Today, nearly every African country holds multiparty elections of some kind, but – as in the case worldwide – relatively few fully respect political rights and civil liberties. This situation was already worrying before the pandemic. In 2019, advocacy group Freedom … Read more
On the morning of July 20, 2020, a group of men arrived at the Harare home of Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, smashed a glass door to gain access and took him away. “They are breaking into … Read more
Many news consumers in the United States may have no idea that some of the world’s best reporting on what is happening in authoritarian societies and fragile democracies comes from news services that are funded by the U.S. government but … Read more
I’ll never forget the day the publisher spotted me as I was returning to my desk after lunch. She dressed me down in the middle of the newsroom, with more than a few of my colleagues within earshot. She scolded … Read more
On May 29, I watched in disbelief as the police handcuffed a CNN crew while broadcasting live from Minneapolis in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. The appalling violation of freedom of the press would have … Read more
preI thought I’d grown accustomed to daily attacks on the press. Being a journalist in Serbia often means you spend more time fending off pressure from politicians than doing your work. In the 1990s, I witnessed firsthand the brutal attacks … Read more
On May 28, Ilya Azar, 35, a Novaya Gazeta journalist and activist, was arrested near the entrance to Moscow’s police department, where he was picketing, holding a small placard. On the placard were the names of … Read more
last June, I traveled to Ghana for the first time. For most of my life, I wanted no connection to the dark continent. I had been convinced, by whom or what I don’t know, that the American in my … Read more
The more I read about Tara Reade’s story, the less I know about her sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. That’s a problem, not just for Reade but for every serious journalistic attempt to litigate decades-old … Read more
