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One by one, Catholic dioceses in key presidential swing states are putting out unusual statements: Newspapers whose titles include the word Catholic that are showing up in people’s mailboxes aren’t what they seem and aren’t connected to the church.

With a classic typeface and traditional newspaper design, the mass-mailed Catholic Tribune newspapers carry signposts of legitimacy. But most of the articles in the papers are inflammatory and overtly partisan, focusing on culture-war issues that resonate with conservative voters.

A headline in the Wisconsin Catholic Tribune, and repurposed in other states’ versions, provocatively asks, “How many ‘sex change’ mutilation surgeries occurred on Wisconsin kids?” Another: “Haitian illegal aliens in America: What are Harris supporters saying?”

At the same time, they undermine Vice President Kamala Harris and prop up former President Donald Trump by, for instance, reminding readers on the front page that anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — whose father and uncle were among the most prominent Catholics in the country — has endorsed Trump.

Dioceses and parishes in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin have issued warnings about the publications. “It gives the impression that the Diocese of Grand Rapids or the Catholic Church is behind this newspaper,” diocese spokesperson Annalise Laumeyer said of the Michigan Catholic Tribune.

She reached out to local media to flag parishioners so they won’t be misled. And because of the clearly partisan content, non-Catholics might be left with an impression of the Catholic Church that is “worrisome,” she said.

The papers, which have also appeared in Arizona and Pennsylvania, are what academics call “pink slime.” The name comes from a filler in processed meat — or a product that is not entirely what it seems.

Using tax documents and business filings, ProPublica traced the papers to a Chicago-based publishing network led by former TV reporter Brian Timpone. His enterprises, including Metric Media, are known among researchers for peddling misinformation and slanted coverage. The network has received money from right-wing super PACs funded by conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein, founder of the mammoth shipping supply company Uline.

The Catholic Church does not endorse candidates or call for their defeat but does speak out on moral issues and participates in debates over public policies. Many dioceses publish newspapers, but they are not partisan.

In distancing itself from the Michigan Catholic Tribune, the Archdiocese of Detroit noted that tax-exempt churches are not permitted under the Internal Revenue Code to be involved in partisan politics. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee directed Catholics to a Wisconsin Catholic Conference document setting out guidelines for church involvement in electoral politics.

Jason Bourget, a Catholic in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, received a copy of the Wisconsin Catholic Tribune in the mail and immediately thought it was suspicious. He had never asked to receive the paper or paid to subscribe.

“I put it with all the other political ads, right in the garbage,” he said.

Similar papers were mailed to swing-state residents ahead of the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. They’ve been spotted in past elections in Arizona and Iowa, too. There are Catholic Tribune websites registered for all 50 states, plus one national version, but most don’t appear to have published anything for months, if ever. It’s unclear how many papers have been mailed this year.

Timpone did not respond to requests for comment or to questions from ProPublica.

In an era of prolific “pink slime” sites, sophisticated, AI-concocted fakes and outlandish conspiracy theories engulfing social media, the papers are a throwback to a low-tech disinformation tactic.

But they are not unusual in the Metric Media universe. ProPublica, in collaboration with the nonprofit news organization Floodlight and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, recently reported on a misinformation campaign against solar energy in Ohio aided by Metric Media that included distribution of a similar unfamiliar newspaper, the Ohio Energy Reporter. It has the same mailing address as the Catholic Tribune papers.

Metric Media and its sister companies operate more than 1,100 local news websites across the country. The return address for the Michigan and Wisconsin Catholic Tribunes matches the business mailing address of companies within the Metric Media network, ProPublica found.

Timpone, who lives in Illinois and has contributed to conservative campaigns and causes, leads Metric Media. His brother, Michael Timpone, also leads a media company at the address listed on the Catholic Tribune papers, and he led the Metric Media affiliate that published similar papers in previous election cycles. Michael Timpone also did not respond to a request for comment.

An analysis by ProPublica shows the stories in the Catholic newspapers also were published on websites operated by Metric Media. Nearly every story lacks a reporter byline, so it’s impossible to tell who authored them.

Metric Media’s sister companies were paid nearly $6.4 million in 2021 and 2022 by the nonprofit Restoration of America and its Restoration PAC, campaign finance and tax records show. Uihlein has donated about $125 million to Restoration PAC since 2020. Uihlein did not respond to questions from ProPublica or a request for comment.

Restoration also has funded CatholicVote, another nonprofit with a super PAC that operates on behalf of laity and not the church. It supports conservative political causes. Tax records show that CatholicVote in turn has paid companies in the Metric network about $827,000 since 2020.

In August, Restoration PAC sent $2.5 million to another right-wing PAC called Turnout for America, according to recent campaign finance filings. And then in September, Turnout for America paid CatholicVote $200,000 and one of Brian Timpone’s companies $250,000 for “media services.”

Officials at CatholicVote did not respond to questions for this story. The organization makes prominent appearances in Catholic Tribune stories. The paper circulating in Michigan includes three stories quoting Jacky Eubanks, cited as CatholicVote’s regional field director for the state. Eubanks ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan House in 2022 in a campaign calling for a ban on contraception and gay marriage. Trump endorsed her.

