August 2008 Archives

Reliable sources in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa have informed CPJ this week that our site was inaccessible on the servers of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, the country's official Internet service provider. A handful of separate Internet users in the country have independently confirmed seeing "The page cannot be displayed" messages when attempting to access our site. The same sources have reported that e-mails they have tried to send to CPJ have not gone through.

Philippine blog The Mindanao Examiner has an open letter to President Gloria Arroyo that is critical of her approach to press freedom in the country, one of the most deadly for journalists. The Sun Star has an update on their blog Arroyo Watch that examines her comments critical of the media. CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity has focused on the Philippines. Two journalists were recently murdered there.

AllAfrica.com has posted an editorial from The Daily Observer, an independent newspaper out of Banjul, about the state of human rights in The Gambia. CPJ has been monitoring the case of Ebrima Manneh, a journalist who disappeared in 2006 in The Gambia. We published an update on his arrest in June when an ECOWAS court ordered his immediate release.

Today marks the seventh day that four media workers have been held hostage by an unknown group roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Mogadishu. Freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout, Nigel Brennan, and Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi, along with driver Mahad Clise, were returning from interviews with Somali refugees at Celasha Biyaha when they were kidnapped along the Afgoye-Mogadishu road. The Australian Federal Police and Australia and Canadian diplomats are working with the Somali government to help with hostage release efforts.

 

ABC News producer Asa Eslocker was arrested on Wednesday while working on a story outside Denver's Brown Palace Hotel during the Democratic National Convention. He was arrested on charges of interference, trespass and failure to obey a lawful order, according to The Associated Press.

The International Herald Tribune has picked up an Associated Press report about the arrest of a Colombian politician in the murder of Nelson Carvajal, a broadcaster for Radio Sur killed in 1998.

The Pakistan Times and the Kashmir Observer are both covering the continued violence in Kashmir and mention our condemnation of the assaults and censorship of local journalists in the north Indian region.

Worldpress.org is covering the protests in Thailand calling for an end to the administration of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. Protesters took control of the National Broadcasting Services, an action which CPJ denounced in an alert yesterday.

Finally this morning, the Web site AllAfrica has posted a story from The Daily Monitor, a government-run newspaper from Ethiopia, about our alert calling for the release of Amare Aregawi, editor-in-chief of the English- and Amharic-language newspaper Reporter, who has been detained since August 22.

The Washington Post has an column from Joe Davidson today that expresses concern about the CIA recruitment of journalists at a recent conference. Davidson discusses how the line between journalist and spy is often blurred abroad and how reporters like CPJ board member Terry Anderson have found themselves taken hostage when neutrality of journalists is not respected.

The Kashmir Media Service Web site has coverage of our alert from yesterday about the assaults and censorship of local journalists in the north Indian region. Pakistan's Daily Times is also reporting on our alert condemning the violence in Kashmir, as is the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Reuters has an in-depth story today on the increasingly dangerous reporting environment in Iraqi Kurdistan. Part of the problem, the article reports a local editor as saying, is that "the government thinks that journalists are the opposition."

Killings, threats, and attacks against journalists are on the rise, with about 60 occurrences reported to CPJ in the first half of 2008 alone. "The recent incidents have really stripped off the veneer and revealed it's not much different than other parts of Iraq," Reuters quoted CPJ's Joel Campagna as saying.

CPJ recently concluded a mission to Kurdistan, where our delegation met with Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani and presented him with our recommendations for ensuring press freedom in the region. For more, read our full report "The Other Iraq."

Feleke Tibebu, deputy editor of private Ethiopian newspaper Hadar, was arrested in a 2005 government-led crackdown on dissidents and the private media. Tibebu (right) and 13 other journalists were charged with "outrages against the constitution or constitutional order," "impairment of the defensive power of the state," and "attempted genocide," after the publication of editorials critical of the government's conduct surrounding the May 2005 parliamentary elections. According to international news reports at the time, more than 190 people were killed when the government crushed post-election protests after the opposition contested the victory of the ruling party.

After nearly 17 months in prison, Tibebu and seven other journalists were acquitted and released in April 2007. Facing more harassment, he fled to Kenya later that year where he waited for more than a year for approval of his resettlement petition and visa to travel to the U.S. On August 16, Tibebu arrived in Virginia, where he has extended family.

It sounds like the plot of a B movie. The charred corpse of a missing female U.S. Marine and her fetus are found buried beneath a fire pit in the backyard of a male U.S. Marine whom she had previously accused of rape. The Marine suspect flees North Carolina for south of the border where he is captured apparently by chance at a roadblock set up by Mexican police investigating a local kidnapping.

During the international manhunt for the suspected Marine, a crime beat reporter and blogger for the Jacksonville Daily News was on the story. "Couple of y'all have asked what was said in the press conferences," blogged Lindell Kay on JDNews. In another post, crime reporter Kay encouraged readers to speculate themselves and post "what your theory is on the death of [the victim] Maria Lauterbach."

Agence France-Presse is covering the abduction of two foreign journalists, their fixer, and driver in Somalia. Australian Nigel Brennan and Canadian Amanda Lindhout, along with their Somali support staff were kidnapped outside Mogadishu as they traveled to report on local humanitarian aid camps.

We released an alert urging their release yesterday. AFP quotes Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes as saying, "Somalia continues to be the most dangerous place for local and foreign journalists in Africa."

On the blogs today, War Is Boring has a post about the kidnapped journalists, as does Not Ready for my Burqua. The CNN Wire blog is also posting updates on the story

The Sri Lankan Web site Lanka Business Online has coverage of the indictment on terrorism charges of Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam. CPJ released an alert yesterday condemning the court's decision.

Two days after being abducted and badly beaten in Guatemala, prominent journalist José Rubén Zamora was still in shock. "I can't remember what happened, but I was drugged and left unconscious in a hospital in the outskirts of Guatemala City," he told me on Saturday after he was released from the local hospital.

His colleagues at the daily elPeriodico and members of the local media were stunned by the news on Thursday. Rumors had spread that morning that Zamora had been killed. Claudia Mendez, an editor at the paper, told me that she started crying. Zamora, a 1995 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award, is considered one of the top investigative journalists in Central America by his peers.

As the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing came to an official close yesterday, many news outlets are looking at back what the Games mean for human rights in China. The Canadian Press has a piece arguing that nothing has changed, despite the pleasant face China put on for its international visitors.

The Ottawa Citizen  is running a story that questions whether the price paid by restricting press freedom was justified by a the completion of a highly successful Olympics. The News and Observer in North Carolina looks at the case of Shi Tao, a former CPJ IPFA winner and journalist still imprisoned in China, against the backdrop of China's Olympic triumph. Also, The Huffington Post has a look at the legacy of the Beijing Olympics.

