September 23, 2025
Investigative reporters face a two-fold challenge:
surveillance software has become mind-bogglingly sophisticated; and funding is
pouring in for development of new technologies. These new products are
purchased on the gray market by governments that spy on their public – and their
press.
By Sebastian Junger — I remember when I was younger thinking, if I was covering a war and I wasn’t in a situation where people were shooting in my direction, I
wasn’t really covering the war.
A totally silly way to think. What you’re really doing is
answering a personal need for excitement – and not necessarily a pure quest for
information.
The recent murders by ISIS of foreign journalists and aid
workers sparked enormous outrage and condemnation.
But what seemed to have provoked much of the fury were the
videos of the beheadings that were produced and distributed by the murderers
themselves.
This graphic from Dateline magazine by Heather Jones, with reporting by Emily Barone and Jack Linshi, illustrates the rising tide of violence and incarceration against journalists around the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its sweeping
annual report on press freedom, Attacks on the Press, which outlines government
crackdowns and rising extremism that has made this “the most deadly and
dangerous period for journalists in recent history,” according to a CPJ press
release.
The 76h Annual Overseas Press Club (OPC) Awards Dinner honors the finest of international journalism. The Awards, established in 1940, recognize excellence
in international coverage for the categories of print, online, broadcasting and photography.
Those who are not able to attend our Annual Awards Dinner this year can watch a live stream of the event via Google Hangouts. Tune in at 7:30 p.m. ET to watch acceptance speeches from recipients; a keynote address from Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times; some thoughts from OPC President’s Award recipient David Rohde, and more.
OPC Second Vice President Abigail Pesta, a freelance journalist, won a National Headliner Award for her reporting in Cosmopolitan magazine.
In the late morning of Saturday, Feb. 21, all fifteen 2015 OPC Foundation scholars gathered on the fifteenth floor in the headquarters of The Associated Press in midtown Manhattan. We were there to hear from Frank Smyth, veteran freelance journalist and founder of Global Journalist Security (GJS).
In this Video Memoir interview, Kathy Gannon, Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Associated Press, speaks about her career as a journalist. She was working with Pulitzer Prize winning AP photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus when they were shot in Afghanistan while covering the upcoming elections.