Eubanks told ProPublica she was not familiar with the Catholic Tribune newspapers and never spoke to a reporter for them. She said the quotes were ones that she gave to her employer, CatholicVote, including one in which she said “nothing good” could come from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz being elected vice president. “My employer probably put it in some kind of press release, or email or text message,” she said.

A devout Catholic, Eubanks said her politics derive straight from her faith. “If the Catholic Church teaches it,” she said, “that’s my belief.”

The paper left some Catholic parishioners confused until church leadership issued statements.

“Thank you, I thought it was rather strange. Will be shredding it,” said one Facebook commenter in Reno, Nevada, responding to her parish’s confirmation that the Nevada Catholic Tribune wasn’t affiliated.

In other households, including non-Catholic ones, the papers provoked annoyance and ire.

Ingrid Fournier, a Lutheran, was perplexed when it arrived at her home.

“We live in no-man’s-land Michigan,” she said of their home in Branch, some 90 minutes northwest of Grand Rapids.

She reached out on Facebook to find out if anyone else in her circle had gotten a copy.

“It’s a pro-DJT Propaganda nightmare of pages,” she wrote. “I was offended on Every. Single. Page. Actually, every single article was wild.”

Some who received the papers have questioned why the Catholic Church has not been more forceful in denouncing lies and hateful rhetoric in the publication, which includes assertions that Democrats are responsible for the Trump assassination attempts. A full page seems intended to stoke hostility by purportedly quoting Harris supporters praising Haitians while referring to Midwesterners as “white trash” and “whiny lazy fentanyl addicts.”

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit told ProPublica: “We don’t want to bring undue attention to the publication by discussing specific content, other than to reiterate that we do not endorse it.”

The fact that the Catholic Tribune mimics the appearance of a traditional newspaper means it may catch more attention than online “pink slime” outlets, said Ben Lyons, an assistant professor at the University of Utah who studies partisan misinformation. It is, in a way, “hacking credibility” by appearing to be a local news source tied to the Catholic Church, he said.

Online “pink slime” sites tend to reach few readers, Lyons said. Mailing the papers to homes makes it more likely they’ll be noticed, particularly by older voters. The tactic “could be potentially more influential than a lot of the random stuff we see floating around,” he said.

While most evangelical Christians are firmly in Trump’s corner, the Catholic vote is less bankable. In the 2020 presidential election, Catholic voters were about evenly divided: 49% backed Trump and 50% voted for Joe Biden, according to the Pew Research Center. It notes that 1 out of every 5 U.S. adults identifies as Catholic. Biden is the second Catholic president in U.S. history. The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, converted to Catholicism five years ago.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s role as a Trump supporter is emphasized in the Catholic Tribunes. The end of a story in the Michigan edition notes: “His Catholic background and policy positions might motivate Catholic voters who are undecided or seeking candidates that reflect a”

The sentence ends abruptly, with no period, and the story never continues to another page.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Jennifer Smith Richards and Megan O’Matz.

The journalist was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 100,000 dinars (US$752) on Sunday, October 6, on charges of insulting a state institution and its employees, according to a local reporter who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. 

“We are alarmed by an Algerian court’s decision to convict and sentence journalist Badreddine Guermat to one year in prison for simply doing his job,” said CPJ Interim MENA Program Coordinator Yeganeh Rezaian, from Washington, D.C. “Algerian authorities must release Guermat, should not contest his appeal, and stop harassing journalists for reporting the news.”

Guermat was arrested on September 25 from his home in Djelfa, a city south of Algiers, following a Facebook post alleging government mismanagement of funds. The Djelfa Tribune is a local news website that covers local politics.

CPJ’s email to the Algerian Ministry of Interior requesting comment about Guermat’s conviction did not receive any response.

The arrests occur amid an apparent aim to silence criticism ahead of and after the September 7 presidential elections in what rights groups are calling an “erosion of human rights” under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s administration.

At the time of CPJ’s most recent annual prison census on December 1, 2023, three journalists were imprisoned in Algeria. Journalist Mustapha Bendjama was released in April 2024. In addition to Guermat, authorities have since arrested at least two other local journalists: Omar Ferhat and Sofiane Ghirous.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“CPJ is alarmed by the apparently baseless criminal cases lodged against Bangladeshi journalists in retaliation for their work, which is seen as supportive of the recently ousted government,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh’s interim government should ensure that authorities respect the procedural rights of those accused, as well as their right to a fair trial, while safeguarding the ability of all journalists to report without fear of reprisal.”

Hasina fled to India on August 5 following mass protests that ended her 15-year rule. Dozens of Bangladeshi journalists whose reporting was considered favorable of Hasina’s government have since been targeted in criminal investigations.

On August 31, a court in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka jailed Farzana Rupa, former principal correspondent at the privately owned, pro-Awami League broadcaster Ekattor TV, and Shakil Ahmed, Rupa’s husband and former head of news at the broadcaster, on judicial remand following nine days in police custody, according to a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

Police detained Rupa and Ahmed — who were dismissed from their positions at Ekattor TV on August 8 — at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on August 21. Officers also confiscated the couple’s mobile phones and passports, according to the anonymous source, adding that the journalists were both being held in relation to two cases of instigating murder during the mass protests.

