Committee to Protect Journalists

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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an independent, nonprofit organization based in New York, New York, United States, that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists, similar to Reporters Without Borders.

A group of U.S. foreign correspondents founded CPJ in 1981 in response to harassment from authoritarian governments.

CPJ organizes vigorous public protests and works through diplomatic channels to effect change. CPJ publishes articles, news releases, special reports, a biannual magazine called Dangerous Assignments [1], and an annual worldwide survey of press freedom called Attacks on the Press. [2]

CPJ also administers the annual CPJ International Press Freedom Awards, which honor journalists and press freedom advocates who have endured beatings, threats, intimidation and prison for reporting the news.

Each year, CPJ compiles a list of all journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. Since 1992, the first year that CPJ began to statistically monitor deaths, 661 journalists have been killed. [3]

CPJ is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of more than 70 non-governmental organizations that monitors free expression violations around the world and defends journalists, writers and others who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

On December 26, 2007, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) appealed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to forthwith bring to justice the killers of Davao City broadcaster Ferdinand Lintuan, who was gunned down on December 24.^[1]