China

2014

  
Protesters carry a placard of jailed journalist Gao Yu at a demonstration in Hong Kong in July. (Reuters/Bobby Yip)

In China, mainstream media as well as dissidents under increasing pressure

In 2014, a record number of journalists imprisoned in China was documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The 44 in prison this year is an increase from 32 in 2013, and is the largest figure for China since CPJ began tracking imprisoned journalists in 1990. In recent years, the generally rising numbers for China…

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President Xi Jinping, pictured right, with Barack Obama at a Beijing press conference on November 12, where he was questioned about visa restrictions for the foreign press. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Amid US-China talks, tough words from Xi Jinping for foreign press

Chinese President Xi Jinping issued tough words on the visa woes of international media outlets today, arguing that journalists facing visa restrictions had brought trouble on themselves and signaling that there will be little respite for the international media in China.

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Activists rally outside parliament in support of students occupying the building to protest a trade pact with China in Taipei on March 21, 2014. (AFP/Mandy Cheng)

Taiwan journalists feel pressure as elections approach

Political tensions are rising in Taiwan ahead of local and municipal elections due at the end of November. The vote is expected to test the popularity of the ruling Kuomintang Party (KMT), which advocates greater integration with China and which earlier this year sparked protests when it tried to pass a new economic cooperation deal…

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Student leaders speak to the press at a pro-democracy protest outside the central government offices in Hong Kong on Thursday. (AFP/Alex Ogle)

Hong Kong’s media battlefield

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests are among the best covered in history. The city is saturated with print, broadcast, and social media, traveling across some of the best networks on earth. Its citizens are among the most connected in the world. And for all the media’s flaws, consumers expect them to deliver.

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Chinese reporter arrested in connection with Hong Kong protest coverage

New York, October 14, 2014–The arrest of a Chinese reporter working for a German weekly is cause for alarm and signals a threat to other Chinese journalists working for foreign media in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Zhang Miao, an arts reporter for the German magazine Die Zeit, has been in jail…

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Police officers face off with protesters blocking the entrance to Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying offices on Thursday. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Journalist in Hong Kong? These tips will keep you safer and help you do your best job

We have been receiving reports of harassment and the use of force directed toward journalists covering the demonstrations in Hong Kong. Most of the incidents came over the weekend with the government’s ill-advised attempt to end the protests with police force. But with tensions building today, more clashes with police seem possible.

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Pro-democracy protesters hold umbrellas under heavy rain in a street near the government headquarters in Hong Kong late on Tuesday, September 30. (AP)

Amid Hong Kong protests, journalists battle misperceptions of press freedom

EDITOR’S NOTE: As pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong intensify ahead of China’s National Day on Wednesday, some reporters have been caught in the melee. But for Hong Kong’s journalists, there is more at stake than run-ins with the riot police.

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Uighur blogger Ilham Tohti, pictured in Beijing in 2010, has been sentenced to life in prison. (AFP/Frederic J. Brown)

Uighur blogger Ilham Tohti sentenced to life in prison on separatism charges

New York, September 23, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the life term handed down by a Chinese court today to Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur blogger and academic, and calls for his unconditional release. Tohti was found guilty of separatism by a court in the western Xinjiang region, according to news reports.

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Critical Chinese writer Tie Liu arrested, home raided

New York, September 15, 2014–Police raided the home of a critical Chinese writer and publisher on Sunday, and detained him on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to his family and news reports. Huang Zerong, 81, had recently written articles criticizing restrictions on press freedom in China, according to news reports.

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Conditions increasingly restrictive for foreign correspondents in China

When China hosted the summer Olympics in 2008 it promised greater press freedom, but six years later conditions for international journalists are increasingly more restrictive, as evidenced by a report released today by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.

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2014