Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009introductionand Pakistan—but to their international partners as well. In September, a CPJdelegation traveled to Moscow and Brussels to present Anatomy of Injustice, ourin-depth examination of unsolved journalist killings in Russia. In Moscow, wemade the case directly to top investigators and other officials; in Brussels, we metwith European Union officials to press the point that this is their problem as well.Russian investigators invited CPJ to return in 2010 to assess their progress. Wewill be there.AFRICAThe tragedies of 2009 only make our challenge more clear. Creatingvibrant and secure global media requires new strategic thinking to bring killersto justice, to reduce the number of journalists in jail, and to support reportersworking in exile or in repressive environments. On all of these fronts, there hasbeen progress.In Cuba, a lively community of independent bloggers is emerging despitesome of the world’s most repressive censorship laws. In Zimbabwe, many of thesame journalists who were forced into exile in the early part of the decade areagain disseminating news to Zimbabweans on the airwaves, in print, and online.In China, the number of journalists in jail has declined from a high of 42in 2004 to 24 today. Traditional journalists who expose corruption are morelikely now to be fired than to be hauled off to jail. But questioning the Communistsystem remains off-limits: Most of the journalists in jail in China todayare online freelancers who do just that. Defending these opinion journalists isa huge test.At a time when technology is changing the way people around the worldgather and receive information, when international news organization are cuttingback and closing bureaus, freelancers, local reporters, and online journalists aremore important than ever. The press critic A.J. Liebling once quipped, “Freedomof the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” In today’s world, that’s justabout everyone. While the rights of each journalist are protected by internationallaw, few have large media organizations that can stand behind them. Instead,their safety and security depends on the ability of press freedom organizations togenerate public attention and mobilize action.Protestations from repressive governments about “foreign meddling” and“secret agendas” are evidence that our campaigns are having the intended effect.The revolution in global information has created new challenges, but “name andshame” is alive and well.Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.1 2 1 3