Press freedom in the news 10/17/08

The jailing of Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Viet Chien continues to be in the news today with the legal Web site Jurist and the South Korean-based news site Digital Chosun both running stories about the two-year sentence the journalist has received.

Russia Profile magazine has an online piece today about the opening of the Anna Poltikovskaya murder trail in Moscow. The piece looks at the recent poisoning of the Politkovskaya family lawyer, Karinna Moskalenko, as well as the major issues surrounding the case including press being barred from the proceedings.

There is also coverage today in the Spanish-language press of a conference held at Columbia University, “Mexico’s Journalists Under Siege.” The Associated Press and the newspaper Cronicas have stories today about the conference. CPJ staffers Joel Simon, Carlos Lauria, and Maria Salazar participated.

Lastly today, the Web site of the Philippine newspaper The Mindanao Examiner is running CPJ’s Asia Program Consultant Shawn Crispin’s report “Malaysia’s Risk-Takers.”