Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

CPJ awarded for commitment to journalist safety

Canadian Association of Journalists President Brent Jolly (right) presents the 2024 Charles Bury President’s Award to CPJ, accepted by Katherine Jacobsen (left), CPJ’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator. (Photo: Konnor Killoran/Canadian Association of Journalists)

CPJ was awarded the Canadian Association of Journalists’ 2024 Charles Bury Award on June 1, 2024, 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. “Amidst today’s cacophony of global chaos, the world needs a Red Cross for journalism.”

CAJ specifically highlighted CPJ’s impact in supporting journalists in Gaza, Ukraine, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, and Canada.

“This is not just an acknowledgment 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.

Gaza’s journalism world will never be the same

Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir covers a Japanese cultural event in Khan Yunis, Gaza, for Japan’s JIJI PRESS. (Photo: Courtesy of Abu Bakr Bashir)

London-based Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir moved to Gaza as a teenager during the optimistic era of the Oslo Peace Accords. But over years of reporting, he witnessed life in Gaza erode by wars and blockade. In a new piece for CPJ, Bashir recalls the pressures of reporting in Gaza amid Israeli military operations and Hamas restrictions, but also the knafeh-fueled camaraderie among Gaza’s embattled press corps.

Now, with more than 100 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli military fire and Gaza’s reporting infrastructure all but demolished, Bashir looks back on the journalism world he left in 2019 and asks: “Will there be young men and women willing to go into journalism in Gaza? Who will tell Gaza’s story?”

-Two journalists harassed, assaulted, and detained during Flag March in Jerusalem
–Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war
–Full coverage of the war

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan