MEXICO CITY—Dozens of journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador had their cellphones repeatedly hacked with sophisticated spyware over the past year and a half, an internet watchdog said Wednesday. Reporting on its latest findings about use of the Israeli firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said it had…

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Police Commission approved Dec. 14 an updated department policy to comply with Senate Bill 98 (SB 98), which exempts media professionals from having to comply with police dispersal orders while covering protests, marches, and other types of demonstrations. The legislation states that “law enforcement shall not intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct journalists” covering protest demonstrations…

The United States urged China to grant media freedom at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, starting in three months, a State Department spokesperson said Nov. 4. “We urge PRC officials not to limit freedom of movement and access for journalists and to ensure that they remain safe and able to report freely, including at…

The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. Ressa, a Philippines journalist, became the first Filipino to win the peace prize, and also the first woman to claim the prestigious award by the Nobel committee…

From covering displaced refugees around the globe to the obstacles faced by protesters seeking change in America, freelance photojournalist Maranie Staab believes her camera can be a force for truth and social justice. The work of a “conflict photographer” often requires physical courage in places she has reported from, such as Africa and the Middle…

MOSCOW, Russia—Russian police on Saturday detained several journalists who protested authorities’ decision to label a top independent TV channel as a “foreign agent.” The journalists held individual pickets outside the main headquarters of the country’s top domestic security agency, the FSB, on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square. They held placards such as “Journalism is not a crime”…

KYIV, Ukraine—The chief editor of one of Belarus’s leading independent news organisations has gone missing after police searched her home overnight, the country’s reporters’ association said on Wednesday, as authorities pursue a crackdown on dissent. Online news agency BelaPAN had been unable to contact either Irina Levshyna or one of its reporters, Zakhar Shcherbakov, the association…

KYIV—Belarusian police searched the offices and homes of journalists and human rights activists for the third successive day on Friday, extending what rights activists say is a new crackdown on opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko. The Poland-based Nexta Live channel said the office of U.S. broadcaster Radio Liberty in the capital Minsk was among those…

Commentary Liberty of expression is the oxygen of democratic arrangements. As journalists exercise their craft independently and unencumbered, they are canaries in the political coal mine. By this gauge, if left untreated Nicaragua’s polity is being asphyxiated into totalitarianism. The Sandinista couple-dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, respectively president and vice president of Nicaragua,…

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Monday unveiled a bill that aims to protect journalists’ data from government subpoenas, in the wake of the news that the Justice Department during the Trump administration worked to obtain records of lawmakers and journalists. “The Trump Administration spied on reporters it suspected of no crimes in its hunt to identify…