Rupa began receiving an influx of threats in July after questioning Hasina about the protests that ultimately led to her ousting, the anonymous source said.

On September 16, police detained two other Ekattor TV journalists — Mozammel Babu, managing director and editor-in-chief, and Mahbubur Rahman, a senior reporter — along with Shyamal Dutta, editor of the privately owned newspaper Bhorer Kagoj, and their driver, after the group allegedly attempted to illegally enter India from Bangladesh’s northern Mymensingh district.

The following day, a Dhaka court ordered that Babu and Dutta be held in a seven-day police remand in two separate murder cases, while Rahman and the driver were released, according to the anonymous source.

Rupa, Ahmed, Babu, and Dutta were also among the more than two dozen journalists named in an August complaint filed at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic war crimes tribunal, on allegations of involvement in crimes against humanity and genocide during the mass protests.

Twenty-eight other journalists also are facing investigations in connection with the mass protests. On September 4, a court in the southeastern city of Chittagong ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation to probe a criminal complaint filed by a teacher against the journalists and 81 other people.  

The complaint, reviewed by CPJ, cites several sections of the penal code, including promoting enmity between classes, causing grievous hurt, and kidnapping, as well as sections of the Explosive Substances Act of 1908, which can carry a sentence of the death penalty or life imprisonment. It also accuses several privately owned news outlets — including Ekattor TV, Somoy TV, and the Dhaka Tribune newspaper — of failing to publish or broadcast appropriate coverage of the protests.

Enamul Haque Sagor, a Bangladesh police spokesperson, did not respond to CPJ’s calls and WhatsApp messages requesting comment on the latest arrests and investigations.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

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A Texas state appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of a 2022 disparagement lawsuit against ProPublica and The Texas Tribune filed by MRG Medical LLC., a health care services company. The court ruled that the defamation claims were barred by the one-year statute of limitation.

Writing on behalf of a three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals, Judge Rosa Lopez Theofanis sent the case back to the lower court to consider the news organizations’ request for court costs, attorneys fees and sanctions.

MRG Medical filed the suit in September 2022 challenging a 2020 Texas Tribune and ProPublica article about efforts by the company and its founder, Kyle Hayungs, to secure contracts from local governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation, based on dozens of interviews and a review of hundreds of emails, audio recordings and social media posts, found local elected officials hadn’t disclosed the extent of their relationships with Hayungs as they tried to persuade their governments to work with him or companies he hoped to partner with.

Hayungs, who founded MRG Medical in 2017, claimed the news organizations and the three reporters who worked on the story included statements or information in the article that disparaged the company and interfered with current and prospective contracts. Hayungs based his lawsuit on what he purported to be implications in the story that the company was illegally avoiding competitive public procurement by keeping contracts under $50,000, that he was selling unreliable non-FDA-authorized COVID-19 tests and that he was bribing elected officials.

The authors of the investigation, Vianna Davila, Jeremy Schwartz and Lexi Churchill, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In May 2023, a Texas district court denied the news organizations’ motion to dismiss pursuant to the Texas Citizens Participation Act. The act protects speech on matters deemed of “public concern” by authorizing courts to quickly review the legal merit of lawsuits that seek to stifle speech through the imposition of civil liability damages.

Attorneys for the news organizations appealed the decision, arguing MRG Medical’s claims were baseless. “MRG remains unable to point to any false statement in the entire Article, relying instead on alleged ‘gists and implications’ that are contradicted by the Article’s text,” the attorneys for the news organizations wrote.

MRG Medical had further argued that the article was of no public relevance because the company had not secured a contract with the government. However, in the appeals court ruling, Theofanis wrote that the TCPA did apply because the dispute centered around the proper allocation of public funds, “and where the public’s purse goes, so goes the public’s concern.” Moreover, the article also raised concerns about the accuracy and usefulness of COVID-19 tests promoted by Hayungs, which, she wrote, were intended to be part of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Theofanis also agreed with the news organizations’ argument that the nature of MRG Medical’s claims were not for business disparagement but for defamation, which carries a one-year statute of limitation. The suit was filed past that deadline.

“The public has a fundamental right to know how its leaders act during a crisis and who they help potentially profit from the uncertainty,” said Jeremy Kutner, ProPublica’s general counsel. “We are thrilled the court has tossed this baseless case and protected this meticulous and illuminating article from those who sought to silence it.”

MRG Medical’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ProPublica and the Tribune were represented by Marc Fuller and Maggie Burreson of Jackson Walker LLP.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Perla Trevizo.

ProPublica and the Texas Tribune are committed to telling overlooked stories about public schools. This election season, we want to understand the effects of heated political races on the people living, learning and teaching in districts across the state.

To see the full picture, we need to hear from people from across the political spectrum with a vested interest in public schools. You can help us identify important stories and ask the right questions as we report. Fill out the form below to join our source network. We also welcome specific tips, campaign finance reports and political mailers related to school district elections.

