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Surviving Charlie Hebdo cartoonist pledges not to give in to 'gang of killers'
By Madalena Araujo, CNN
Just two weeks after an attack that left him wounded and his colleagues dead, one of the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre talked to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
Laurent Sourisseau, who goes by the name Riss and is now head of publication for the magazine, recounted what it was like to witness and survive the massacre on January 7, which left 12 dead.
“I was in the room where the killers burst into the room, opened the door. They appeared with submachine guns and a colleague who was in front of me was in front of him. As soon as I saw this scene, they started to shoot,” he told Amanpour.
“Then I lay down on the floor with my face on the ground. And then I just heard the sounds of gunfire. I could just hear the gunfire. I didn't even hear any shouting, any screaming. All I could hear was the gunfire and I had my face to the ground. At one time I heard - felt something in my shoulder and that's how it happened.”
Charlie Hebdo's new issue creates an epic print run
Imagine a world where an attack on the freedom of the press creates a media printing of epic proportions.
On Wednesday, "Charlie Hebdo" will boost its circulation from a weekly 60,000 to 5 million copies in 16 languages and 25 countries, including Turkey, where Hebdo's editor-in-chief says secularism is under attack.
Christiane Amanpour has the story.
In horrific year for journalists, some of most courageous honored for their work
It has been a horrific year for journalists.
As long as reporters have done their work, people have tried to stop them from doing it; but the dangers of the profession have been especially apparent this year.
In Iraq and Syria, the Muslim extremist group ISIS has captured and executed journalists in horrific fashion, starting with the beheading of James Foley.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that 42 journalists have been killed this year alone; last year, 211 were jailed.
Every year, that same organization puts a spotlight on those who, as the Czech leader Vaclav Havel said, strive for “living in truth.”
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who hosted this year’s awards ceremony on Tuesday, spoke this week with two of the honorees – Mikhail Zygar, a Russian journalist struggling to keep the country’s only intendant TV news station on the air, and Siamak Ghaderi, who served four years in an Iranian prison and received 60 lashes for his work.
Click above to watch.
Saudi Arabia could aid talks with ISIS in hostage situations, says veteran negotiator
By Madalena Araujo, CNN
Saudi Arabia could have a role in hostage negotiations with ISIS militants, former U.N. hostage negotiator Giandomenico Picco told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
Picco conducted many high-profile negotiations in Lebanon that led to the release of several Western hostages in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
He told Amanpour that if asked to engage in open talks with the terrorist group, he would have a “conversation… with somebody in Saudi Arabia”.
The veteran diplomat also stressed that it was equally important to open a channel of communication with “a military arm in ISIS which is actually led by the deputy of President Saddam.”
He said he would attempt to focus negotiating efforts on that wing of the group rather than on the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who “may have been able to catch the hostages, but may be unable to negotiate their release.”
Governments tend to ask desperate families to stay quiet and trust them to get their loved ones back, but John Foley, whose son U.S. journalist James Foley was brutally murdered by ISIS in August, told Amanpour that he and his wife Diane Foley regret having remained silent.
Murdoch’s reign ‘like the power of a school bully’
By Mick Krever and Annabel Archer, CNN
It is the scandal that has shaken Britain to its core, embroiling the political elite, the police and the press.
Allegations that British journalists hacked into phones and computers, and were involved in bribery, forced media tycoon Rupert Murdoch to shut down the country’s best-selling newspaper and resulted in the conviction of Andy Coulson, a former newspaper editor and top aide to Prime Minister David Cameron.
“It begins with the crime in the newspapers,” Nick Davies, the reporter who uncovered the hacking scandal, told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Thursday.
“But when you look at the way the authorities reacted to that, you see first of all the press regulator, and then Scotland Yard, refusing to investigate properly, refusing to get anywhere near the bottom of the problem.”
Davies is the author of a new book, “Hack Attack: How the truth caught up with Rupert Murdoch.”
Brother of jailed journalist Peter Greste: ‘It's extremely difficult to understand’
By Mick Krever, CNN
Andrew Greste, whose brother Peter was convicted and sentenced to prison along with two other al Jazeera journalists in Egypt on Monday, said he was “gutted” and “devastated.”
“Obviously it was a result that we thought, I guess, was possible. But you just can't prepare yourself really.”
Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed had been imprisoned in Cairo since December on charges that included conspiring with the Brotherhood, spreading false news and endangering national security.
Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison; Mohamed was sentenced to ten.
Their case has drawn worldwide condemnation from governments and journalists alike, who insist the three were simply doing their jobs, reporting the news.
“I definitely wasn't expecting such a harsh punishment,” Andrew Greste said. “You know, seven years – it's extremely difficult to understand.”
In Egypt, case of trial by error
Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste forced to read food labels to avoid boredom in Egypt jail, parents say
By Mick Krever, CNN
Peter Greste, the Al Jazeera journalist who along with two colleagues has been jailed in Egypt since the end of December, suffered such boredom that reading food labels was his only refuge, Greste’s parents told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour.
“Up until a couple of weeks ago, they weren’t even allowed reading material,” Greste’s mother, Lois, said in an exclusive interview. “So to keep themselves occupied, they used anything – off labels, off plastic bottles, and off food containers.”
“They made a mural on the wall, which said ‘Freedom Now.’ Unfortunately, that had to be pulled down because the prison authorities considered that as a slogan.”
“But instead he’s got more creative, and out of foil made a sun with rays that go out to a meter wide. It’s arranged so that the sun hits the foil and lights up the whole of the room. So I think that’s wonderful.”
Journalists' support 'keeps Greste going'
Journalist Peter Greste has been jailed in Egypt since December. His father says colleagues' support keeps his son going.
Monday marked 100 days since Greste and his colleagues were arrested in Cairo. They are charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, which is the designation the government gives the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera correspondent speaks out on journalists’ trial
Members of the press gathered outside a heavily guarded Cairo courthouse Thursday as three al Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt appeared in court for the first time since their arrest.
Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohammed were brought before a judge in a cage. While the court was in recess, they shouted messages to other journalists to pass on to their families.
The three men were detained more than 50 days ago.
The Egyptian government accuses them of joining or aiding a terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which they have categorized as such.
Journalists around the world have staged protests demanding their release.
All three have pled not guilty to the charges against them.
A number of other al Jazeera staff not present in the court today were also charged by the Egyptian authorities.
One of them is Sue Turton, a reporter for the network. Click above to watch Turton speak with CNN’s Hala Gorani, in for Christiane Amanpour.
Photographer describes his 81 days of captivity in Syria
By Mick Krever, CNN
The first five weeks of photographer Jonathan Alpeyrie’s captivity among Syrian rebels were the most difficult.
“They would force me to wrestle with them, to show me how tough they were, and they snapped my ribs on the right so I couldn’t breathe for a while,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
It was “just amusement” to them, he said.
“I was handcuffed for about five weeks, to a bed mostly; and the first three weeks, I was blindfolded.”
At least 29 journalists were killed in Syria last year, and some 60 others abducted.
Alpeyrie was kidnapped by an armed rebel group at a checkpoint near Damascus last April. He would be held for 81 days.
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