State-sponsored attacks on Human Rights journalist TIs requires NGOs including UN help

"Throughout history governments and entire communities have taken part in such activities, with dire consequences for those that are targeted."  Targeted Individuals

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Non-Government Organizations including the United Nations to help protect human rights journalists, freelancers and online journalists due to escalating state-sponsored murders and imprisonements of such reporters.

Reporting facts involving human rights abuses is increasingly becoming high-risk work, as highlighted in  CPJ's latest findings documented in its newly released report, Attacks on the Press. 

The CPJ report reflects that targeted individual (TI) journalists reporting on human rights violations are under this pressure from their governments.

In 2009, at least 71 human rights journalists were killed and 136 falsely imprisoned (FIPs).

At least 801 journalists have been killed since 1992 according to CPJ.

An untold number of American whistleblowers and journalists are reporting TI persecution in the forms of death threats, false imprisonments, blacklisting and 24-7 surveillance accompanied with unforced home and car break-ins, vandalism, gaslighting and thefts with no Department of Justice protection.

Complaining to the DOJ is reportedly one of the worst things a TI can do, often resulting in false imprisonment or hospitalization for bogus "delusion."

Some Americans reporting facts have subsequently resorted to hiring body guards to protect their families. Those obediently towing the line of human rights violations, corruption and government controlled mainstream press seem unaffected by the deadly suppression tactics.

"It was a bad year for journalist deaths, it was also a bad year for  authoritarian and repressive governments putting journalists behind bars," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. (Voice of America:  Human Rights and Law CPJ: 2009 Deadly, Dangerous Year for Journalists")

"We saw an increase in the number of journalists imprisoned. Some 136 were imprisoned when we did our census in December, and since then, things have got worse."

CPJ "credits its work with contributing to the release of 45 jailed journalists last year," according to the VOA report.

Mahoney says Iran is using Facebook to track down human rights journalists.

CPJ is appealing to the United Nations to protect human rights journalists.

CPJ is also calling on other organizations and activists to persistently urge governments to respect freedom of expression.

"We do believe that constant advocacy on behalf of journalists, bringing their plight into the public sphere, making sure that no victim of a repressive government remains anonymous -- can help," said Mahoney in a Radio Free Europe report today.

"I would like the secretary-general to make a more assertive and firm stand in defense of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression matters. It is a prime pillar of democracy."

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom worldwide by defending rights of journalists to report news without fear of reprisal.

In 2001, CPJ created the Journalist Assistance Program to provide direct assistance to journalists whose needs could not be addressed by advocacy alone--journalists who must go into hiding or exile to escape threats; journalists in need of medicine and other material support in prison; and journalists injured after violent attacks, to give some examples. Since then we have helped more than 250 journalists from 49 countries.

Photo: CPJ

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Activists lean on Human Rights Campaign - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com Ben Smith's POLITICO.com blog on politics. Includes new political coverage of the White House and elections around the country.

The Real Roots of the CIA's Rendition and Black Sites Program, 2/17, H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Jeffrey Kaye, TruthOut

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The FOUR OLC Opinions Retroactively Justifying Telecom Data Collection, 2/17, Marcy Wheeler, Emptywheel

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Does Dick Cheney Want to be Prosecuted?, 2/16, Scott Horton, OpEdNews