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We appreciate you sharing your story, and we take your privacy seriously. We are gathering these stories for the purposes of our reporting and will contact you if we wish to publish any part of your story.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Jessica Priest, Jeremy Schwartz, Lexi Churchill and Dan Keemahill.

In late March, the courts dismissed both lawsuits, but the newspapers still face defamation cases in connection with their corruption coverage.

Mergence Investment Managers filed an urgent application at the High Court in Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, on February 9, for the Lesotho Tribune to delete published articles and block the publication of additional articles in a planned eight-part investigative series, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ and the publication’s owner, Phafane Nkotsi. The articles were about alleged corruption by Mergence in connection to Lesotho’s civil servants’ pension fund.

Mergence also asked the court to order the closure of Lesotho Tribune, arguing that the paper did not have the appropriate registration to operate. According to CPJ’s review of the certificate from Lesotho’s Office of the Registrar General, the newspaper’s registration is current and has been since August 10, 2021.

The court dismissed Mergence’s applications on March 22, Nkotsi said, adding that the outlet still faces a defamation lawsuit from the investment firm, filed on February 7, in which it is seeking 10 million loti (US$538,000) in relation to the investigative series, according to Nkotsi and a statement by the Lesotho chapter of the press freedom group the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).

The suit is still pending, and a hearing has yet to be scheduled, he said.

Matshona Libalele Mlungwana, a communication officer with the Public Officers’ Defined Contribution Pension Fund, declined to comment, saying that the fund had no interest in the case against Lesotho Tribune.

CPJ could not identify contact information for Mergence’s Lesotho offices. CPJ’s phone calls to Mergence’s South African numbers to request comment went unanswered.

In a separate case, Lesotho’s former police commissioner, Holomo Molibeli, filed an urgent application on March 18 asking the High Court to shut down Lesotho Times on the grounds that the newspaper was operating without the appropriate registration license and to order the outlet to pay unstated damages for defamation, according to a report by the newspaper and court documents, reviewed by CPJ. 

Molibeli accused the newspaper of defaming him in a March 7 report about allegations that he covered up fraud at a local energy company while serving as a police commissioner. The allegations were part of filings in a separate criminal case in which two local businessmen are accused of defrauding the energy company, according to a report by Lesotho Times, which said Molibeli denied the accusations.

On March 27, the High Court dismissed the application, according to Lesotho Times owner Basildon Peta and a report by the state-owned Lesotho News Agency. The court said the defamation suit was not urgent and could be heard at an undetermined date in the future, according to Peta. 

Reached by phone, Molibeli declined to comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Saturday, October 28, at least 27 journalists covering rallies in the capital of Dhaka were attacked by supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the ruling Awami League party, as well as police, according to a statement by local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, several journalists who spoke to CPJ, and various news reports.

BNP demonstrators demanded that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League step down and allow a nonpartisan caretaker government to oversee the upcoming election scheduled for January. Police fired tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets to disperse BNP protesters, who threw stones and bricks in response.

“The attacks on at least 27 Bangladeshi journalists covering recent political rallies in Dhaka must see swift and transparent accountability,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “The leadership and supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, as well as police, must respect the rights of journalists to freely and safely report on the lead-up to the upcoming election scheduled for January.”

Md Rafsan Jani, a crime reporter for The Daily Kalbela newspaper, told CPJ that he was filming BNP supporters allegedly assaulting police officers when two demonstrators approached him and took his phone and identification card. A group of BNP supporters then surrounded Jani and beat him with iron rods, sticks, and pipes as he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist, he said, adding that he managed to escape after around 20 minutes. As of November 1, his items had not been returned.

S A Masum, a photographer for The Daily Inqilab newspaper, told CPJ that he was taking photos of a confrontation between Awami League and BNP supporters when his head was repeatedly struck from behind with what he suspected to be a bamboo stick, knocking him unconscious while the attackers, whom he did not identify, continued to beat him. Bystanders at the scene rescued Masum and took him to the hospital, where he was treated for a concussion and severe bruising and open lesions throughout his body, according to the journalist, who shared photos of his injuries with CPJ.

Md Sirajum Salekin, a crime reporter for the Dhaka Times newspaper, told CPJ that he was on his motorcycle on the way to cover clashes at the chief justice’s residence when a vehicle hit his motorcycle from behind, causing him to fall and break two bones in his right leg. Salekin said he believed he was targeted because he was wearing his press badge and his motorcycle was marked with a sticker of the Dhaka Times, which has critically reported on the Awami League.

Awami League demonstrators beat The Daily Kalbela reporter Abu Saleh Musa while covering their rally, according to The Daily Star.

Mohammad Ali Mazed, a video reporter for the French news agency Agence France-Presse, told CPJ that he was covering a clash between police and BNP demonstrators while holding a camera and press identification when five to six demonstrators surrounded him. The demonstrators damaged Mazed’s camera and other news equipment and beat him on his head, back, and right shoulder with bamboo sticks for around three minutes until the journalist fled the scene with the assistance of bystanders, he said.

Sazzad Hossain, a freelance photographer working with the news website Bangla Tribune and international outlets, including the British newspaper The Guardian and photo agency SOPA Images, told CPJ that BNP protesters threw broken bricks at him and trampled him while he was covering a clash with police.