In news out of Iraq today, The Associated Press has a story about Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, inviting the Iraqi press to his office to quash rumors that he had fallen ill. The cleric has been openly critical of the press in the past.

Tribune Magazine, published in the UK, has a detailed article that examines the dire situation for the press in Mexico. CPJ held a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in June  in which the president pledged his support to federalize crimes against freedom of expression.

The Apple iTunes store Web site and all 8 million or so of its songs, ("Imagine an entertainment superstore that's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week" the site urges) are not available in China and haven't been for more than a week. Not a great loss for iTunes in the very short run, it hasn't made a great effort to target the China market, but most likely damaging for Apple's future efforts there. Apple still hasn't found a Chinese carrier to partner with to support the iPhone, though it is actively looking for one.

Thanks to Greg Walton, the Asia editor for Infowar Monitor, for passing along this New Scientist article about the rapid commercialization of Internet and e-mail monitoring technology. You can access a preview of Laura Margottini's piece, but you'll need a subscription to the magazine or buy online access to get the full article. It's worth it. For context, Greg added these pdf links in his e-mail message. They're Siemens documents describing one of the products discussed in her piece.

We issued the following statement today in response to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez' request for a criminal investigation of Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell for allegedly committing a crime by failing to disclose accusations in a videotaped interview that a former lawmaker was bribed in exchange for her vote to approve Uribe's reelection.

"We reject President Uribe's request to investigate Daniel Coronell," said CPJ's Americas Senior Program Coordinator, Carlos Lauría. "We believe the motivation behind Uribe's decision is linked to Coronell's criticism of the Colombian government. We call on the Attorney General to dismiss Uribe's request." 

Bob Dietz called attention to the Chinese propaganda department's recent 21-point press directive, first reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. The whole thing in English and Chinese is posted today at Berkeley's China Digital Times. Among the orders given to the domestic media during the Olympic Games is that they are not to report on the protest zones set up at three places around Beijing. This apparently holds true even if they are empty, which they are.

The Philadelphia Daily News has a story this morning about two video bloggers arrested by police in Beijing this week. The New York Times also has coverage of the arrests, along with  details about overall press harassment during the Games. CPJ issued an alert on Thursday, protesting both the detentions and the harassment of two Associated Press photographers covering a pro-Tibet protest.

Also today, the Web site Truthdig has coverage of Iraqi cameraman Ali Al-Mashhanani's release from US detention.The Mirror out of England is following the story as well.

We issued the following statement today in response to Thursday's abduction and subsequent release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, a 1995 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award:

"We are alarmed by the kidnapping and reported beating of José Rubén Zamora, president of the Guatemalan daily El Periodico. Zamora has previously been the victim of attacks in retaliation for his paper's investigative work," said CPJ's Americas Senior Program Coordinator, Carlos Lauría. "Authorities should conduct a prompt and exhaustive investigation into this crime, and provide Zamora and El Periodico's staff with the necessary protection to continue working without fear of reprisal."

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China just released its updated list of "cases of reporting interference." What's reporting interference? I'll let the FCCC's reporters speak for themselves:

Since the beginning of the Olympic period on July 25, the day the Main Press Center officially opened, the FCCC has received more than 30 confirmed cases of reporting interference. This includes 10 cases of violence, more than the total number confirmed in the whole of 2007, and 8 cases of damage to equipment or destruction of photos.

Chen Ruolin's win in the women's 10-meter platform dive today brought China's gold medal count to 46, and dominated the online headlines. With the closing ceremony just three days away, news outlets are trumpeting the unprecedented victories of the Chinese athletes, now leading their closest competitor, the United States, by 18 gold medals. They are also reflecting on what the success means.

Topping the news this morning is the release of Iraqi cameraman Ali Al-Mashhadani, who had been held by US forces without charge for three weeks in Iraq. Reuters is reporting that Al-Mashhadani was released early Thursday after being held "because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces," according to the US military. Agence-France Presse and Dow Jones are also covering his release. This is the third time that he has been held without charge by the US military in Iraq, and CPJ has petitioned for his release in each instance.

Also in the news today, Voice of America has a long report about the difficulties facing independent journalists in Senegal and The Gambia.

About a week ago I mentioned a South China Morning Post article, "Screws tighten on mainland journalists" that outlined a 21-point memo that had come down from the Central Propaganda Department in July, giving guidelines for China's media coverage during the Olympics. These sorts of directives are typically disseminated across the country, to editors at every newspaper and broadcaster by the Central Propaganda Department. This list is a broad one, but during breaking stories very specific directives can come down daily, even hourly when necessary. For an example of what they look like, here's a selection from our pre-Olympics report, Falling Short. 

The self-described anarchist-activist seemed like an unlikely press freedom martyr. But a video blogger named Josh Wolf ended up serving more time in jail for defying a court order than any other journalist in U.S. history. Wolf, then 24, was held for 226 days at a federal penitentiary in Dublin, Calif., for refusing to testify to a grand jury or turn over unedited footage of a July 2005 protest in San Francisco.

Buried in the celebration of China's now inevitable dominance of the Olympic Games, Xinhua News Agency today reported the death of a former national leader and Mao Zedong's brief successor with these few words:

The Chinese Communist Party's outstanding party member, a warrior for Communism long tested in his loyalty, a revolutionary for the proletariat, who held important posts in the party and national leadership, Comrade Hua Guofeng, because of an illness that couldn't be cured, died in Beijing on August 20, 2008 at 12:50 at the age of 87.

China returns to the forefront this morning as the Olympic Games are nearing an end. The Associated Press has a story about human rights groups' frustration at the lack of outcry, along with protests against myriad rights abuses. The story quotes CPJ's Asia program coordinator, Bob Dietz, who is working out of Hong Kong. "In the end, they pretty much defined the terms in which the media was going to operate," he said. "Those terms are not the same as in the Western world." Reuters is running a story about the crackdown against pro-Tibet protests, as well as the generally tight control Beijing officials have had on all demonstrations.

We released another alert about Dhondup Gonsar today. He's the Tibetan RFA reporter who is stuck in Hong Kong waiting for a visa that RFA was told had been set aside for him and RFA's Mandarin service reporter Jill Ku Martin. We first raised Dhondup's case on August 7, and have stayed in touch with him. Jill did make it to Beijing on time, Dhondup is still here.

Visa problems for the Beijing Games are not new. I've discussed them before, but a lot of the cases I mentioned wanted to remain anonymous in the hopes that the barrier would be lifted and they would finally get permission to go to China.

We quoted Dhondup briefly in today's alert, but here's a longer interview with him that I did when I met with him this afternoon: aug 20 gonsar intvu.mp3

In the Senegalese capital, Dakar, speculation surrounded Air Transport Minister Farba Senghor after unidentified men using a government vehicle ransacked the newsrooms of 24 Heures Chrono and L'As, two independent newspapers. The attacks came just three days after Senghor threatened unspecified retaliation against the papers over critical stories. CPJ issued an alert on Tuesday, calling attention the situation.

