Attacks on the press - Committee to Protect Journalists

THE WORLD'S MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM

Recent highly publicized murders of journalists have heightened awareness of the grave dangers that reporters and photographers face around the world. Less widely known are the myriad other risks to journalists, including imprisonment, cyberattacks, harassment, frivolous lawsuits, and censorship. These threats exist to varying degrees in war zones, politically volatile regions, and even stable countries, and they all hold the potential to limit public access to news.

The risks are increasing due to widespread unrest and in response to the broad dissemination of critical information through social media and the Internet.

For almost three decades, the Committee to Protect Journalists has published
Attacks on the Press
as part of its mission to protect and advocate for journalists around the world. The book chronicles contemporary global threats through a mix of original reporting, personal accounts, and rigorously vetted data. The results are illuminating and cautionary, and provide timely information and guidance for media professionals working on the front lines.

This volume includes:

• An expert assessment of the dangers to freelance journalists in conflict zones as well as one young reporter's firsthand account of her experience freelancing in Syria


• A critical look at the collapse of the independent media in Russia and another on the media vacuum in contested areas of Ukraine


• Reports on physical risks to journalists in Mexico, Pakistan, and Paraguay and on the jailing of bloggers in Ethiopia


• Evaluations of new forms of censorship in places like Egypt, Hong Kong, and Turkey, and of changing laws governing digital information around the world


• A review of available cybersecurity measures and the price journalists pay to keep up with spies


• News on the rise of right–wing harassment of journalists in Europe and on the backlash against the U.K. media in the wake of that country's phone–hacking scandal


• A contemplation of the long–range impacts of the publicized executions of journalists by militant groups such as Islamic State


• And an analysis of the 10 most censored countries in the world

Among the journalists under attack are seasoned reporters and photographers working for established media organizations as well as freelancers and bloggers most of them local who typically have limited support and may face open hostility from governments, militants, corrupt police, or criminal cartels. In some cases, the risks have reduced coverage of events of international significance, which limits public understanding and in some cases leads to escalating violence.

Attacks on the Press
is published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide.