Dear CJFE members and supporters,
As the month draws to a close, we’re eagerly awaiting the official launch of our 2013-2014 Review of Free Expression in Canada on Wednesday, April 30. Check out the cover of the upcoming Review of Free Expression in Canada, and meet the Canadian cartoonist behind the cover image. Keep checking in for more exclusive sneak peeks of this year’s Review at cjfe.org/2014review.
This month we continued to keep vigilant watch over the trial of Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed—three Al Jazeera journalists who have been detained under questionable charges in Egypt for more than 100 days. The journalists appeared in court twice this month, and while we were encouraged by the judge’s decision to reject irrelevant evidence presented against them, we were troubled by the order to eject media from the courtroom during their most recent court appearance. The trial is scheduled to reconvene on May 3, which is, timely enough, World Press Freedom Day. See our updated timeline for more information.
The CJFE team also had much to celebrate in April, including the selection of our 2013 International Press Freedom Award recipient Ahmet Şik for the 2014 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Congratulations, Ahmet!
Here are more CJFE highlights from the past month and some of what you can expect to see in May:
What we were working on in April:
Coming up in May:
Keep an eye on your inbox on Wednesday, as we’ll be letting you know as soon as the Review goes live!