The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. They defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

Mission

CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. CPJ ensures the free flow of news and commentary by taking action wherever journalists are attacked, imprisoned, killed, kidnapped, threatened, censored, or harassed.

Hundreds of journalists are killed, harassed, or imprisoned every year. For 30 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has been there to defend them worldwide.

Why do they protect journalists? Journalism plays a vital role in the balance of power between a government and its people. When a country's journalists are silenced, its people are silenced. By protecting journalists, CPJ protects freedom of expression and democracy.

When journalists can't speak, they speak up. 

History

The Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981 by a group of U.S. correspondents who realized they could not ignore the plight of colleagues whose reporting put them in peril on a daily basis.

The idea that journalists around the world should come together to defend the rights of colleagues working in repressive and dangerous environments led to CPJ's first advocacy campaign in 1982. At the time, three British journalists-Simon Winchester, Ian Mather, and Tony Prime-were arrested in Argentina while covering the Falklands War. A letter from CPJ Honorary Chairman Walter Cronkite helped spring them from prison.

Since then, CPJ's mission involves not only journalists but anyone who cherishes the value of information for a free society.