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.
On the morning of Saturday, September 3, Jeff German, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper who covered organized crime and political corruption, was found dead outside his home in Las Vegas with multiple stab wounds.
On Wednesday, September 7, police arrested Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles on suspicion of murder and later charged him with murder with a deadly weapon. Telles had lost a re-election bid in June 2022 after German reported on alleged mismanagement of his office, allegations which Telles denied at the time. German had been working on a follow-up story to that reporting in the weeks before he was killed.
Prior to German’s killing, eight journalists had been murdered in the U.S. since CPJ started keeping records in 1992. CPJ called on the Las Vegas police to identify all those involved in the killing and to make clear that those who target journalists will face justice.
Global press freedom updates
- Egyptian authorities summon 4 Mada Masr journalists for interrogation
- CPJ dismayed by 22-year sentence for Russian journalist Ivan Safronov
- Israel finds Shireen Abu Akleh likely killed by unintentional Israeli fire
- Paraguayan journalist Humberto Coronel shot and killed
- Greek prosecutors summon journalist Petros Kousoulos in leak probe
- Russian authorities suspend Novaya Gazeta’s print license
- Tunisian authorities arrest journalist Ghassen Ben Khelifa for alleged terrorism
- Hong Kong authorities arrest journalists’ association head Ronson Chan
- Rwandan prosecutors request 22-year prison sentences for 3 Iwacu TV journalists
- Indian tax authorities ‘survey’ media funding organization IPSMF
- Far-right supporters harass French reporter Toufik-de-Planoise
- Iranian freelance journalist Hadi Pourbeheshti arrested in Kerman
- DRC police detain, beat 3 journalists covering protest
Spotlight
On September 6, CPJ hosted filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing for a screening of their HBO documentary “Endangered,” which features CPJ’s work. The film follows four journalists in democratic countries–Mexico, Brazil, and the United States–as they cover the COVID-19 pandemic and other topics amid dangerous reporting circumstances, proliferating misinformation, and anti-press sentiments from leaders and their followers. The documentary can be streamed on HBO Max.
Also on September 6, CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg joined a panel discussion that CPJ co-sponsored at the Geneva Press Club called, “Democracy and Free Speech in Hong Kong: The case of Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily.” Lai, the imprisoned founder of Next Digital media company and the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was honored with CPJ’s Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award in 2021. Press freedom experts on the panel called on the international community to act for Lai’s release.
Watch the full panel discussion on YouTube.
What we are reading
- A Nefarious and Hidden Threat to Journalists Rises — Joel Simon and Carlos Lauria, Columbia Journalism Review
- The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s Authoritarian President — Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker
- Google, YouTube outline plans for the US midterm elections — Lauren Forristal, TechCrunch
- Gorbachev and glasnost: how his fragile legacy of free speech has been destroyed by Putin — Jennifer Mathers, The Conversation
- Shireen Abu Akleh: How Biden team redefined ‘accountability’ — Ali Harb, Al-Jazeera
- Taliban Claim Media Reform as Journalists Decry Censorship — Akmal Dawi, Voice of America
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