CPJ

On Saturday, Tunis airport customs officials confiscated two copies of CPJ’s annual report, Attacks on the Press, as well as five copies of the Arabic-language translation of the Middle East and North Africa section of the book from Tunisian rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou and journalist Lotfi Hidouri on their return from Morocco, the two men told CPJ. 

On Tuesday, CPJ released its annual report, Attacks on the Press, with a global launch in six cities—Tokyo, New York, Brussels, Bogotá, Cairo, and Nairobi. We’ve noticed that different media reports, using our data, have cited slightly different numbers in regards to two key statics, the number of journalists killed and the number imprisoned in 2009—the global benchmarks for press freedom. We want to clear up any confusion. 

The two venues for the launch of Attacks on the Press in New York couldn’t have been more different. On Tuesday morning I was joined by Newsweek’s Maziar Bahari, and CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz in the hushed auditorium of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at United Nations headquarters. The event was so well attended by the U.N. press corps that we ran out of copies of the book. The press conference went for more than an hour until I was slipped a note saying the U.N. spokesman needed the podium for the U.N. daily briefing.

“I didn’t wear the bulletproof jacket and helmet that Reuters gave me,” explained veteran Somali journalist Sahal Abdulle to a packed crowd at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel for CPJ’s launch of Attacks on the Press. “It didn’t seem right when my colleagues, local journalists, were risking their lives trying to cover the same event.” Abdulle, like all Somali journalists, faces immense challenges in covering the story in his war-ravaged country. According to this year’s findings in Attacks, nearly all the journalists killed in the line of duty in 2009 were local journalists—and nine of them were killed in Somalia.

Irina Bokova is the quintessential diplomat—elegant, gracious, and fluent in five languages. But she must have a sharp elbow or two to have emerged victorious in the rough-and-tumble battle last September to lead UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. agency that promotes culture, education, science, and, occasionally, press freedom around the world.

Today, more than year after landing in the United States to receive medical treatment for severe injuries sustained while reporting in Baghdad, Jehad Ali boarded a plane at the Detroit Wayne County Airport en route to Beirut.

It’s happening again: Journopalooza II, the rock ‘n’ roll journalists’ extravaganza that a year ago turned the often quiet National Press Club into one of the best parties in town. This coming Friday night two repeat-performing bands, Nobody’s Business and Suspicious Package, will be back along with Dirty Bomb and Charm Offensive. Journalists—including unemployed ones—are in every band. The gig should run the gauntlet, from some original material to covers of Springsteen and Lou Reed. A cash bar, a few of them in fact, will be on hand. Proceeds will go to CPJ’s Journalist Protection Fund, Reporters Without Borders, and the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library. Tickets are available at journopalooza.com.

The relentless crackdown on the press in Iran is, well, relentless. In the last few days we have received word that 11 more journalists have been arrested, including former CPJ International Press Freedom Award winner Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, at left.

There are 23 other journalists already in prison in Iran, according to the global census CPJ carried out on December 1. Scores of other journalists have been arrested and released; mores still have been intimidated, beaten and harassed.