Notations From the Grid (Special Weekly Edition): Out & About in Our World

We caught this which we view as perfectly capturing why we began this journey!! We strive to live up to this admonition daily and are continually grateful for the opportunity to serve.

It has been quite a challenging number of days in our World as we were witness to two horrific incidents in El Paso Texas and Dayton Ohio.    As we went to Press, we understand that President Trump is slated to visit both communities tomorrow to pay his respects to the victims as flags fly at half-mast in honor of the fallen of those two tragedies.    The horrific number of such incidents continue to rise and in spite of it, there is resistance by the US Senate Majority Leader to take up legislation noting that legislation passed by the House is what he deemed as Partisan.   As we captured certain discourse on it over the past number of days, our team will continue to assess the debate-as we saw some proposals being unveiled by the Governor of Ohio:

  

The trade war between the United States and China has continued as the last 24 hours also saw a number of other developments in the US epitomized by a simple tweet from the National's Joyce Karam, the National's White House/Washington correspondent yesterday:

Meanwhile, in India, A profound transformation that may have implications that is yet to be realized:

As this occurred, key Kashmir leaders were either arrested or put under detention as Pakistan tried to elevate the conversation underscored by this undertaken by Imran Khan:

China has also weighed in noting that it undermines its' territorial integrity.

One thing is for sure:  There is never a dull moment in our World.

Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): On the Week That Was.....

As a new Week dawns, we wanted to share #RandomThoughts on the Week that was with takes from World Cartoonists:

Notations From the Grid (Special W-End Edition): On Press Freedom Around The World

As a Virtual Media Company, we remain profoundly concerned about the state of Press Freedom in Our World.     We decided to feature the latest edition of the "Torch" published by the Committee to Protect Journalists because an understanding of the challenges is profound as we do our part to live up to our Mission to help Change the Conversation about our World:

Chinese journalist Huang Qi is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on January 22, 2015. Today, Huang was sentenced to 12 years in prison. (AFP/Fred Dufour)

On Monday, a Chinese court in Sichuan province sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of "deliberately leaking state secrets," and "illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries."

Tanzanian police arrested investigative reporter Erick Kabendera on Monday. One day later, the city police chief said at a press conference that Kabendera was being questioned about his citizenship. In 2013, the journalist linked a similar investigation to attempts to muzzle him. Press freedom has deteriorated drastically in Tanzania under the presidency of John Magufuli, CPJ has found. In 2017, freelancer Azory Gwanda disappeared in the country's eastern Rufiji region and has not been heard from since.

Global press freedom updates

• In a rare piece of good news, Mauritania finally freed blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed two days before the inauguration of the country's new president. CPJ has advocated for Mohamed's release since his arrest in 2014, including featuring him in the #FreeThePress campaign.
• A Kyrgyz court Tuesday upheld the life sentence of Azimjon Askarov. The journalist was convicted in 2010 on charges of incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer, after he documented human rights violations.
• Brazilian President Bolsonaro says Glenn Greenwald may 'do jail time'
• From conflict zones to courtrooms, Myanmar's journalists are under fire, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin reports
• Kurdish military forces detain journalist in Iraqi Kurdistan
• CPJ calls for President Lopez Obrador to strengthen press freedom in Mexico
• Explosive detonated outside office of Costa Rican TV station Teletica

Spotlight

Art by Jack Forbes

This week we published a new, updated Digital Safety Kit for journalists looking to better protect themselves, their sources, and their information. The kit, produced by CPJ's Emergencies Department, combines six bite-sized safety notes on different topics in an accessible format that is easy to digest.

CPJ Emergencies also provides safety advice on psychosocial and physical safety, as well as ongoing safety advisories in response to emerging threats. This information is all free and available on our website.

What we are reading

• No one is safe: How Saudi Arabia makes dissidents disappear -- Ayman M. Mohyeldin, Vanity Fair
• The Incredible Life and Tragic Death of Lyra McKee -- Susan McKay, The New Yorker
• An explainer for when the internet goes down: What, who and why? -- Isabel Linzer, African Arguments
• Diane Foley: Trump Has Freed American Hostages. But He's Made It 'Less Safe' to Be a Journalist -- Diane Foley, The Daily Beast
• Report on the Facebook Third Party Fact Checking programme -- Full Fact
• Jamal Khashoggi and Azory Gwanda Remain Atop Latest "10 Most Urgent" List Of Press Freedom Cases From One Free Press Coalition -- Forbes

So far in 2019...

At least 14 journalists have been killed worldwide in relation to their work. Explore our data.

Visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database for info on press freedom violations in the U.S.