OpenNet Initiative is a go-to source for CPJ and anyone else who is interested in fact-based analysis of the Internet. Its academic approach--it's a consortium of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge, and the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University--has made it an island of accuracy and reasonableness in the ebb and flow of online information.

Even with the world enthralled in the drama of the Olympic Games, the more basic struggles in the rest of China continue to quietly unfold.

Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily) today published a long article with little apparent connection to the Olympics, a rarity these days. It is actually re-posted from Zhejiang Daily, and tells the story of a farming family that grows vegetables near the city of Hangzhou who are having trouble this year because of the rising costs of production, including the cost of seeds, fertilizer, and fuel for the tractor.  

"Without plowing the earth, the vegetables won't grow," said farmer Wang Guokui.

The main headline on the Web site of the rest of the Southern Media Group is more typical, giving second-day coverage of hurdler Liu Xiang's painful exit from the race: "We love gold medals, we love you more." It's sweet. The New York Times reports that it's also state-mandated; propaganda officials have told news outlets to keep the tone sympathetic, lest rage at the fallen athlete provoke a nasty scene. Xinhua News Agency, voice of the State Council, published an open letter from Liu to his supporters in which he apologized for the disappointment.  

I didn't see any evidence of rage toward the stymied Olympian in a brisk stroll through the Chinese Web today. But I did find a blog post on Bullog reflecting on his clothes. Yes, his track uniform. A blogger departs from his native language to call it "fugly":

Why did they have to give him such a fugly uniform? Does the person who takes care of these things hate him?

On a quiet news day, South African Web site Business Day has a story outlining the situation in Zimbabwe, and looks at how limiting press freedom has inhibited peace in the country.

In other news out of Africa today, the AllAfrica Web site is running an opinion piece about the state of newspapers in Sierra Leone.

Another way of getting around Intent censorship is to use proxy servers. They are basically computers whose addresses or access are not blocked by a country's filters. You contact one of them and relay your information, say a request to access www.cpj.org (which, by the way, is still blocked as of this morning, according to friends inside the Main Press Center in the Olympic Village). The proxy server retrieves and passes back the information you want. 

It's most likely too late to get one of these if you're already in China, but for the next time you're going behind any country's Internet firewall, try to pick up one of these thumb drives. If you're among the digitally impaired, as I am, it will help you dodge the online cops. All you have to do is be able to plug this thumb drive into one of your computer's USBs. It's preloaded with a program called Tor that relies on encryption and a network of servers--and will get you through blocking technology, I am reliably told. CNET Asia provides more information. 

 

Two articles on the labor exploitation of prisoners in Havana's Güanajay Prison appeared over the weekend on the Miami-based news Web sites CubaNet and PayoLibre. The articles detailed the use of prisoners as free labor in a local shoe factory, and described the terrible conditions under which the 28 men work. Though not written by them, the pieces were reported by independent Cuban journalists José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández and Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, both held in Güanajay.

Just as American audiences have been fixated on the performances of Michael Phelps during the Olympic Games, Chinese viewers have been anticipating the heroics of hurdler Liu Xiang. So his dropping out of the 110-meter race today with an injury was the headliner at major news outlets. Photographs of his anguished coach and shocked commentaries of his loving fans led the Web.

All the major Philippine news outlets are covering the news this morning of the shooting death of another possible journalist. Inquirer.net, GMA News, The Mindanao Examiner, and ABS CBN are all covering the news that Ronaldo Anjo Julia, who may have been a part-time radio broadcaster, was shot and killed by gunman on a Manila street. The Web site 7DAYS out of Dubai also has coverage of the story and reports that the motive for the killing is still unclear, as Julia had also been doing work for his brother, a local politician. CPJ is currently investigating the case.

The Cebu Daily News, also based in the Philippines, has an editorial examining possible reasons for the drastic increase in violence against media workers in light of the recent deaths of Dennis Cuesta and Martin Roxas, both cases that CPJ has covered over the last 10 days.

Reuters is reporting that over the weekend two independent newspapers were attacked in the Sengalese capital of Dakar, increasing tension between the President Abdoulaye Wade's administration and the media. CPJ sent a letter to Wade at the end of June, expressing alarm at the worsening press conditions in the African nation.

Thanks to Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Sophie Beach at China Digital Times for taking the time to translate and post Southern Weekend's interview with Zhang Yimou, the once renegade movie maker who took on the job of organizing the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games. The excerpt is called "The Way Art Works," and it turns out that the way art works in China is not pretty. Zhang has become mainstream and in doing so has become controversial again. His early movies were low budget, set in ordinary people's lives and had a gritty reality that ran into a lot of problems with censors but found receptive audiences overseas. Lately he has veered toward more lavish movies as he has found more officially approved success and acceptance. 

It's sort of fun to catch the book and movie spin-meisters who trumpet seemingly favorable blurbs artfully extracted from otherwise bad or mixed reviews. They baldly turn criticism into praise as they try to get you to buy that movie ticket or paperback. But maybe it's more of a problem when you see a government do it.

Journalists came under fire in their car on August 10 near Tskhinvali. According to the Turkish Daily News, Turkish journalist Recep Öztürk was wounded. It is not clear who was shooting at them--the lines have been fluid as the Georgians and Russians battle in South Ossetia. At least three journalists have been killed and 10 injured since fighting began last week.

CPJ's Washington Representative Frank Smyth has a posting on The Hill Blog today about how the FBI went through back channels to obtain phone records of New York Times and Washington Post journalists in Indonesia in 2004. The news that the FBI director is set to testify in front of Congress on this matter in September has revived debate over the need for a federal shield law to protect journalists' First Amendment rights.

Read Smyth's post at The Hill Blog.

Global Voices Online noticed yesterday when guerrilla blogger Zola (Zhou Shuguang) began tweeting his own detention. His BlackBerry let the world know that local officials had intercepted him in the town of Fengmuqiao in Hunan province, and he posted updates as they forced him into a car to drive him home. If he leaves his hometown of Meitanba again, they told him, there will be trouble.

Zola is a citizen reporter who takes it upon himself to travel to places where news is happening and blog about it, relying on the kindness of strangers as he goes. (He gets around the ethical quandary this presents by refusing to call himself a journalist.)

The Miami Herald is covering news out of Colombia that TV network Telesur has again been accused of having ties to FARC rebels. A journalist for the network has been fingered by the government after his name was allegedly found on confiscated FARC computers. CPJ is quoted in the story: ''The fact that Parra's name has supposedly been found on a FARC computer is not proof of any wrongdoing,'' said Americas Senior Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría. The Olympian in Washington is also running this story today.

