Asia
2022
Bangladeshi journalist Mamunur Rashid Nomani harassed following 2020 assault, detention
On September 12, 2020, Mamunur Rashid Nomani, chief news editor of privately owned The Daily Shahnama newspaper and editor of the privately owned news website Barisal Khabar, was severely assaulted and detained by local officials and political operatives in the south-central city of Barisal, according to news reports and Nomani, who spoke to CPJ by…
Taliban forces detain 2 journalists in undisclosed location
New York, February 1, 2022 — The Taliban must immediately release journalists Waris Hasrat and Aslam Hijab and stop detaining members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Monday, men who identified themselves as members of the Taliban arrested Hijab, a reporter, and Hasrat, manager of political programs and a political…
Three Philippine media outlets face latest in a string of cyberattacks
Three Philippine news websites, ABS-CBN News, Rappler, and Vera Files, publicized separate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks between December 11 and 23, 2021. The attacks flood websites with requests to prevent them from functioning, and the sites were periodically forced offline by huge spikes in traffic coinciding with political news coverage. All three sites have been…
China finds new ways to intimidate foreign press, FCCC survey finds
On January 31, 2022, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) released findings from its annual member survey about press conditions in the country. The report, “Locked Down or Kicked Out,” found that 99% of foreign correspondents said China’s reporting conditions did not meet what they considered “international standards.” The survey also documented ways Chinese…
Opinion: Myanmar’s military junta is killing press freedom
One year since a democracy-suspending coup, press freedom is dying in Myanmar. A military campaign of intimidation, censorship, arrests, and detentions of journalists has more recently graduated to outright killing, an escalation of repression that aims ultimately to stop independent media reporting on the junta’s crimes and abuses. In January, military authorities abducted local news…
Indian government suspends MediaOne TV for unspecified ‘security reasons’
New Delhi, January 31, 2022 – Indian authorities should allow the Malayalam-language news channel MediaOne TV to operate freely, and should not suspend broadcasters over their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. At about 12:30 p.m. on Monday, MediaOne TV ceased broadcasting after it received a suspension notice via email, according to the…
Women journalists in India feel more at risk after ‘auction’ apps worsen online abuse
Fatima Khan had just returned home from a reporting assignment when she discovered she’d become of more than 100 women listed as being “for sale” in the notorious app Bulli Bai. The site, named by combining a vulgar, derogatory slang for Muslim women (bulli) with the Hindi word for female servant (bai), operated by pulling…
Proposed internet bill in Myanmar imposes 3-year prison sentences for VPN use
Bangkok, January 31, 2022 – Myanmar authorities should scrap proposed cybersecurity legislation that would severely threaten press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. In a letter dated January 13, Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, controlled by the country’s military since the February 2021 coup, stated that a decision had been made to…
Taliban blocks press conference by Afghanistan Journalists Federation
New York, January 27, 2022 — The Taliban must allow journalists and press groups to work freely and without interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Wednesday, about 60 armed members of the Taliban-controlled Kabul police and the General Directorate of Intelligence, the Taliban’s intelligence agency, blocked a planned press conference by the…