Committee to Protect Journalists

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Committee to Protect Journalists
AbbreviationCPJ
Formation1981;43 years ago (1981)
Type501(c)(3) nonprofit organization [1]
13-3081500
Purpose Press freedom and journalist human rights
Headquarters New York City, New York
Location
  • United States
Region served
International
President
 Jodie Ginsberg
Affiliations International Freedom of Expression Exchange
Website cpj.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The American Journalism Review has called the organization, "Journalism's Red Cross." [2] Since the late 1980s CPJ has been publishing an annual census of journalists killed or imprisoned in relation to their work. [3]

Contents

History and programs

The Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981 in response to the harassment of Paraguayan journalist Alcibiades González Delvalle. [4] Its founding honorary chairman was Walter Cronkite. [4] Since 1991, it has held the annual CPJ International Press Freedom Awards Dinner, [4] during which awards are given to journalists and press freedom advocates who have endured beatings, threats, intimidation, and prison for reporting the news.

Between 2002 and 2008, it published a biannual magazine, Dangerous Assignments. [5] It also published an annual worldwide survey of press freedom called Attacks on the Press between 1987 and 2017. [6] Since 2018, "Attacks on the Press" has been published in digital form. [7]

Since 1992, the organization has compiled an annual list of all journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. [8] For 2017, it reported that 46 journalists had been killed in connection with their work, as compared to 48 in 2016, and 72 in 2015, and that of those journalists killed, 18 had been murdered. [8] A running total of journalists killed over the entire period from 1992 is available on the group's website, as well as the statistics for any given year; as of April 2018 the total was 1285. [9] The organization's figures are typically lower than similar ongoing counts by Reporters Without Borders or the International Federation of Journalists because of CPJ's established parameters and confirmation process. [10] It also publishes an annual census of imprisoned journalists. [11]

The organization works to protect and enhance free press rights within the United States, which, among other efforts, includes its US Press Freedom Tracker project. In 2017, the project had a small infusion of financing after a $50,000 contribution from US Representative Greg Gianforte. The funds arose as a stipulation of a civil settlement Gianforte reached after his election eve attack on The Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs in May 2017, after Jacobs asked him a question on health care policy. [12] Gianforte was convicted of criminal assault in state court in June 2017 stemming from his assault of Jacobs. He was fined and sentenced to community service and anger management therapy. [13] [14] [15] As a stipulation of his settlement with Jacobs, Gianforte donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said it would use the funds to support the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. [16]

The organization is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of more than seventy non-governmental organizations that monitors free-expression violations around the world and defends journalists, writers, and others persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression. In 2016, the Times of Israel reported that the United Nations voted to deny consultative status to CPJ citing concerns with the group's finances, and also because CPJ does not support punishment for hate speech. [17] The ban was overturned and CPJ was granted consultative status in July 2016. [18]

As of 2020, the organization publishes an annual "Impunity Index" of countries in which journalists are murdered and the killers are not prosecuted. [19]

Staff and directors

Foreign correspondent Ann Cooper served as executive director from 1998 to 2006. [20]

Journalist Joel Simon served as the organization's executive director between 2006 and 2021; he had previously served as deputy director since 2000, [21] and as CPJ's Americas program coordinator since 1997. [22]

In January 2022, the organization announced that journalist and advocate Jodie Ginsberg will head the organization starting April 2022. [23] The organization also changed the title of the position from "executive director" to "president."

Its board of directors has included American journalists, including:

Former board members:

See also

Related Research Articles

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. Such freedom implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state; its preservation may be sought through the constitution or other legal protection and security. It is in opposition to paid press, where communities, police organizations, and governments are paid for their copyrights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reporters Without Borders</span> International organisation for freedom of the press

Reporters Without Borders is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization focused on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as founded on the belief that everyone requires access to the news and information, in line with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognises the right to receive and share information regardless of frontiers, along with other international rights charters. RSF has consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organisation of the Francophonie.

The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honor journalists or their publications around the world who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment. Established in 1991, the awards are administered by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, non-governmental organization based in New York City. In addition to recognizing individuals, the organization seeks to focus local and international media coverage on countries where violations of press freedom are particularly serious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass media in Israel</span> Print, broadcast and online media in the State of Israel

There are over ten different languages in the Israeli media, with Hebrew as the predominant one. Press in Arabic caters to the Arab citizens of Israel, with readers from areas including those governed by the Palestinian National Authority. During the eighties and nineties, the Israeli press underwent a process of significant change as the media gradually came to be controlled by a limited number of organizations, whereas the papers published by political parties began to disappear. Today, three large, privately owned conglomerates based in Tel Aviv dominate the mass media in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of the press in Ukraine</span>

Ukraine was in 96th place out of 180 countries listed in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, having returned to top 100 of this list for the first time since 2009, but dropped down one spot to 97th place in 2021, being characterized as being in a "difficult situation".

Mass media in Abkhazia consists of several TV channels, newspapers, magazines and radio stations. Some of them are government-owned, others are private. Apsnypress is the government information agency. Russian media are generally also available and popular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Gianforte</span> Governor of Montana (born 1961)

Gregory Richard Gianforte is an American businessman, politician, software engineer, and writer serving as the 25th governor of Montana since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Gianforte served as the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2021.