AllAfrica has republished our alert on the disappearance of prominent Egyptian editor, Reda Halal, who vanished on his way home from work five years ago in Cairo. There has been no progress made in the case, and CPJ's repeated calls to the Egyptian government have been largely ignored. For more, read our special report on Reda Helal: "The Forgotten Man."

Lastly this morning, Islam Online.net has a story about the continued targeting of media in Iraq that cites our numbers of at least 130 journalists and 50 media workers killed since 2003.

First, a pointer to Rebecca Mackinnon's Asia Wall Street Journal oped from yesterday, The Chinese Censorship Foreigners Don't See . She makes many of the same points I did about how the Great Firewall is leaky, and the control of the Internet in China relies on much more than technology.

During the war in Vietnam, the daily press briefings by the American military were called the "Five o'clock Follies" by the foreign press corps that was on the receiving end of the military's damage control aimed at controlling the story from Vietnam. The Beijing Games have their own daily press meeting, at 10 am, hosted by BOCOG's media chief, Wang Wei, and its spokesman, Sun Weide. Giselle Davies appears as the IOC's spokeswoman. Sometimes they have an additional speaker at the podium. The idea is to project a positive image, downplay disputes, and deal with what seems to be a slowly rising level of frustration from the journalists in attendance.

We issued the following statement today in response to the attack on a Fox News crew in Gori, Georgia:

"We are troubled that despite the ceasefire, journalists and cameramen have come under fire once again. This is unacceptable and we call on all the parties in the conflict zone to ensure reporters' safety," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "This conflict has already taken the lives of three colleagues and left at least 10 wounded. Commanders must remind all deployed forces that journalists are civilians and entitled to the full protection of the Geneva Conventions."

Fox released video footage of reporter Steve Harrigan and his crew under fire.

In the Gaza Strip, anyone with a camera is fair game. That's the inescapable conclusion from the Israeli army's investigation into why one of its tank crews fired at least two shells at a Reuters television journalist openly filming them from a mile away.

The cameraman, Fadel Shana, 24, filmed the muzzle flash of the Merkava-4 tank that sent a dart-scattering shell above his head. The screen goes black as Shana falls dead in an open patch of sandy ground near the Israel-Gaza border, southwest of Gaza City on April 16. His soundman, Wafa Abu Mizyed, is wounded. Eight other civilians, aged between 12 and 20, were killed; six of them were under 16. At least seven other bystanders aged from 10 to 18 were also hit. None was armed or was a militant.

In a six-page letter to Thomson Reuters dated August 12, the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) military advocate general, Brig.-Gen. Avihai Mandelblit, absolves the tank crew and their superiors of any responsibility or criminal wrongdoing. The letter outlines some of the findings of a confidential inquiry into the killing. It skates over testimony from witnesses quoted by Reuters and other media and human rights groups, and concludes that the decision to fire a shell designed to kill concentrations of battlefield infantry at a two-man TV crew was "reasonable" and "sound."

On July 21, CPJ welcomed the release of Tunisian Internet journalist Slim Boukhdhir from prison. A contributor to Tunisian and Arab news Web sites, Boukhdhir was serving a one-year term in Sfax Prison because he had written articles critical of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the country's first family. CPJ sent a mission to Tunisia in early July, focusing the journalist's case. Now Boukhdhir has sent us kind words from Tunis that we'd like to share:

"In addition to other positions adopted during my ordeal by people of good conscience throughout the world, CPJ's stance was a badge of honor that I had been wearing in jail and CPJ's solidarity lighted the darkness of my ordeal."

Bouhkdhir also extended his "warm thanks" to CPJ's Middle East senior program coordinator, Joel Campagna. Campagna was part of the delegation to Tunisia and had been advocating for Boukhdhir's release since his arrest.

Boukhdhir ended his note this way: "I have great regard for your commitment to freedom of the press. Long live CPJ as a prosperous oasis to defend journalists and long live press freedom."

He signed it, "Your brother, Slim Boukhdhir."

NBC coverage of the women's gymnastics team competition made incessant mention of the controversy over the Chinese athletes' ages. Are they really 16, or are they underage? And what does that say about the awful and efficient "machine" that pumps out China's Olympians? NBC announcers made sure that American viewers pondered the matter as the gold medal went to the Chinese team.

BBC News has coverage this morning about the media's reaction to Israel's decision to clear the soldiers involved in the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana. The "Editors' Blog" on British site Journalism talks about Reuters' "dissatisfaction" at the verdict and the Middle East Online Web site has a report that cites our alert on the ruling, and quotes the concerns of  CPJ's Middle East Senior Program Coordinator Joel Campagna: "These findings mean that a journalist with a camera is at risk of coming under fire and there's not that much that can be done. That's unacceptable."

Australia's Sydney Morning Herald also covers the IDF's ruling and quotes our statistic of eight journalist deaths in the West Bank and Gaza since 1992. The Lebanese Web site Menassat has republished our alert from yesterday as well.

The arrest of ITN reporter John Ray yesterday in Beijing has stirred up fresh concerns about press freedom during the Games and China's overall human rights record. From England, both The Telegraph and The Guardian have stories today about the IOC's unwillingness to admit China's failures, particularly in regard to freedom of the press. The International Herald Tribune is also covering the story, as is the Web site Monsters and Critics.

Kristin Jones has been doing a great job monitoring the Chinese media and the more unofficial online world. One of the realities she has pointed out is the similarity of coverage across China's media when sensitive issues crop up. There is a reason for that.

An interesting piece, "Screws tighten on mainland journalists," ran in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's largest English-language daily. SCMP staff in Beijing spoke with some Chinese reporters recently and they told SCMP of a 21-point directive that came down last month from the Central Propaganda Department. Taboo subjects include everything from seating arrangements for dignitaries at the opening ceremonies, food safety issues, and an outright ban on using any source of information other than the official Xinhua News Agency for Games-related scandals. The standard rules for referring to Taiwan (the acceptable form is "Chinese Taipei" not the Republic of China (Taiwan) were also on the list, but no mainland Chinese reporter really needs to be reminded of that. 

The Russian-Georgian conflict continues to be the focus of many news outlets this morning. The Associated Press outlines vital statistics from the conflict, which includes our reporting on journalist casualties. McClatchy News Service also cites CPJ in its reporting on the situation. The International News Safety Institute, meanwhile, has an important posting that explains the continued danger for the news media in the region.

At the Olympics censorship concerns in China are again the topic of discussion in various news reports today. The Associated Press quotes CPJ's Bob Dietz in an article about China's restrictive approach toward journalists who attempt to cover stories that are not sports-related. Also, MediaChannel has reprinted our alert from yesterday about the Chinese blocking our Web site.

This morning, Reuters is covering news that the Israeli military has cleared soldiers involved in the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by tank fire four months ago. The piece quotes CPJ's Joel Campagna as saying that the "findings mean that a journalist with a camera is at risk of coming under fire and there's not that much that can be done. That's unacceptable." Campagna had led CPJ deleation that met previously with Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor to call for a full investigation into Shana's death.

