Peruvian journalist Manuel Calloquispe faces threats and assaults while covering the Amazon
Committee to Protect Journalists
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Manuel Calloquispe has faced an angry mob laying siege to his house, been called a traitor, been punched and kicked by miners, and had his equipment stolen. He once had to duck for cover when someone threw a machete at him. Yet, for more than a decade, the Peruvian freelance journalist has reported on the environmental havoc caused by the illegal extraction of gold from his childhood home in the Amazon rainforest, in eastern Peru.
Environmental reporting is a dangerous beat, and the Amazon, which encompasses parts of Peru and several other South American countries, is an increasingly lawless area where journalists face constant risk due to the lack of law enforcement and poor infrastructure. In 2022, British freelance journalist Dom Phillips went missing while on a research trip with Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira, and their remains were found with gunshot wounds 10 days later.
?? Read CPJ's new feature detailing Calloquispe's commitment to covering the Amazon amid these risks.
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Separately, after police searched the office of the Marion County Record in Kansas, seizing the newsroom’s computers, file servers, and reporters’ personal cellphones, the paper’s four-person newsroom scrambled to release its next weekly edition. They worked until 5 a.m. to get the paper to the printer, with the headline: “SEIZED…but not silenced.”
On August 19, CPJ attended the funeral of Joan Meyer, the co-owner of the newspaper, who collapsed and passed away following the police raid of her newspaper, her house, and her son’s home. She was remembered for her historical knowledge of Marion, her work at the paper, and her belief that people, if informed, would do the right thing.
The county attorney later acknowledged there was insufficient evidence to support the warrant and police raid, and police returned the seized equipment.
?? For more: Read CPJ’s interview with Sherman Smith, editor-in-chief of the Kansas Reflector, to better understand the local context of the raid.
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Spotlight
CPJ is calling for the protection of journalists in Bangladesh ahead of a review by the United Nations through a joint submission to the U.N. alongside Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Asian Legal Resource Centre.
Bangladesh authorities are increasingly attempting to silence the media through arbitrary detention, legal harassment, and censorship. The submission, sent for the 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group scheduled for November, documents impunity in cases of killings and abductions of journalists, violence against members of the press in custody, and the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed in jail in February 2021.
It also highlights instances of arbitrary detention, harassment, and violence against family members of critical exiled journalists.
Read the full submission here.
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So far in 2023…
At least ten journalists and media workers have been killed in relation to their work. Explore our database of attacks on the press and apply filters to examine trends.
Independent Broadcast Media Professional
1 年Do some initiatives for real journalists, reporters and editors. Fakes are making chaos. Government authorities are acing unknown facts never heard and victims are alone survivings. !!!
Investigative journalist at Freelancer ([My views are personal and don’t represent any organization]
1 年Good efforts of the CPJ . We hope the CPJ will also look into Pakistan and will assign someone for the best representation of the CPJ . And hoping that CPJ will raise voice for Pak-Afghan international forum of Journalists. We have more than 200 journalists families here in Pakistan who needs help of International support of the colleagues..