we look at this global landscape now with joel simon, executive director of the committee to protect nalists. welcome to the newshour, joel. let's go through some of these global hot spots that we've been talking about. your organization just put out a report about mexico and some of the violence directed at journalists there. what's going on? >> what's going on is you have a country where the government is effectively unable to assert control because violent forces are dominant. and they are determining through violence what the people can and can't know. they're killing journalists. they're suppressing information, and they often operate with the complicity of the police and local authorities. >> brangham: in a circumstance like that when you're talking about basically criminal organizations killing journalists, what can we as the journalistic community do to protect people in that environment? >> well, i think first of all, we have to call on the mexican government. they have a constitutional obligation to ensure that mexicans are able to exercise free expression, that the press ca

. >> reporter: joel simon is executive director of the committee to protect journalists. >> what journalists are doing their job and asking tough questions and sometimes being a little pushy, that that would somehow justify some sort of physical attack, that's unacceptable. and we have to speak out about that. >> reporter: america's a long ways away from the kind of attacks sometimes including murder, that journalists have suffered in other countries. the worry, anthony, is that violence against journalists here could be an ominous step in that direction. >> mason: barry petersen in montana. thanks, barry. in egypt, a bus load of christians was ambushed as it was headed to a monastery south of cairo. masked gunmen riding in s.u.v.s opened fire on the bus. at least 28 were killed, including two girls ages two and four. no claim of responsibility, but turning now to a major health concern. the centers for disease control reports 64 babies have been born in the continental u.s. with zika-related birth defects. dr. jon lapook has been tracking the spread of the virus and recently spent time in t