Bloggers in China know that certain words are easily picked out by censors' keyword searches. So they don't use them, and their posts stay up longer. But images are harder to detect, particularly if they aren't labeled.

Today, somebody calling himself Qian Tiexian started a thread at the blog aggregator Bullog with the title "Two children." The text reads only "Look at the picture, don't speak." Beneath it (just in case it has disappeared by the time you get there) are two photos. The first shows basketball star Yao Ming and the 9-year-old earthquake survivor Lin Hao walking side by side during Friday's opening ceremony. The moving image of the gentle giant and the fierce little warrior hero at the head of the Chinese national delegation is familiar to any one of the billions of people who watched the ceremony. Below it is another photo, this one of a very small boy with a cut on his face holding a handwritten sign in Chinese and English: "Shandong Huimin county government illegally sold my grandmother's house and took away the money!"

British journalist John Ray speaks about his arrest by Chinese officials while covering a protest  for a free Tibet in Beijing.

Also, for additional video footage of Ray being arrested by Chinese officials, visit the BBC Web site.

Before I bury them below today's lengthy post, here are two quick items. If you are stuck behind someone's filtering system, in China or anywhere else in the world, check out citizenlab's guidebook in pdf. It tells you how to circumvent the restrictions. And today the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China updated its list of detentions and harassment to include incidents that have happened since the Games began. 

Yesterday I described how www.cpj.org is inaccessible in some places in China and not in others. There are gaps in China's Internet monitoring and censoring technology, and the Great Firewall sometimes seems more like a leaky dyke rather than an impenetrable barrier. In fact, it's not just the blocking and filtering technology that keeps the Internet in check in China. Social controls play a very large role.

Merid Estifanos was still in his afternoon French class when I arrived at the Maison des Journalistes (MDJ) this afternoon to meet him. I was greeted instead by Maison's director, Philippe Spinau, who gave me the grand tour of the house that has been home to many journalists who, like Estifanos, were forced into exile for their work.

At least three reporters have been killed covering the conflict in Georgia, and two others are reported missing. We are investigating reports today that journalists may have targeted at a press center in the city of Gori, which has been flattened in the Russian bombing campaign.

Despite reports of censorship, several Chinese newspapers have reported on the stabbing death in Beijing on Saturday of a relative of the U.S. men's volleyball coach. But most of the reporting has been limited to official statements. Emphasizing that the attacker acted alone, Beijing Youth Daily yesterday quoted Beijing Olympic Committee official Wang Wei in identifying the victim as the father-in-law of the U.S. coach. Early Chinese-language reports in Xinhua had simply called him a tourist.

Last week, two Philippine radio broadcasters were killed, gunned down in broad daylight on busy city streets. The murders, only four days apart, highlighted the continuing vulnerability of journalists here and the government's inability to protect them.

The broadcasters were shot in separate, unrelated incidents. But the killings were eerily similar to other journalist slayings here in the past years: They were carried out by armed assassins riding tandem on motorcycles. Last week's casualties brought to 34 the number of journalists murdered in the Philippines since CPJ began keeping count in 1992. In only two of those cases have the killers been tried and convicted.

The conflict in Georgia is making headlines this morning with The Georgian Times Web site running a news brief on press casualties that quotes our alert from yesterday. RFE/RL also has a story online that quotes our coverage of the death of three journalists and the disappearance of two others in South Ossetia. The Web site Bloggernews has a post about the suspension of VOA's Russian service shortly before the conflict began. Also, the Institute for War and Peach Reporting has an article outlining the conflict and guarantees from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to protect freedom of the press even as the violence continues.

Philippine Web site The News Today has an article about journalists taking to the streets in Roxas City to protest the death of their colleague Martin Roxas. Yesterday, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance's Web site re-posted an article from the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility that lamented the death of broadcaster Dennis Cuesta, who succumbed to his wounds suffered on August 4.

CPJ board member Sheila Coronel blogs today from Manila on the deaths of these two journalists and the deepening crisis of impunity in the Philippines.

Is this Web site, www.cpj.org, blocked in China? The answer is yes, although there are a few holes in the firewall. Being blocked means that China is not following through on its pledge of complete media freedom for the Games. It also means we are being heard by the government and our criticisms are hitting home.

While organized criminals and drug traffickers account for the bulk of attacks against Mexican journalists, CPJ has documented an increasing number of assaults committed by security forces. Just last week, this reality was brought into sharp focus with the accusation by a reporter that he had been roughed up by the military.

Major news coverage in China and elsewhere is naturally devoted to the Games themselves. Two Chinese weightlifters and the Chinese men's synchronized divers won gold medals today. Yesterday's news of 17 synchronized attacks with homemade explosives in the western region of Xinjiang received little coverage in or out of China.

The exception once again was Caijing, a financial news magazine that has competed strongly against both the central government's Xinhua News Agency and international news outlets. The magazine's Web site followed three articles yesterday with second-day coverage from the scene that gave added details on the deaths of an injured security guard and a Uighur civilian in the attacks, news of an official press conference, and a description of a restaurant that was destroyed in an attack: 

On The Huffington Post this morning, Magda Abu-Fadil has a blog entry that closely examines the situation for journalists in Mauritania and mentions our alert on the bloodless coup and how it might affect the domestic media.

Also this morning, the Web site The Editors Weblog has a short article about censorship in Dagestan, where we reported on a local editor being accused of "extremism" for publishing a quote by a former guerrilla leader in the independent weekly newspaper Chernovik.

And in news out of China, England's Times Online is running an article that questions whether the Chinese media is censoring the press in regards to the death of American tourist Todd Bachman.

Over the weekend, The Associated Press reported that Philippine journalist Dennis Cuesta died from the gunshot wounds sustained in an attack early last week. This sad development, coupled with last week's shooting death of Martin Roxas, a collegie of Cuesta's, is the focus of a story in the Sunday edition of The International Herald Tribune.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the government is taking an aggressive stance on covering news--to grab control of a story before others break it--especially when it involves "difficult" events such as the attacks in Xinjiang province. 

A few days ago I posted a gee-whiz piece about Qik.com, and a brief video piece posted on the site by Noel Hidalgo, who works under the online handle noneck. Hidalgo had beat all the news agencies covering the group of pro-Tibetan demonstrators who climbed two light poles outside the Bird's Nest stadium and managed to stay up there for a few hours, without banners unfurled.

Xinhua News Agency in Chinese is reporting a series of early morning "terrorist" attacks on markets, bars, and government targets today in Kuche county, in China's far-western region of Xinjiang. A security guard died in the attacks. A second security guard, two paramilitary police, and two civilians were injured, and many buildings were damaged, according to the latest Xinhua report at 10:19 pm Beijing time. Eight terrorists were killed by police, two were arrested, and two were killed by their own explosives, the official news agency says. Three more are on the loose.  
   

