Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Journalist Casimir Kpedjo detained, facing false news accusations in Benin
- Trial of detained Nicaraguan journalists Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora indefinitely delayed
- Editor-in-chief of Mexican newspaper Reforma targeted by death threats following criticism from president
- Peruvian judge orders assets freeze for Ojo Público, 2 journalists in defamation case
- Israeli forces injure four Palestinian journalists covering Gaza protests
- Two journalists arrested covering yellow vest protests in France
- Jordanian journalist Abdulrahman Farhana detained by Saudi authorities
- Myanmar military sues The Irrawaddy for criminal defamation over conflict coverage
- #WeStandWithLyra
Reporter Without Borders
- Israel: Palestinian journalist sentenced, five others pending trial
- Another journalist murdered in Mexico, sixth in 2019
- Liberian reporter arrested at football official’s behest
- Journalists must be respected during Moldova’s political crisis
- Trinidad and Tobago – Parliament considers restrictive amendments to the Freedom of Information Act
- UK Home Secretary gives green light to extradite Julian Assange to the US
- Kenyan media group trolled by pro-ruling party activists
- Hong Kong: Police must stop attacking journalists
OPC Freedom of the Press Committee Annual Report
As promised last year, your committee has attempted to broaden its activities over the past year. We have been partially successful.
We have written many more articles touching on press freedom for the OPC website and the Bulletin. We organized another discussion forum for the website, this one exploring what it takes to qualify as a journalist and whether bloggers, new media writers and the like have rights to cross police lines, shield their sources and the like.
We have written 54 of our traditional letters protesting abuses of the press to governments around the world, including our own. As I said last year, this represents no increase, and we did not plan one; we were keeping the franchise alive while exploring added activities.
The year’s major initiative came in trying to exploit the new social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to generate traffic for our Web site, raise the profile of the OPC and of course increase general interest in the cause of press freedom. With the help of an intern, Marissa Miller, we posted actively all last summer and most of the fall. During that time, the OPC’s Twitter following rose to more than 600 – not a lot by movie-star standards, but more than twice what it had been. I judged that to be a moderate success, but the effort would benefit from a stronger voice in the Tweets and a more provocative choice of subjects. I hope the experiment will continue.
As I also said a year ago, this will be my last appearance as chair of the Freedom of the Press Committee. After 19 years on the job, with a couple off to be president of the club, I am simply burned out, and the committee needs new leadership with the fire and dedication that the late Norman Schorr brought to it for so many years. My hat is off to him, and to all the members of the committee who have given time and energy to the cause over the years. Thanks to all of them, and to the club for its support.
And goodbye.
Respectfully submitted by: Larry Martz, Chairman