Salahuddin Ahmed Shamim, a freelance photographer reporting for the news agency Fair News Service, told CPJ that he was covering BNP protesters allegedly assaulting police officers when seven to eight of the party’s supporters surrounded him, beat his backside with bamboo sticks, and kicked him for around 15 minutes.

Two journalists who spoke to CPJ– Sheikh Hasan Ali, chief photojournalist for Kaler Kantho newspaper, and Ahammad Foyez, senior correspondent for New Age newspaper– said they were struck with rubber bullets when police attempted to disperse BNP protesters, leaving them with minor injuries.

Ali told CPJ that an unidentified man hit the Kaler Kantho photographer Lutfor Rahman with a bamboo stick on his right shoulder while covering the same clashes.

Md Hanif Rahman, a photographer for the Ekushey TV broadcaster, told CPJ that he and Ekushey TV reporter Touhidur Rahman were covering an arson attack on a police checkpoint when they were surrounded by a group of 10 to 12 men who beat Md Hanif Rahman with pipes and sticks and pushed Touhidur Rahman.

Rabiul Islam Rubel, a reporter for The Daily Kalbela, told CPJ that he was among a crowd of BNP supporters while covering the clashes at the chief justice’s residence when 15 to 20 men threw bricks at him while shouting that journalists are “government brokers.”

Jony Rayhan, a reporter for The Daily Kalbela, told CPJ that BNP supporters beat him while covering their rally. Rayhan was also injured by a sound grenade that landed in front of him while police were dispersing the demonstrators, he said.

Salman Tareque Sakil, chief reporter for Bangla Tribune, told CPJ that he sustained a leg fracture after a brick was thrown at him while covering the BNP rally.

Jubair Ahmed, a Bangla Tribune reporter, told CPJ that while police were dispersing BNP demonstrators, a tear gas shell landed in front of him, blurring his vision before the protesters trampled him while fleeing the scene.

Tahir Zaman, a reporter for the news website The Report, was also injured by a rubber bullet while covering clashes at the BNP rally, according to his outlet and BJIM.

BJIM and local media named an additional 10 journalists who were attacked, but did not provide details on the incidents, which CPJ continues to investigate. Those journalists are:

• Touhidul Islam Tareque, reporter for The Daily Kalbela
• Kazi Ihsan bin Didar, crime reporter for the Breaking News website
• Tanvir Ahmed, reporter for The Daily Ittefaq newspaper
• Sheikh Nasir, reporter for The Daily Ittefaq
• Arifur Rahman Rabbi, reporter for the Desh Rupantor newspaper
• Masud Parvez Anis, reporter for the Bhorer Kagoj newspaper
• Saiful Rudra, special correspondent for the broadcaster Green TV
• Arju, camera operator for Green TV, who was identified by one name
• Hamidur Rahman, reporter for the Share Biz newspaper
• Maruf, a freelance journalist identified by one name

CPJ is investigating a report of a separate attack on at least one journalist on Saturday.

CPJ contacted BNP spokesperson Zahir Uddin Swapan, Information Minister and Awami League Joint Secretary Hasan Mahmud, and Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Gabonese authorities must allow all journalists who wish to cover this weekend’s elections to do so without obstruction or censorship,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator in Durban, South Africa. “Local and foreign journalists should be able to follow the events on the ground and keep the public informed about the democratic process. Press freedom is central to any free and credible election, and expelling foreign journalists like Sainclair Mezing is unacceptable.”

On Saturday, August 19, Gabonese police expelled Mezing, a reporter with the state-owned Cameroon Tribune newspaper, hours after his arrival in the capital, Libreville, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ. He said officers questioned him at the airport about the purpose of his visit, claiming that he did not have the correct media accreditation, and put him on a flight back to Cameroon.

The journalist said that he was in possession of an assignment letter from his newspaper and had been told by the Gabonese Embassy in Cameroon that he could obtain his election accreditation once in the country. Mezing said Gabonese authorities did not give him a reason for his expulsion.

The privately owned Paris-based news magazine Jeune Afrique also reported on August 23 that it had been unable to obtain accreditation for the presidential, legislative, and local elections. The outlet said it was not aware of any international media outlet that had received permission to report on the vote, in which President Ali Bongo is expected to extend his family’s 55-year rule.

On Thursday, CPJ joined the #KeepItOn coalition—a global network of over 300 organizations from 105 countries—in urging Bongo and his administration to guarantee open and secure internet access during the election.

CPJ called and emailed Gabon’s Communication Ministry for comment but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

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This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Jessica Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune.

Question: How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg? Answer: Four — calling the tail a leg doesn't make it one.

Likewise, calling a small group of partisan lawyers a "supreme" court doesn't make it one. There's nothing supreme about the six-pack of far-right-wing political activists who are presently soiling our people's ideals of justice by proclaiming their own antidemocratic biases to be the law of the land. On issues of economic fairness, women's rights, racial justice, corporate supremacy, environmental protection, theocratic rule and other fundamentals, these unelected, black-robed extremists are imposing an illegitimate elitist agenda on America that the people do not want and ultimately will not tolerate.

