This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is carrying eight essays on its website based around the theme of "attacks on the press in 2013."

One, by San Francisco lawyer and university tutor Geoffrey King, deals with the threats to freedom posed by the National Security Agency.

It is long, 4,500 words long, so a précis doesn't really work. But it merits reading so set aside 20 minutes to absorb it. Among the people who should definitely read are those who think the wholesale collection of metadata is an innocent and unthreatening activity.

See also Maya Taal on the threats to journalists by the supranational sphere of cyberspace and Joel Simon on the implications of the US-China dispute over control of the internet.

Another piece that shouldn't be missed is on impunity by Elisabeth Witchel, "When journalists are killed, witnesses may be next". One factual paragraph stands out:

"In the last 10 years, 348 journalists have been murdered for their work worldwide. In only a handful of cases- one in 10 - have any perpetrators been brought to trial and sentenced."

Witchel shows how dangerous it is becoming for the witnesses to such murders. They are being killed in turn to prevent them giving testimony.

Michael Casey, in "Without stronger transparency, more financial crises loom", argues that the press needs to overcome secrecy in a market economy because of the threat to everyone's well-being posed by banks and financial institutions.

The other three articles are about censorship; the role of journalists as the voices of the poor and powerless; and the risks journalists must take in certain countries in order to report rape and sexual violence.