For 15 years until 2021, I served as the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and in that capacity traveled the world to defend press freedom. I visited countless newsrooms and interviewed hundreds of journalists under threat. Read more
Over the past decade, democracies across the globe have experienced a recession. From the rise of authoritarian leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to the Jan. 6 insurrection and election denialism in the United States, many countries have observed declines in … Read more
If I asked you to name a country where press freedom has grown stronger in recent years, could you? How about countries where press freedom is increasingly under attack? If you’re still struggling with the … Read more
When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the journalists of the English-language Kyiv Independent set up a live blog with constant updates for Ukrainians and readers around the globe. Their earliest dispatches described skirmishes … Read more
When soldiers finally swarmed the offices of Mizzima Media in March, the building was empty. Its editors had already taken the computers, cameras, microphones and notes and vanished into different corners of Myanmar. It had taken weeks for the new … Read more
A little over a year ago, 45 people in an inflatable boat died at sea trying to cross to Spain from a beach north of the city of Casablanca along Morocco’s Atlantic shore. More than half … Read more
President Trump may be leaving office but he and his rhetoric about fake news are here to stay. From the beginning of his presidential campaign, Trump has used the rubric “fake news” to demean and harass journalists; his administration has … Read more
Beatrice Mtetwa is a prominent human rights lawyer and free press advocate in Zimbabwe who is representing journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. He was granted bail and is expected to be released later today after being held in … Read more
Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts in 47 languages to over 280 million people around the world, including in countries such as Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. VOA, founded in 1942, serves “as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news … Read more
When Zimbabwean journalist and 2010 Nieman Fellow Hopewell Chin’ono started speaking out against corruption in the government, using his Facebook and Twitter accounts as primary channels, he knew the precedent of journalists … Read more
