CPJ hailed as a ‘Red Cross for journalism’
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes #pressfreedom worldwide.
On Saturday, CPJ was awarded the Canadian Association of Journalists’ (CAJ) 2024 Charles Bury Award for commitment to protecting the safety and security of journalists at risk worldwide.
“For decades, the CPJ has saved countless lives of journalists while simultaneously shining a bright light on the many draconian abuses to press freedom around the world,” said CAJ president Brent Jolly at the association’s annual awards ceremony at Toronto’s Reference Library.?
CAJ specifically highlighted CPJ’s impact supporting journalists in Gaza, Ukraine, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, and Canada.
“This is not just an acknowledgement of the work that my colleagues at the Committee to Protect Journalists undertake but a tribute to the countless journalists who risk their lives every day to shed light on the most critical stories of our time, keeping the public informed while holding authorities to account,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator upon acceptance of the award.
Read more about the Canadian Association of Journalists’ 2024 awards.
Global press freedom updates
Spotlight
On Wednesday, Cristina Zahar, CPJ's Latin America program coordinator, participated in a press conference to commemorate the second anniversary of the killings of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira in Brasilia.
Phillips and Pereira were brutally murdered during a trip to the Javari Valley, in the Brazilian Amazon.
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The event was organized by the Brazilian Coalition for the Defense of Journalism, of which CPJ is a member, along with Pedro Vaca, the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and representatives from RSF, Article 19, Abraji and Instituto Vladimir Herzog.
"Impunity in the case of Dom and Bruno is part of a larger scenario of impunity for crimes against journalists, not just in Brazil,” Zahar stated. According to CPJ's 2023 Global Impunity Index, "Brazil ranks 10th on the list of countries with the most impunity, along with Syria, Somalia, Haiti, and Mexico, which is considered the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere."
The Brazilian coalition highlighted the delay in bringing those responsible for Phillips and Pereira’s deaths to justice and the lack of transparency in the Colombian investigation, which is being conducted in secret.
Three suspects—the brothers Amarildo and Oseney da Costa Oliveira, and Jefferson da Silva Lima, all accused of illegal fishing in the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory—were arrested in June 2022 but are yet to be tried. The alleged mastermind, Rubén Dario da Silva Villar, alias Colombia, is imprisoned for other crimes.
Watch the press conference.
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Join us on June 11 for a virtual webinar “Online abuse self-defense,” part of our U.S. Election Safety Summer! Designed to equip journalists with safety tools for journalists to cover the U.S. elections, the series is organized by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Women's Media Foundation, and PEN America.
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