Committee to Protect Journalists

The following is an analysis of the Committee to Protect Journalists Web site (www.cpj.org).

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 by a group of U.S. foreign correspondents. It promotes press freedom around the world by defending journalists’ right to report the news freely. The organization’s founders saw the need for its creation as a response to the often brutal treatment of their foreign colleagues by authoritarian governments. The organization works in 120 countries, and believes press freedom is imperative as a means to obtain certain human rights, strong democracy and a healthy political environment.

CPJ is run by a staff of 23 at its New York headquarters, and includes a 35-member board of prominent journalists. The organization protects journalists by organizing protests, publishing articles, news releases and special reports, and warning journalists and news organizations where attacks on press freedom are occurring. It has full-time program coordinators monitoring the press in nearly every continent.

The site is organized much like that of a news organization, primarily with links to reports of press news on the home page. It conveniently breaks the news into five separate tabs; one for each region of the world it covers. Most of the stories on the site are about recent press happenings around the world. For example, one story under the “Asia” tab was about a missing Sri Lankan journalist. Another, under “Americas,” reported on a Venezuelan police officer arrested for gunning down a journalist.

The site's viewers can also find multimedia at the bottom of the home page. One video, for example, was about a journalist jailed in Iran. At the top of the home page, it also shows statistics on the numbers of journalists killed since 2010 and since 1992, as well as the number of journalists imprisoned in Iran.

In addition, site viewers can also find on the side of the page a link to the site’s blog, links to other special reports, detailed lists of journalists killed, missing and jailed worldwide, as well as how to become a supporter of the organization.

The site’s articles on what is going on with press freedom and oppression can be helpful to any journalists who want to stay in the know about what is going on and use these as warnings so they can potentially avoid being in similar situations. This is especially helpful to journalists who live and report in these areas or are traveling there on assignment. Journalists can also contact the organization in an emergency, as it is prepared to intervene and help when correspondents are in trouble.

This site is innovative because it is seemingly everywhere all it once. It covers nearly every region of the world, and offers help to journalists all around the world, with program coordinators who are constantly tracking developments to inform journalists. The organization also shares information on breaking cases with other press freedom organizations worldwide through the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global e-mail network.

I would give this site a rating of five because it is such an informative, valuable resource to journalists. Not only does it report press attacks on its site firsthand and share them with other organizations that do the same, but it also helps journalists who are in trouble. The people who work for CPJ are prepared to notify news organizations, government officials and human rights organizations immediately of press violations, as well as advise journalists who are covering on assignment.