Umar Cheema is an investigative reporter for the Pakistani newspaper The News. In 2008, he won a Daniel Pearl Journalism Fellowship, becoming the first Pearl fellow to work at The New York Times. He also attended London School of Economics as a Chevening Scholar doing M.Sc. in Comparative Politics.

Lê Hoàng Hùng, a Vietnamese investigative journalist, worked for Người Lao Động in Tân An, Vietnam, where he covered corruption and crime. He was burned to death by his wife.

Navidi Vakhsh was a pro-Islamic, Tajik-language thrice-weekly newspaper of Tajikistan. The paper was published in Khatlon Province, 160 kilometres (100 mi) south of Dushanbe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavel Sheremet</span> Belarusian-born Russian and Ukrainian journalist

Pavel Grigorievich Sheremet was a Belarusian-born Russian and Ukrainian journalist who was imprisoned by the government of Belarus in 1997, sparking an international incident between Belarus and Russia. The New York Times has described him as "known for his crusading reports about political abuses in Belarus" and "a thorn in the side of Lukashenko's autocratic government". He was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award in 1999 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tipu Sultan (journalist)</span> Bangladeshi journalist

Tipu Sultan is a Bangladeshi freelance investigative journalist who received the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2002. He was the victim of a widely publicised attack instigated by a local politician that almost cost him his life.

Ignacio Gómez is a Colombian journalist known for his high-risk reporting on organized crime, corruption, and paramilitary groups. In 2000, he received the "Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat" Amnesty Media Award. In 2002, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike O'Connor (journalist)</span>

Mike O'Connor was a German-born American journalist, war correspondent, and Mexico's representative for Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promote press freedom around the world. Born in Germany following World War II to Americans stationed in a refugee camp, O'Connor began his career as a journalist in the 1980s. As a foreign journalist, he covered civil wars and conflicts for NPR, The New York Times, CBS News, among others.

Cándido Figueredo Ruíz is a journalist for the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color from Pedro Juan Caballero, Amambay Department, Paraguay. He has received multiple threats against his life for his work in exposing organized crime, drug smuggling across the Brazilian border, and corruption in Paraguay.

Ben Jacobs is an American political reporter. He formerly worked for The Guardian, where he gained mass media attention for being assaulted by Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte in May 2017. He previously worked at The Daily Beast. His journalism has also been published in outlets including The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Jewish Insider, New York Magazine, and the online news sites Salon and Capital New York. Jacobs has covered people such as Donald Trump and Chelsea Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safety of journalists</span> Overview article

Safety of journalists is the ability for journalists and media professionals to receive, produce and share information without facing physical or moral threats.

References

  1. ↑ "Charity Navigator - IRS Data for Committee to Protect Journalists". Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  2. ↑ Ricchiardi, Sherry (December 1997). "Journalism's Red Cross – Under-Staffed and Low-Profile, the Committee to Protect Journalists Rides to the Rescue of Reporters and Editors Who Run Afoul of Governments Hostile to the Press". American Journalism Review . Archived from the original on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "CPJ's database".
  4. 1 2 3 "Committee to Protect Journalists records, 1978-2008". Columbia University Libraries Archival Collections. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Staff (undated). "Dangerous Assignments" Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists". www.cpj.org. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  7. ↑ "Attacks on the Press". 9 December 2021.
  8. 1 2 Gladstone, Rick (19 December 2016). "Fewer Journalists Were Killed on the Job This Year, Group Reports Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine ". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  9. ↑ "Journalists Killed Since 1992/Motive Confirmed Archived 8 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine ". Committee to Protect Journalists. cpj.org. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  10. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions Archived 3 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine ". Section: "CPJ's list of killed journalists is different from other organizations. Why?" Committee to Protect Journalists. cpj.org. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  11. ↑ "2015 prison census: 199 journalists jailed worldwide - Committee to Protect Journalists". www.cpj.org. 22 January 2015. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Whitney Bermes, 11 October 2017, Judge releases Congressman Gianforte’s mugshot Archived 26 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  13. ↑ Marcos, Cristina (21 June 2017). "Gianforte Causes Stir After Becoming Newest House Member". The Hill . Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  14. ↑ Kyung Lah, Noa Yadidi and Carma Hassan (12 June 2017). "Gianforte pleads guilty to assault in incident with reporter". CNN. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Andrews, Natalie (12 June 2017). "Incoming GOP Congressman Greg Gianforte Pleads Guilty to Assault on Reporter". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "CPJ to use $50,000 Gianforte donated as part of body slam settlement to track other assaults on press - Committee to Protect Journalists". cpj.org. 27 June 2017. Archived from the original on 13 December 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  17. ↑ "Press freedom watchdog denied UN credentials". The Times of Israel . Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  18. ↑ "U.N. body overturns rejection, accredits press freedom watchdog". Reuters. 25 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  19. ↑ "Fallen Journalists: The Global Impunity Index | Dreier Roundtable". drt.cmc.edu. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  20. ↑ [ dead link ] "Poynter Online Forums" Archived 14 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine . Poynter Institute.
  21. ↑ Staff (n.d.). "Our People". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  22. ↑ "Our People". Archived from the original on 1 March 2021.
  23. ↑ "Committee to Protect Journalists names Jodie Ginsberg as its new president". 10 January 2022.

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