Asia
2013
In Southern Weekly versus censors, cautious optimism
There is cautious optimism among China media watchers this morning over the news that a deal has been struck between censors and protesting journalists at China’s Southern Weekly news magazine, which is also known as Southern Weekend. The journalists will not face reprisals for their protest, and propaganda authorities will not repeat the editing stunt…
Nepal PM criticizes arrests in Thapa murder
New York, January 8, 2013–Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai today publicly criticized the arrest of five of his party members who stand accused of the 2004 murder of radio journalist Dekendra Raj Thapa, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the arrests and calls on the prime minister to allow due process…
Amid rape furor, journalist still in jail for exposing assault
Even though members of the Karnataka state government have provided broad assurances that they will drop charges against Naveen Soorinje, the young journalist remains imprisoned two months after he was arrested for exposing an assault on women by Hindu extremists. Welcome to Incredible India, where a journalist can be locked up for documenting a crime…
In China, rebellion grows over Southern Weekly
In the past few days, Chinese journalists and their supporters have launched startlingly direct opposition to Communist Party rule, protesting a heavy-handed move by Guangdong’s provincial propaganda department to unilaterally replace a Southern Weekly editorial on constitutionalism with pro-Party bromides. Defying censors’ directives, media organizations around the country continue to post messages of support of…
Indian police to charge broadcaster for rape interview
New York January 4, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in India to refrain from pressing charges against a media group that televised an interview with the companion of the Delhi rape victim who died last week. The December 16 case has garnered global attention.
Southern Weekly journalists air anger with Chinese censors
Staffers at the Guangdong-based Southern Weekly magazine have publicly expressed their outrage at the heavy handed intervention of propaganda officials who unilaterally rewrote a New Year’s editorial calling for improved constitutional rule in China. A piece extolling the virtues of the Communist Party ran in its place. Sixty staffers posted an open letter to the provincial government…
Crime reporter assaulted in Malaysia
Malaysian crime reporter Ang Kean Siang, a journalist at the local Guang Ming Daily Chinese-language newspaper, was physically attacked on December 30, allegedly by members of a local civilian voluntary patrol unit, after taking pictures of a woman who appeared to have fallen to her death from an apartment building in Penang state’s Georgetown city,…
Pakistan’s problematic record on Internet restrictions
The fleeting nature of YouTube’s availability in Pakistan this weekend–the site, which has been banned in the country since September, was unblocked for a whole three minutes–is only the latest emblem of Islamabad’s erratic and confounding approach to Internet censorship. Those who have been hoping for less opaque tactics apparently are in for disappointment.