China's media response to the story of the stabbing of two Americans was standard procedure: The government took charge of a sensitive story and determined what would be said. Hong Kong reporters might break new ground, but look at the mainland's media coverage (here's Kristin Jones's analysis) and the only story you will see is from the official Xinhua New Agency. Carefully vetted crime scene footage is supplied only by China Central Television. The Central Propaganda Department issues directives to papers and magazines across the country about how to handle the story, but reporters and editors already know they won't be able to break any news about the incident without the government's approval.

For a clear idea of how the government controls domestic media in China, read Kristin's chapter on "Censorship at Work: The Newsroom in China." It's in our overview of press freedom in China in advance of the Games, Falling Short. 

Today's news of an attack on tourists at a popular sightseeing spot in Beijing has been handled by Xinhua News Agency alone. Other news outlets are simply re-posting its account. This is the norm for sensitive issues. Xinhua is a part of the central government's State Council and undergoes rigorous pre-censorship, which sets it apart from other Chinese news outlets (which are censored to a lesser degree). It is likely that news organizations received specific instruction from the Central Propaganda Department not to do their own reporting on the attack.

CPJ has a lot of friends at the Foreign Correspondents Club of China; they have been a go-to resource for us for years. They released a statement early yesterday, on the morning of the day the Games opened. FCCC president Jonathan Watts (and The Guardian's Beijng correspondent) outlined the situation going into the Games very clearly:

In the past two weeks the FCCC has been informed of violence by law enforcement personnel against Japanese, European and Hong Kong journalists. Several reporters suffered injuries or damage to their equipment. On the eve of the Olympics, China still blocks many Internet sites, and foreign correspondents face interference when they seek to report on foreign and domestic critics of the Chinese government. Chinese sources report being intimidated or warned not to speak out. Promised reporting freedoms all too often wither away as soon as a subject becomes sensitive, as was apparent after the Tibetan unrest and the Sichuan earthquake. The authorities need to be more consistent.

In Senegal, a fiery debate over press freedom has been pitting the independent press against the government in the aftermath of a brutal beating by police in June of two sports journalists after a soccer match.

The incident, which came amid a flurry of threats and violence against independent media, triggered  protests actions in Senegal, and recently in Chicago, and a news blackout as well as the formation of a local Committee for the Protection and Defense of Journalists. In a surprising twist however, authorities have accused the victims of triggering the incident by assaulting one of the policemen, a claim ridiculed by journalists. A senior judge is overseeing the case, but a larger national and international debate about Senegal's state of press freedom is taking shape.

Amid the fanfare of the Olympic opening ceremony today, a press release from Human Rights in China highlights pressure on dissidents and their families as Chinese authorities try to quash anything that threatens to disturb the long-awaited Games. Police are watching jailed journalist Lu Gengsong's wife and daughter, and they told the wife of recently detained online activist Du Daobin to change her cell phone number and refuse calls, HRIC said. When CPJ called Du's home the day after he was detained, we were told the household had been warned not to talk to the foreign press.

Images steal the day. Web sites around China were live-streaming the opening ceremony this evening (even as NBC insisted on broadcasting endless tips on Chinese manners, saving the Big Show for American prime time). Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily re-launched their sites to showcase photos. On 8/8/08 at 8 p.m., images beamed across the world of the magnificent firework display, a parade of national delegations (with corresponding news briefs: Brazilian delegation enters, Kenyan delegation enters, Japanese delegation enters, etc.), and Hu Jintao walking side by side into the festival with George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin.

With the arrival of 8.8.08, the Olympics begin. But even with the fireworks and fanfare, China's human rights record is still the focus of many news reports today, including coverage from Agence France-Presse, an editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer, reporting from The Chicago Tribune, and a blog as well as an article from The Wall Street Journal.

News outlets across Asia continue to cover the death of Philippine radio broadcaster Martin Roxas, who was shot and killed outside his Radio Mindanao office yesterday. The Philippines' GMA News has coverage of our alert on the shooting, the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Web site, Inquirer.net, is covering the story. The Associated Press has also reported on the incident.

With the opening of the Beijing Games tonight, there is plenty being written about China's emergence on the world stage and its assumption of a global leadership role, definitely on its own terms. But my favorite story of the day sets aside all the political and historical analysis and goes right to the competitive Olympic heart of the matter.

Last night, a staffer at Radio Television Hong Kong told me that he is worried about the timing of the appointment of a new head for RTHK. An official government announcement Thursday, the day before the Olympic Games open, said that 65-year-old Franklin Wong Wah-kay will become RTHK's new head. A long-time Hong Kong government bureaucrat under the British, Wong has a solid track record at RTHK, a broadcaster that plays a similar role to that of the BBC. He has worked in many places in Asia, including Singapore and Beijing, where in 2004 he launched a documentary company called CultureLink.

Journalists in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, today reported that police interrogated the editors of Awramba Times and Harambe, two fledgling independent current affairs weeklies over a series of political stories.

Officers questioned Dawit Kebede of Awramba Times over editorials and interviews in five separate editions of his newspaper since April, Deputy Editor and lawyer Wondrad Debretsion told CPJ. The news items included an editorial challenging the government's assertion of high voter turnout in April's general elections, and a column by opposition leader Berhanu Nega comparing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, according to Debretsion. Editor Wosonseged Gebrekidan of Harambe was also questioned over three similar stories.

On Tuesday, CPJ reported that Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko had signed a new media law allowing authorities to further restrict press freedom by controlling what is published on the Internet. Belarus is on CPJ's list of the world's Most Censored Countries.

Journalists are not the only ones denied freedom of expression. "Belarusian Waltz," an upcoming film on the PBS series "POV," tells the story of Alexander Pushkin, a Belarusian performance artist. His avant-garde street theater includes "wheelbarrows of dung, mock patriotic displays, and portraits of condemned Nazi collaborators." They are intended to challenge Lukashenko's power and spark debate among Belarusians. Pushkin's work often results in his being dragged away by police.

On the eve of the opening ceremony, Xinhua News Agency waxes philosophical about the torch's journey tomorrow to the Bird's Nest, its home for the next three weeks. It hasn't been an easy road, and Xinhua refers to the "obstacles" the torch encountered in foreign cities, as well as the Sichuan earthquake in May that diverted its path.

But official Chinese-language news makes no mention that I can see of the last couple of days' protests within Beijing. 

The Bangkok Post has coverage of our alert from last night that called for a full government investigation into the killing of Thai journalist Athiwat Chaiyanurat.

Also out of Thailand, reaction to President Bush's speech in Bangkok takes center stage across the news media today. CNN.com outlines Bush's comments and China's response. The New York Times also weighs in with coverage of the president's trip as does England's The Independent. Bloomberg updates its coverage from yesterday. CPJ sent a letter to the Bush yesterday, urging him to push for the release of imprisoned journalists in China, which is still the world's leading jailer of journalists, with CPJ's research putting the total at 26.

