Dedicated to preserving and protecting press freedom throughout the Commonwealth.
Welcome to the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) new website, our window on the world and a place where journalists from across the Commonwealth can share their experiences, learn from each other, find support and meet as a community.
It is clear to us all that these are not good days for journalists. In too many countries our colleagues are targeted by thugs in the pay of governments or other groups who intimidate or commit violence against journalists in an effort to suppress the truth of their own illegal behavior.
We in the CJA will do our best, and through all means at our disposal, to expose and condemn the brutality of these thugs and their paymasters. The only weapon we have in the fight against violent despots is public exposure and the political pressure that exposure brings to bear.
This website will be a major tool in the fight to protect journalists and to create a safe and secure working environment for all of us.
We know too that violence is not the only weapon used against journalists in our Commonwealth. Threats against the economic well being of journalists and their employers are commonplace and deliberately intended to weaken those whose job is to report on government and other powerful institutions.
Independent journalism, well-practiced, is essential to the functioning of any democracy.
Commonwealth countries.
The CJA thanks the Commonwealth Foundation for its financial support: Contents: P1: South African MPs pass “secrecy bill”; P3: Post CHOGM analysis; P6: Journalists in Pakistan; P9: The UK after the phone-hacking scandal; P10: Other news from around the Commonwealth
Free expression in The Gambia is in danger of extinction. Since 1996 when the Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh disparaged journalists as “the illegitimate sons {sic} of Africa”, journalists and media houses in The Gambia have been subjected to many and varied forms of harassment and repression. The crackdown on the media is so systematic and [...]
The South African parliament must quash a draconian secrecy bill, Amnesty International said today (Nov. 22, 2011) as the government votes on a proposed law which could see journalists and whistleblowers in prison for investigating state wrongdoing. If the bill is passed, journalists will no longer be able to argue that they are acting in the [...]