receives death threats online
- Ethiopian journalists Dessu Dulla and Bikila Amenu face death penalty on anti-state charges
- CPJ urges Cameroon authorities to allow arbitrarily detained journalist Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka to bury his father
- Angolan security forces attack journalists covering evictions in Luanda
- Sudanese military holding at least 3 journalists since early April
- CPJ is deeply concerned for the health of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan
- CPJ joins call for Indian government to end attacks on the press
- Journalists assaulted, harassed amid political transition in Pakistan
Kurdish authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan were likely directly involved in the 2010 kidnapping and murder of a young journalist named Sardasht Osman and, after the fact, engaged in intimidation and harassment – indicative of a larger pattern of impunity and silencing of the free press in the region. A new investigation into his killing, “The Assassination of Sardasht Osman: Debunking the Official Story,” is the fifth in a series of reports pushing for local justice as part of A Safer World for the Truth initiative, a project by CPJ, Free Press Unlimited, and Reporters Without Borders. Read the full report here.
A bipartisan set of 10 U.S. senators introduced a resolution on Tuesday commemorating World Press Freedom Day 2022 and recognizing growing threats to global press freedom. CPJ contributed research and country and case examples to the text of the resolution. The sponsors are Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
We need your input! CPJ and the Global Reporting Center at the University of British Columbia are collaborating on a survey on disinformation and harassment targeting journalists. The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete, and all your responses will be anonymous by default. Take the survey here.
What we are reading (and watching)
- Journalists caught between conflict and censorship — CPJ Senior Africa program researcher Jonathan Rozen, Daily Maverick
- Haiti: Covering a chaotic nation, with deadly consequences — Feven Merid, Columbia Journalism Review
- Around the world, journalists are resisting the regimes that would jail and kill them — Mary Fitzgerald, The Guardian
- Press freedom: what’s at stake? [Documentary] — The Economist
- How misinformation helped fuel a public health crisis — CPJ Executive Director Robert Mahoney and former Executive Director Joel Simon, Nieman Reports
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