In the Philippines, reports are surfacing about the death of another radio broadcaster. Agence France-Presse is reporting that Martin Roxas, program director of Radio Mindanao Network, was shot and killed yesterday in the city of Capiz. Colleague Dennis Cuesta, who was shot on Monday, is still in critical condition.

Despite all the security around the Games, two protesting groups did manage to get their messages out yesterday. Students for a Free Tibet managed to climb two light standards near the heavily guarded, iconic Bird's Nest Stadium and display pro-Tibet banners for more than an hour. Later in the day, three Americans protesting China's birth control policies tried to hold a press conference and unfurl a banner on Tiananmen Square before being hauled off and then released fairly soon after.

Considerable international press coverage arose from U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin's statements on the Senate floor last week, calling on the Gambian government to release imprisoned journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh. But Durbin's request has not drawn a response from the Gambian Embassy in Washington. Ambassador Abdul R. Cole told CPJ today that his government would not "be making any comment on this."

 

CPJ wrote an open letter to President Bush today, calling on him to raise the issue of China's jailed journalists when he gets to Beijing. We put the current number of journalists behind bars at 26, which makes China the largest jailer of journalists in the world, the dubious distinction it has held since 1999. In our letter to Bush we specifically mention two jailed journalists by name--Hu Jia and Shi Tao--but you can find details on all of the cases in Falling Short, our pre-Olympics report on media conditions in China.

Basketball star Yao Ming carried the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square today in the triumphant final leg of a relay fraught with protest. His long-legged saunter under the gaze of Mao's portrait captured headlines in today's Web news outlets, along with speculation about who will light the torch at the opening ceremony of the Games on Friday.

Also in the news was the start of Olympic competition in Tianjin, which brought an auspicious win. The Chinese women's soccer team beat Sweden 2-1.

Yesterday's shooting of Philippine journalist Dennis Cuesta is still the focal point of a series of stories this morning. GMA News is running a follow-up piece, the Philippine Daily Inquirer's site, Inqurier.net, has a story outlining the international media's response to the incident, and The Macau Daily Times also has a news brief about the violent attack.

Also in the news today is widespread coverage of President Bush's planned remarks on human rights issues in Asia, specifically China, which he will deliver in Thailand on Thursday. The Associated Press has a full transcript of the remarks. The Washington Post, and Bloomberg both have extensive coverage of the president's trip to the region.

The Tehran Times is running yesterday's Reuters story about the detention of Iraqi Reuters cameraman Ali al-Mashhadani, who has been detained by U.S. forces for the third time without charge since 2005.

Yesterday, I posted two pieces that showed how China's good intentions toward the media can go wrong, or never get under way in the first place. The first item described a Reuters report on new guidelines that had been handed down to the police about how to handle the media if an embarrassing demonstration should break out during the Games. The message was, basically, "hands off the media," and it came after Beijing cops beat up some Hong Kong reporters last week. China might not want to open up its media, but it certainly knows bad publicity when it sees it.

 

But that entry was shoved down the blog queue by news that the police in Kashgar had apparently not gotten the memo, and had roughed up two Japanese newsmen and chased off a Reuters correspondent from the scene of the attack that killed 16 policemen the day before. Well, here's another example of a good idea that hasn't paid off for media in China, at least so far. On May 1, 2008, legislation that looks somewhat like the U.S. Freedom of Information Act went into effect across China.

 

Visas into China have been hard to get since early this year, when new policies were instituted. The tighter restrictions had already hit me in late February, when I tried to get a tourist visa to visit my wife's family in Beijing. I was in Hong Kong to launch the 2007 edition of CPJ's annual report Attacks on the Press, and the timing was perfect for a quick run to Beijing during Chinese New Year.

 

The release of Mustafa Hormatallah, a Moroccan editor at the independent weekly Al-Watan Al An, prompted a memorable scene on July 25 as he exited Akacha Prison in Casablanca, Morocco's most populous and business-oriented city.

Scores of well-wishers including relatives, friends, and representatives of the of the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press and human rights groups flocked early that Friday morning to this notorious prison to greet Hormatallah as he took his first steps toward freedom. They gave him a warm welcome after his eight months of captivity for practicing independent journalism. At 9:45 a.m. local time, he emerged from the gate of what he called a "cemetery for the living."

All the news is excellent in China today. The Web site of Xinhua News Agency today leads by telling its audience: "Olympic dream brightens the world." At the provincial levels, the news is equally good, but with a local angle. The Web site of the Southern media group reports that cooperation between south China's Guangdong province and Hong Kong is bound to improve.  

Reuters is reporting that an unnamed gunman fired on a Philippine radio broadcaster earlier today in Manila. The journalist, Dennis Cuesta, was not killed but is in critical condition in a local hospital. This continues an unfortunate trend in the Philippines, a country that we rank as the sixth most dangerous for journalists. The Sydney Morning Herald is also running a story on the shooting and the Philippine Web site Inquirer has a piece that updates the medical condition of Cuesta.

Also in the news are the deadly explosions in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Agence France-Presse is reporting that the Chinese have apologized to two Japanese reporters who were attacked by police while trying to cover the story.

Late yesterday, Reuters picked up our alert calling for the release of their cameraman, Ali al-Mashhadani, who was detained by U.S. forces on July 26 while attempting to renew his press card inside the green zone. This is the third time al-Mashhadani has been jailed by U.S. forces without charge; in one instance, he was detained for five months beginning in August 2005. The Reuters story has been picked up by Web sites across the Internet, with ABS-CBN, The Mirror, and The US Daily running the piece.  

Police in Kashgar apparently didn't get the message about new tactics for relating to the media. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper's Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for Nippon Television Network's China general bureau, were slightly injured when police in Kashgar dragged them from a site near where 16 police officers were killed on Monday in a terrorist attack. The men were injured, Kyodo said after "police forcibly disrupted the Japanese journalists' reporting activities near the base [the site of Monday morning's attack], took them to a room in a nearby hotel and beat them before releasing them two hours later, according to people with knowledge of the situation."

We issued this statement from Hong Kong after learning of reports today of the detention and beating of two Japanese reporters, Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper's Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for the Nippon Television Network, and the harassment of Reuters reporter, Emma Graham-Harrison, in Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province:

 

"This sort of behavior is reprehensible. The hostility of Chinese authorities toward the media has permeated down to grass roots levels. China must address this attitude on the part of police everywhere across the country. Journalists - foreign and Chinese - must not be seen as easy targets for police abuse," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator.

International advocacy may have had a role in prompting the reported new rules for police in dealing with journalists covering demonstrators during the Games, but the most likely cause was the damage to China's international image from the widespread video of cops roughing up a few Hong Kong camera crews.

