Author: OPC of America

World Press Photo of the Year for Spot News was given to Paul Hansen, a Swedish photojournalist.

A British war photographer has been told not to submit his pictures from the Syria war zone to The Sunday Times because they “do not wish to encourage freelancers to take exceptional risks.”

A Somali court’s conviction of a woman who alleged rape by security forces, and a journalist who interviewed her, is a serious setback for ending sexual violence and protecting press freedom, five human rights and media organizations said today. The government should drop its groundless case against the journalist and the woman, and immediately order the release of the journalist, the organizations said.

Over the past week, since the sentencing of a prominent Thai editor Somyot Prueksakakasemsuk and activist to ten years in jail for publishing articles that supposedly violated Thailand’s broad and outdated lèse majesté law, both Thai and foreign commentators have hotly debated whether, and how, to alter or abolish the law.

CEO Laura Lang announced widespread layoffs at Time Inc. on
Thursday. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the number — about 480, or 6 percent of the global headcount of 8,000 — was a little less than some press reports put it. In a memo, Lang said the cuts come from across the company in the U.S. and overseas. Less than half the number are based in New York.

CNN executive vice president and managing editor Mark Whitaker, who is an OPC member, has announced that he is stepping down in order to give Jeff Zucker, the new president, room to “communicate one clear vision” for the network.

John M. Geddes, a managing editor for The New York Times for the last decade and one of the top three editors at the paper, has decided to leave the company. In a note sent to the newsroom staff on Friday afternoon, Geddes said he was accepting a buyout package and would depart in several months after helping with transition on the newspaper’s masthead.

Small makeshift bombs exploded early on Friday outside the Athens homes of five Greek journalists working for major media outlets, in an apparent protest over coverage of events linked to the country’s economic crisis, police said.

RSF paid tribute to the courage of the Chinese journalists who are protesting against restrictions on freedom of information following the censorship of an editorial in the Guangzhou-based reformist weekly Nanfang Zhoumo on 3 January.