Asia

2017

  
Residents gather at the site of a December 28 bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed at least one journalist. (AFP/Shah Marai)

At least one journalist killed in Kabul attack

New York, December 28, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned an attack today on a Shiite cultural center and office of the news agency Afghan Voice, in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least one journalist was killed and four media workers were injured in the attack, which killed more than 40 people and injured at least 80,…

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Residents ride electric scooters in a resettlement town in rural Shaanxi province. A journalist investigating a story at a hospital in the province says he was beaten by security guards. (Reuters/Sue-Lin Wong)

In China, hospital security guards beat reporter investigating claims of misconduct

Several security staff allegedly beat Shaanxi Broadcasting Corporation reporter Wang Yi, when he went to a public hospital in Shaanxi province on December 4, 2017 to report on claims of misconduct, according to news reports.

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, second left, meet during a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Nicolas Asfouri/Pool/AP)

Guards beat two journalists during South Korean president’s state visit to China

A group of Chinese security guards assaulted two South Korean journalists who were covering South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to a business fair in Beijing, on December 14, 2017, according to news reports.

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Two Reuters reporters arrested in Myanmar

Bangkok, December 13, 2017–Two Reuters reporters were arrested on Tuesday evening by police in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon, Reuters and other news outlets reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for the reporters’ immediate and unconditional release.

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Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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People pay tribute to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in a park near Hong Kong's Victoria Habour in July 2017. The journalist died a few months after China finally agreed to release him on medical parole. (AP/Vincent Yu)

In China, medical neglect can amount to a death sentence for jailed journalists

Four months after Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer shortly after his release from jail on medical parole, the writer and journalist Yang Tongyan died under similar circumstances in a Shanghai hospital. Like Liu, Yang had been seriously ill for several years, but Chinese authorities granted him medical parole only three months before…

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Indian paramilitary soldiers and a policeman, second from left, guard a checkpoint during a strike to mark International Human Rights Day in Srinagar, India, on December 10, 2017. State police arrested french filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards on December 9, in Srinagar while he was shooting a documentary on people injured by pellet guns. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

French documentary filmmaker arrested in Kashmir

New Delhi, December 12, 2017– Authorities in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state must immediately release French documentary filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards from custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Bangladeshi journalists cover proceedings outside a Dhaka court in May 2016. The country's vaguely worded defamation law is creating a climate of self censorship, local reporters say. (AP/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladesh’s defamation law is ‘avenue to misuse power,’ local journalists say

It started with a Facebook post about a goat and ended in a day in jail for Bangladeshi journalist Abdul Latif Morol, when a fellow journalist filed a defamation complaint against him.

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Journalist shot dead in India’s Uttar Pradesh state

New Delhi, December 6, 2017–Authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state must identify the motive in the shooting death of Naveen Gupta, a stringer for the Hindi-language Hindustan newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown assailants on November 30 shot Gupta dead in the town of Bilhaur in Uttar Pradesh state.

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Prominent blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, left, stood trial on charges of propagandizing against the state. Quynh maintains her innocence and her lawyer said her reporting did not constitute a crime. (Vietnam News Agency/AP)

Vietnam upholds blogger Mother Mushroom’s 10-year jail sentence

Bangkok, November 30, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a Vietnamese appeals court’s decision today to uphold a 10-year prison sentence against blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, widely known as “Me Nam” or “Mother Mushroom.”

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2017