Indeed, the imperiousness of the six ruling judges has already caused the court's public approval rating to plummet, to a mere 38%, an historic low that ranks down there with former President Donald Trump, and threatens to go as low as Congress.

This has led to a flurry of officials attesting to the honesty and political impartiality of the reigning supremes. Unfortunately for the court, these ardent defenders were the six culprits themselves.

The "integrity of the judiciary is in my bones," pontificated Neil Gorsuch, who now stands accused of having lied to senators to win his lifetime appointment.

We don't have to accept rule by an illegitimate court.

"(We are not) a bunch of partisan hacks," wailed Amy Coney Barrett, a partisan extremist jammed onto the court in a partisan ploy by Trump in the last few hours of his presidency.

"Judges are not politicians," protested John Roberts, who became Chief Justice because he was a rabid political lawyer who pushed the Supreme Court in 2000 to reject the rights of voters and install George W. Bush as president.

As many of its own members privately admit, Congress has become a pay-to-play lawmaking casino — closed to commoners but offering full-service access to corporate powers.

But the Supreme Court is another government entity that's even more aloof from workaday people — and it has become a handmaiden to the corporate elites trying to increase their dominance over us. The six-member, right-wing majority on this secretive powerhouse now routinely vetoes efforts by workers, environmentalist, students, local officials, voters and all others who try to rein in corporate greed and abuses.

Appointed for lifetime terms, this autocratic tribune takes pride in being sealed off from democracy, even bragging that they make rulings without being influenced by special interests. But wait — in makeup and ideology, today's court majority is a special interest, for it consists of corporate and right-wing lawyers who've obtained their wealth and position by loyally serving corporate power. And far from now being isolated from moneyed elites, the judges regularly socialize with them and attend their closed-door political meetings.

There's even a special little club, called The Supreme Court Historical Society, that frequently reveals the cozy, symbiotic relationship that exists between today's judicial and corporate cliques. Such giants as Chevron, Goldman Sachs, AT&T and Home Depot pay millions of dollars to this clubby society, gaining notice by and the appreciation of the supremes. And, yes, these special interest gifts to the court are gratefully accepted, even when the corporations have active cases before the court, seeking favorable rulings from the very judges they're glad-handing at Society soirees.

Of course, the judges insist there's no conflict of interest, because this access to them is "open to all." Sure — all who can pay $25,000 and up to get inside! Yet the clueless judges wonder why their credibility is in the ditch. Remember, in America, The People are supreme! We don't have to accept rule by an illegitimate court. For reform, go to FixTheCourt.com.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jim Hightower.

One of the men held him at gunpoint, threatening to kill him, while the other tried to break into his car, according to Mujeeb, who spoke with CPJ by phone, the Urdupoint news website, and the Digital Media Alliance of Pakistan, a local digital media industry group.  

Mujeeb said he fought back, taking away the pistol from the man holding him at gunpoint after he opened fire and hit the seat of Mujeeb’s car. Mujeeb handed the gun over to the police while filing a report on the incident.

Mujeeb founded the IMN three years ago, focusing on current issues in Gilgit-Baltistan, a part of the Kashmir region that borders Afghanistan and China. IMN has over 250,000 followers on Facebook and nearly 2,300 followers on YouTube.

He believes the attack may have been a failed abduction attempt and says the Gilgit-Baltistan government has not launched any investigation to find the attackers – possibly, he says, because  IMN’s Editor-in-Chief Shabbir Mir wrote an April 2022 report for The Express Tribune, one of Pakistan’s leading newspapers, alleging that Gilgit-Baltitstan’s chief minister held a fake law degree.

CPJ emails to the office of the chief minister and the Gilgit-Baltitstan government’s secretariat did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

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Elected officials in the Texas-Mexico border town of Laredo have begun taking steps to conduct air monitoring after a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation revealed that toxic pollution from an industrial facility has increased the cancer risk for about half of the city’s residents.

This month, the Laredo City Council approved $105,360 to purchase equipment and hire a full-time technician to oversee a new air monitoring program. The Webb County Commissioners Court also gave $35,000 to an environmental coalition as part of a larger effort to conduct air monitoring at the five schools that are closest to the plant.

Owned by Missouri-based Midwest Sterilization Corporation, the facility uses ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing chemical, to sterilize medical equipment. An unprecedented ProPublica and Tribune analysis of five years of industry self-reported emissions data found that the facility released enough ethylene oxide from 2014 to 2018 to elevate the estimated lifetime cancer risk for nearly 130,000 Laredoans, including more than 37,000 children. A company spokesperson said that the plant’s emissions are within legal limits.

“I’ve read all this literature, and this is some pretty nasty stuff,” Commissioner John C. Galo said before the Monday vote. “Even if they are in legal limits, if you’re exposed to that day in and day out, you know, say 300 days out of the year, there are a lot of people that are not tolerant to that.”

A written statement from Midwest said the company “takes its regulatory compliance seriously and expects to remain in compliance.” The statement says that the company uses ethylene oxide to provide critical medical sterilization services, calling the chemical an “important tool in protecting patient health.”

