Attacks on the Press

The Committee to protect journalists launched Attacks on the Press 2008 today. The CPJ will be holding a press conference at the United Nations later to publicize the report. You can watch the livestream on the UN website at 9.30am EST Tuesday 10 February. Taking part will be, Joel Simon, CPJ Executive Director, Paul Steiger, CPJ Board Chairman, and Carl Bernstein, journalist. Here’s a snippet from Joel Simon in the introduction to the report,

Forty-one journalists died in 2008, down notably from previous years. A sharp drop in the number of journalists killed in Iraq led to the overall decline. Improved security conditions in Iraq and, possibly, a rollback in foreign bureaus in Baghdad helped lead to the lower numbers there. Many journalists killed in previous years were targeted because of their ties to Western media outlets. link

If you use use Twitter, you can follow the press conference in 140 character text snippets with both the CPJ and with journalismnews. And don’t forget, the Frontline Club uses Twitter too.