 

Foreign journalists have started making their way to Kashgar today after the official Xinhua News Agency reported that 16 police officers were killed when two terrorists drove a truck into an electricity pole and threw two home-made explosives sometime around 8 a.m. Monday. So far, the few foreigners who have made the double-hop plane connection to Kashgar through Urumqi, haven't disputed that account. The Guardian's Jonathan Watts made the trip, and a Reuters team got there by nighttime. AP last reported from Urumqi at this writing. Others tell CPJ they are on the way, and it looks like access to the region has not been blocked yet. Maybe the media lockdown we saw in Buddhist Tibet in March won't be repeated in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a concern we wrote about yesterday.

CPJ has set up a press freedom hotline for journalists in China covering the Olympic Games. At +852 6717 0591, the CPJ hotline will take calls in English or Mandarin from journalists facing censorship, threats, attacks, or other press freedom abuses. CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz, who is reporting from Hong Kong during the Games, will be monitoring calls to the hotline.

 

CPJ will assist callers by taking appropriate action in consultation with the journalist affected. There are a variety of things we can do such as publicizing press freedom abuses, passing along messages from journalists in need, providing support through volunteer lawyers, or making calls to Chinese authorities when necessary.

 

CPJ strives to be available to all journalists in need everywhere in the world. You can always reach us at (212) 465-1004, info@cpj.org, or though our regional programs. We set up the hotline because we want to be prepared for the potentially large volume of cases from China during the Games--and we want to be prepared to respond at all hours.

 

Coverage of today's attack on a police station in Kashgar will be important to watch. The coming hours will determine if the government's more liberal rules on foreign reporters' travel will be observed or ignored. The policy--which ostensibly allows foreign media to travel and interview people freely--was put into place in January 2007 as part of China's Olympic pledge to remove restrictions on journalists. It was summarily sidelined when ethnic rioting broke out in Tibet in March, and again after the first few weeks of coverage of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, when the story moved from a humanitarian crisis to survivors' anger at the government.

 

China watchers in Hong Kong say there is a feeling within the Beijing government that completely closing off Tibet in March might have been a bad strategy that led to a "news vacuum" that was going to be filled one way or another by the foreign media. The lesson learned, the feeling here is, that a more lenient approach might have worked to the government's advantage in Tibet. The lesson might have been learned, but it will still have to be applied. Kashgar might become the test case.

(Reporting from Hong Kong) 

We released the following statement after news reports that two men attacked and killed 16 policemen in an apparent suicide attack in Kashgar in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region:

"Journalists must be allowed to travel to Kashgar to report on this terrible incident. The world must not be forced to rely only on government-approved reports of an attack with such global implications," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, who is monitoring Olympic media issues in China from Hong Kong.

"This is a test of China's pledge to allow reporters to travel freely within China during the Olympics. It must be honored," Dietz said

With the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games only four days away, attention in the news media continues to center on the issues of openness and freedom in China. The Miami Herald has an editorial in today's edition of the paper that wonders if the Chinese government can escape the grip of "their old, restrictive practices."

The Guardian also ran an editorial over the weekend discussing whether China's reversal on limiting Internet access is nothing more than the first small step in a very long journey toward unrestricted media freedom.

In a story on Sunday, The Associated Press reports on the news that Olympic protesters have been told they must register five days in advance to protect "national interests."

Also on Sunday, The Associated Press released the newest version of "Iraq by the numbers," a regular report that outlines various statistics from the war, including the number of journalists killed, which they put at 130--the same number tallied by CPJ.

Information about today's attack on border police in the western Chinese city of Kashgar is coming almost entirely from the official Xinhua News Agency. What's interesting is the huge difference in the agency's own reports, depending on what language you're reading. In English, the attack was a suspected act of terrorism by Uighur separatists. In Chinese, it barely warrants a mention, and it was described as simply a criminal act.

Many Hong Kong papers ran a story about the ill-advised remarks of Regina Ip, the former secretary of security for Hong Kong, and a candidate in September's elections for a seat in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco). Ip said the "neck-shoving" techniques used by Beijing police to roust Hong Kong reporters covering the July 29 scuffle for some last minute Olympics tickets (the South China Morning Post's coverage, TVB's story, and a version in Cantonese are available on YouTube, along with others) were "most effective in stopping troublemakers" without causing permanent injuries. She made the remarks when reporters asked if she thought police would resort to more heavy-handed tactics if they need to block reporters from covering a situation embarrassing to the mainland government.

 

Last week's dispute over Internet access for foreign reporters is still reverberating, only partially resolved. More Web sites have become available to reporters inside the Olympic Games' Main Press Center and around the country, although plenty remain blocked (those perceived as being backed by the Falun Gong and those supporting Tibetan independence most notably). Amnesty International was available again, at least at this writing, as was the BBC's Chinese-language Web site; reporters inside the Main Press Center say they can now pull up cpj.org as well.

 

According to a report released today by the nonprofit Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (Association for Civil Rights), or ADC, the Argentine government drastically increased its advertising budget in 2007, using public funds to reward friendly media, punish critical outlets, and promote the political campaign of current President Cristina Fernández who replaced her husband Néstor Kirchner last December. The federal government spent more than 322 million pesos (US$105 million) on official ads in 2007, a 55 percent increase over the same period in 2006, ADC said in its survey.

The media is in the news. The official Xinhua News Agency chimes in on the fracas over Web access for foreign journalists in the Olympic press center. In a commentary headlined "Do not let 'press freedom' supersede Chinese law" Xinhua defends the government's policy of blocking sensitive Web sites, repeating the justification Games spokesman Sun Weide gives journalists:

Internet censorship at the Olympic media center dominated press freedom news today. An official with the International Olympic Committee proclaimed "the issue has been resolved" and that Internet access will be provided "just like in any Olympics," Reuters reported. Yet details were scant on exactly what level of access would be provided by Beijing organizers--and Chinese officials and state media remained silent on the issue.

Agence France-Presse said that its reporters were able to access some human rights and news Web sites that had been blocked earlier in the week. Kevan Gosper, IOC press commission chairman, gave the most detailed account of the possible changes. The Sydney Morning Herald quotes him as saying that all sites except those considered "pornographic or subversive" by the Chinese government "should be free."

Ethiopian journalists tell us that police in Addis Ababa have finally released 10,000 copies of Enku magazine that were impounded on May 2 because of a cover story about the jailed pop music icon and government critic Teddy Afro. The May edition is expected to finally go on sale on Saturday. CPJ had protested the seizure with Ethiopian officials.

A personal tragedy unfolded in Zimbabwe this week with the death of photographer Richard Mills. The Times of London photographer was working undercover in Harare when he was found dead on July 14 in his hotel room. Authorities said there was no evidence of foul play. Hundreds attended a funeral service at Roselawn Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on July 29.