“Midwest is taking all steps necessary to ensure that patients across the nation and residents locally remain safe,” the statement read.

The company declined to answer questions about what those steps are.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this month listed Midwest’s Laredo plant, along with another facility the company owns in Missouri, among 23 high-risk commercial sterilizer facilities. The agency, which spent the past year analyzing emissions data from such facilities, announced plans to “engage and inform” nearby communities about the risks.

A community meeting is planned in Laredo on Sept. 15. The public meeting comes years after the EPA initially identified the Midwest plant as high-risk and directed its regional office to inform residents.

Last year, ProPublica and the Tribune contacted more than 100 Laredo residents to ask if they were aware of the risk posed by the plant. All but one said they didn’t even know the plant existed.

Upon learning of the public health risks posed by the Midwest plant from reporters, the city’s nonprofit environmental group, the Rio Grande International Study Center, spearheaded the creation of the Clean Air Laredo Coalition. The coalition’s membership includes the environmental group, concerned community members and elected officials. This month, the group began asking local governmental entities for money to conduct air monitoring at five school campuses closest to the plant, an initiative it says will cost roughly $115,000.

With the $35,000 approved by county commissioners, the group will begin taking air samples at Julia Bird Jones Muller Elementary School, which is less than 2 miles from the plant. The school is in an area that has an estimated elevated lifetime cancer risk of 1 in 3,700. That’s nearly three times higher than the maximum 1 in 10,000 risk level the EPA considers acceptable, making it the most at-risk school in Laredo and one of the most at-risk in the country.

The coalition plans to seek the remaining funding for the air monitoring effort from the Laredo City Council and the city’s two public school districts.

Two weeks ago, the board of trustees of Laredo’s United Independent School District voted unanimously to begin examining the cost of air monitoring at its schools, starting with Muller. While the school district did not allocate funding, board President Ramiro Veliz said in an interview that he believes there’s enough support among trustees to pay for air monitoring at one or more campuses.

City Council member Vanessa Perez, whose district includes the Midwest plant and who has been working closely with the coalition, said there’s been widespread interest in air monitoring since the community learned about the toxic air pollution from the facility.

“You could be sitting in your backyard and be breathing in ethylene oxide without knowing it,” Perez said of the odorless and invisible gas. With more air monitoring, she said, the chances of that happening again would plummet because officials would know for certain that there are unsafe levels of the chemical in the air and could take action.

An ethylene oxide sterilizer plant in the Chicago suburb of Willowbrook closed in September 2019 after EPA monitoring found that emissions levels at various sites were higher than what the agency considers safe. But air monitoring doesn’t always lead to such action. In Calvert City, Kentucky, ProPublica found that state and federal regulators did little to stop pollution despite air monitors registering high levels of a cancer-causing chemical for years.

Perez hopes her colleagues on the City Council will support providing funding to the coalition in addition to the steps the city has already taken to develop its own air monitoring program.

The details for the city’s program, including locations for air monitoring, are still being worked out but should be finalized sometime this fall, according to Dr. Richard Chamberlain, director of the city Health Department. Chamberlain said the city plans to hire someone to oversee the new air monitoring program when funding becomes available on Oct. 1.

“Air quality and water quality monitoring are essential to ensure good health of an individual and community,” he wrote in an email.

The Health Department submitted an application in March for the EPA’s Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities program in hopes of securing $400,262 to support its efforts. It has not yet heard back from the agency.

Chamberlain said the city will proceed with monitoring regardless of whether it receives funding from the EPA. He said if the city gets the money, some of it could go to support the coalition’s air monitoring efforts. While the initiatives are separate, he said the city plans to provide logistical support to the coalition and share data.

The program will monitor for not only ethylene oxide but a variety of other air pollutants, Chamberlain said.

Air monitoring efforts are pivotal, said Sara Montalvo Saldaña, who has been helping take care of her nephew, Juan Jose, or JJ, Nevares since he was first diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2018. The cancer has been linked to ethylene oxide exposure. At the time, JJ was just one month shy of his sixth birthday and had been attending Julia Bird Jones Muller Elementary.

“It’s a blessing,” Saldaña said, expressing relief at learning that Muller is slated to receive air monitors.

JJ, who is looking forward to celebrating his upcoming 10th birthday, returned to Muller as a fourth grader this month. He is still undergoing chemotherapy at home every day and travels to The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio for more intensive treatment every six weeks. If all goes well, doctors expect that he may reach remission in May.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Kiah Collier and Maya Miller.

Threats to press freedom are hardly the main story in Uvalde, where police failed to stop the 18-year-old gunman from killing 19 students and two teachers. But efforts by the authorities to impede the free flow of information about the tragedy ultimately do a disservice to the local community in its search for answers.

To learn more about what journalists faced, CPJ spoke by phone with Guillermo Contreras, a staff writer at the local San Antonio Express-News and Zach Despart, a politics reporter at state-wide non-profit news website Texas Tribune, who have covered different aspects of the shooting. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity. 

CPJ left a voicemail requesting comment from Uvalde school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, but did not receive a reply. Chris Olivarez, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s  spokesperson for the south Texas region, did not respond to CPJ’s email.

