Abbreviation | CPJ |
---|---|
Formation | 1981 |
Type | Independent nonprofit organization |
Purpose | Press freedom and journalist human rights |
Headquarters | 330 Seventh Avenue, 11th Floor New York City, New York 10001 United States |
Region served
|
International |
Executive Director
|
Joel Simon |
Affiliations | International Freedom of Expression Exchange |
Website | cpj |
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The American Journalism Review has called the organization "Journalism's Red Cross".
The Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981 in response to the harassment of Paraguayan journalist Alcibiades Gonzalez Delvalle. Its founding honorary chairman was Walter Cronkite. Since 1991, it has held the annual CPJ International Press Freedom Awards Dinner, during which journalists and press freedom advocates who have endured beatings, threats, intimidation, and prison for reporting the news receive awards.
Between 2002 and 2008, it published a biannual magazine, Dangerous Assignments. It also publishes an annual worldwide survey of press freedom called Attacks on the Press.
The organization compiles an annual list all journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. As of June 1, 2016[update], more than 1195 journalists had been killed since 1992 – the first year the organization began systematically tracking killings. The organization's figures are typically lower than similar ongoing counts by Reporters Without Borders or the International Federation of Journalists because of CPJ's established parameters and confirmation process. It also publishes an annual census of imprisoned journalists.
The organization is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of more than seventy non-governmental organizations that monitors free-expression violations around the world and defends journalists, writers, and others persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.