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.
In Peru, ultra right-wing group La Resistencia has picketed the homes and offices of prominent journalists, politicians, and human rights activists, disrupted book events and news conferences, and hurled death threats and antisemitic slurs against one of the country’s most prominent investigative journalism outlets, IDL-Reporteros, and its chief editor Gustavo Gorriti.
In a new feature, Goritti tells CPJ how La Resistencia’s actions are reducing the impact of IDL-Reporteros’ investigative journalism and undermining press freedom in a country where journalists are increasingly facing defamation lawsuits and violence.
Global press freedom updates
- Anti-migrant activists assault Italian journalists, prevent live coverage from Lampedusa
- Police and protesters attack, obstruct at least 18 journalists covering French protests
- CPJ condemns Moroccan court’s rejection of appeals by jailed journalists Soulaiman Raissouni and Omar Radi
- M23 rebels ban radio show by displaced Congolese journalists
- Burkina Faso suspends third French media outlet in under 8 months
- Cambodia blocks websites, social media accounts of three outlets ahead of Sunday election
- CPJ urges Bangladesh to stop using Digital Security Act to harass Adhora Yeasmean and other journalists
This week, CPJ called on Congress to push for justice during Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the U.S., and to leverage the U.S. partnership with Israel to:
- Secure Israel’s full cooperation with the Justice Department’s investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing
- Press Israeli authorities to reform IDF rules of engagement to prevent further journalist killings
- Urge Israel to end impunity in cases of journalists injured and killed by the Israeli military
On July 17, CPJ and more than 60 national organizations sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to support the Justice for Shireen Act, which would require the FBI and the State Department to publicly report on the circumstances surrounding Shireen Abu Akleh’s death.
🔎Dive deeper: Robert Mahoney, a former CPJ executive director, wrote in Just Security this month about how the United States can leverage its unique relationship with Israel to push for change and achieve justice for Shireen Abu Akleh.
Special Event: Journalists Ana Arana and Oz Woloshyn will discuss their podcast “Silenced: The Radio Murders” about three radio journalists murdered in Miami’s Little Haiti after taking to the airwaves to inspire, organize, and participate in Haiti’s democratization. This podcast, from iHeartRadio and Kaleidoscope, revisits Arana’s 1994 investigation published by CPJ.
RSVP for the event, which will take place on Thursday, July 27, at 5:30 p.m., at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Attendees will hear select clips from the podcast and in-depth context from panelists.
What we are reading (and watching)
- Frontline print in Ukraine 2023 Newspapers are important! — National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
- A murdered journalist, the media mogul, and an epic reporting project in Cameroon — Jon Allsop, Columbia Journalism Review
- Pegasus Project: What has happened since the revelations? — Karine Pfenniger, Forbidden Stories
- Investigative Journalism in Africa: A book from the frontlines — Manasseh Azure Awuni, Global Investigative Journalism Network
- Assault, police harassment, even death: The lonely fight for press freedom in small-town India — Shweta Desai, Newslaundry
A closer look
After an eight-year legal saga involving prominent investigative journalist Jovo Martinović, who was twice wrongly convicted on drug-related charges, on July 12 the Montenegro Supreme Court upheld a January verdict to acquit him.
Martinović denied the charges and said they were in retaliation for his journalism, a stance he maintained through an extended pre-trial detention, two retrials, and multiple appeals.
“The verdict is a critical vindication for Martinović, and we can only hope Montenegro authorities have learned that covering crime does not mean a reporter is involved in criminal activity,” said CPJ’s Europe representative Attila Mong.
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