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Committee to Protect Journalists receives human rights award
Julie Stagis
Issue date: 10/6/09 Section: News
In honor of their work combating violence and oppression against journalists around the world, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was awarded the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights yesterday.
CPJ executive director Joel Simon, founder Michael Massing and Mariane Pearl, the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, spoke at the event, held on the plaza outside the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
"Is it possible for any one individual or organization to make a difference?" Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) asked when presenting the award. When CPJ is the organization in question, the answer is a "resounding yes," Dodd said.
"[Honoring CPJ] honors my father's work," Dodd, who is Thomas J. Dodd's son, said. "[They are] confronting unafraid the great evils of our time."
CPJ was founded in 1981 to help journalists faced with oppression such as censorship, imprisonment and murder. According to the events program, "their five regional program coordinators … track developments through independent research, fact-finding missions, and firsthand contacts in the field, including reports from other journalists."
"Our first line of defense is to publicize attempts [to violate journalist's rights]," said Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for CPJ. "This serves as protection because the transgressors think, 'The world is watching; perhaps I should back down.'"
From there, CPJ takes as many steps as necessary to thwart attempts at censorship, and worse - deadly violence.
The next step, according to Ognianova, would be to take "diplomatic channels" by communicating with ambassadors and their counterparts to warn them of what's happening.
When that's not enough, CPJ will send letters of protest "outlining the pattern of abuse directly to the president of the country," and contact the United Nations and other parties who could "pressure the government to intervene," she said.
CPJ executive director Joel Simon, founder Michael Massing and Mariane Pearl, the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, spoke at the event, held on the plaza outside the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
"Is it possible for any one individual or organization to make a difference?" Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) asked when presenting the award. When CPJ is the organization in question, the answer is a "resounding yes," Dodd said.
"[Honoring CPJ] honors my father's work," Dodd, who is Thomas J. Dodd's son, said. "[They are] confronting unafraid the great evils of our time."
CPJ was founded in 1981 to help journalists faced with oppression such as censorship, imprisonment and murder. According to the events program, "their five regional program coordinators … track developments through independent research, fact-finding missions, and firsthand contacts in the field, including reports from other journalists."
"Our first line of defense is to publicize attempts [to violate journalist's rights]," said Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for CPJ. "This serves as protection because the transgressors think, 'The world is watching; perhaps I should back down.'"
From there, CPJ takes as many steps as necessary to thwart attempts at censorship, and worse - deadly violence.
The next step, according to Ognianova, would be to take "diplomatic channels" by communicating with ambassadors and their counterparts to warn them of what's happening.
When that's not enough, CPJ will send letters of protest "outlining the pattern of abuse directly to the president of the country," and contact the United Nations and other parties who could "pressure the government to intervene," she said.
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