2012
Afghan donors must address media repression
One thing that had better be high on the agenda this weekend at the meeting of 70 or so international aid donors for Afghanistan in Tokyo is the recently released official draft version of the Mass Media Law (a copy of the draft can be found here). I mentioned the new draft in a June…
Shallow victory for China’s journalists, protesters
Shi Junrong, Xi’an Evening News bureau chief in the city of Wei’an, ran into trouble recently after he reported on the costly brand of luxury cigarettes favored by local officials. He announced on his microblog that the paper suspended him soon after, according to the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia.
Photographer gunned down in Ecuador
Bogotá, Colombia, July 3, 2012–Ecuadoran photographer Byron Baldeón was shot dead Sunday in front of his home in El Triunfo, about 60 kilometers (100 miles) north of the city of Guayaquil. The photographer had become a witness in a criminal case involving alleged police corruption, according to news reports.
Sudan must end crackdown on press covering protests
New York, July 3, 2012–Sudanese authorities should allow journalists to cover anti-government demonstrations in Khartoum, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Over the past week, authorities have raided a media office and a journalist’s home, arrested one journalist and interrogated another, deported a third journalist, and blocked at least three critical websites.
Palestinian security forces assault journalists at protests
New York, July 2, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned attacks by Palestinian security forces on at least four journalists who were covering protests against the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah on Saturday and Sunday, according to news reports.
The New York Times takes on China’s censors
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after The New York Times’ soft launch of its Chinese-language edition and accompanying microblog accounts, Berkeley-based China Digital Times website reports that the @nytchinese Sina Weibo feed is no longer accessible in China, along with two accounts hosted by Netease and Sohu. We couldn’t pull them up this…
End the assault on female and local journalists
CPJ recently reported on the sexual assault of independent journalist, Natasha Smith, in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. In an opinion piece for Reuters, columnist David Rhodes, calls for an end to the sexual violence against female journalists, with reference to CPJ’s research. He also writes on the high number of local and international journalists killed in Syria and quotes CPJ Executive Director,…
In Belarus, journalist charged with libeling Lukashenko
New York, July 2, 2012–Andrzej Poczobut, the prominent Grodno-based correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, was formally indicted Saturday on criminal charges of libeling President Aleksandr Lukashenko through a series of articles critical of administration policies.