Guillermo Contreras, San Antonio Express-News reporter

Police in Uvalde threatened to arrest you and other journalists who went to school district headquarters June 1 and 2 to interview the Uvalde school district’s police chief, Arredondo. What’s your explanation of this?

To have police come along and tell us that you will get arrested for doing your job, you know, that’s troubling to me. 

As more details are coming out, there’s been a growing sentiment [among law enforcement] that we’re out to get the police – to me that’s just not true. We’re trying to just get the truth about what transpired. 

There have been so many shifting narratives about what happened — and that does not help. Local officials don’t know how to handle this mass attention. There’s frustration with us. But no matter how polite we are — we come in and ask if there is a statement they can print out or point us to — we’re [stonewalled]. 

It’s not like I’m not going into somebody’s crime scene. We’re going into a public building where someone can get answers as quickly as we can. 

Police have also allegedly coordinated with local biker groups to impede journalists, including from your newspaper, from reporting at funerals.

Some cops are more aggressive than others. It’s left to the police’s discretion. You don’t want to test that because you have your job to do and you don’t want to become part of the story — that’s not my intent. My intent is to cover and inform people. 

We saw our [San Antonio Express-News] photographers being harassed by bikers who claimed that police asked them to help do this. Even when the photographers would go up to residents, just to speak to them to make sure they were comfortable, the bikers would go up to them and say, “You don’t have to talk to them.” That’s not something we’ve really seen before in this type of situation.

Biker groups are prevalent in some small towns [in Texas], they’ll have little local chapters. It’s only [recently] that we’ve started to see these types of incidents. It just seems like they’ve gotten together and decided that they are trying to be obstructive.

There seems to be genuine concern among locals in Uvalde that some reporters are being too invasive in their coverage. What has been your experience on the ground?

No one wants to approach someone who’s just lost a loved one. It’s not something that we look forward to. It’s very, very sad. These are people in their most vulnerable times. But we do have to explain and try to tell their stories. You have to be prepared for different reactions and know when to move on. 

You also covered the 2017 Sutherland Springs shooting, when a gunman killed 26 people at a Texas church, and its aftermath. What has stood out to you about this recent shooting?

Following the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs in 2017, there were different agencies at the scene but they were all putting out information in unison. You expect some information to be wrong initially. But when officials come back and change their stories so quickly — that’s a huge difference. 

We had a teacher who was practically dying of guilt wondering if she had left a door [open before the gunman entered the school, as Texas officials initially claimed]. As we saw, [law enforcement acknowledged] she did close it. That erodes public confidence when [law enforcement changes its story so quickly]. 

In normal times, reporters will try to compete against each other for stories. At this point, following a mass shooting like this, you’re just trying to get out there and avoid complications with police, just to try and get answers and accountability. Our role is to try and get answers with the hope that it will lead to accountability. 

Can you talk about the emotional impact of covering these events?

It can be difficult to talk about. The other day I was walking into work and I got a call from an attorney who is working on a case for a survivor [of the Uvalde shooting]. He told me a story about what had happened in detail and I was just picturing it in my head. [The attorney] was at the point of tears. I had to go sit down.

Hearing these details, I can’t help thinking that my daughter is the same age, and the same grade — it could happen to any of us. It takes a toll emotionally.

At the same time, I have to put my feelings aside. I’m not a columnist, I don’t do opinion. I have to see if I can gather some of the facts and that’s what I’m striving for. You’ve got to put that aside and put the feelings down and go forward. 

I’ve been in the news business for more than 25 years and have covered three or four [mass shootings] — it’s never easy, you know. I hate to say it but it’s kind of the inevitable nature of the job. 

Zach Despart, politics reporter at the Texas Tribune

Local authorities have been, at best, avoidant of media, and at worst actively tried to obstruct coverage. What has it been like to try to cover the police response amid these hurdles? 

One of the things we tried to stress in our reporting is yes, there has been a lack of transparency from local officials with journalists, but we’re far less concerned about that and far more concerned about how our residents — the people who are constituents of these local officials — are not being served because of this lack of transparency.  

For example, residents want to hear from Uvalde school police chief, Pete Arredondo, and they’re quite upset that Arredondo — the man who was the incident commander during the shooting, and whom the state police had said made the critical mistake of not ordering police to immediately confront the shooter, instead waiting more than an hour before the shooting was finally ended by law enforcement — has been quiet.  

The fact that he has essentially been in hiding from public view for 10-12 days is quite upsetting to them and is sort of underlies that a lot of residents that I have interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with local law enforcement generally. They felt like they are not responsive to the community’s needs. 

[Editor’s note: After CPJ’s interview with Despart on June 6, the Texas Tribune ran a lengthy interview with Arredondo.]

What, if any role has mis- or dis-information played in the news story? 

In the initial two or three days after the shooting, the governor and state police had officially changed their narrative about what happened in the shooting [from saying police acted bravely to detailing their slow response to the shooting] in a way that was obviously frustrating for journalists because they always want to get it right. It was also frustrating for residents because they wanted to know whose fault it was and why it went wrong. 

It affects the trust in the public and what state officials are saying when the official story changes. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Katherine Jacobsen.