New York, March 1, 2005—Authorities in Shanghai have suspended the law license of Guo Guoting, defense attorney for three jailed journalists as well as a number of other dissidents and members of the Falun Gong religious sect. The suspension throws into question the defense of imprisoned writers Shi Tao, Zhang Lin and Huang Jinqiu.
JULY 2, 2005 Posted: July 22, 2005 Wong Yuk-man, Commercial Radio HARASSED Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio terminated the contract of popular radio host Wong Yuk-man. Local supporters say that political pressure played a part in the decision to fire the host, known for his outspoken criticism of local pro-Beijing politicians.
New York, February 3, 2005–Four countries with long records of press repression–China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma–account for more than three-quarters of the journalists imprisoned around the world, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found.
JANUARY 29, 2005 Posted: March 28, 2005 Zhang Lin, Freelance IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Zhang, a political essayist who wrote regularly for overseas online news sites, was detained on his return to Anhui Province after traveling to Beijing to mourn the death of Zhao Ziyang, the ousted general secretary of the Communist Party.
The Toll: 1995-2004 Each year in January, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) publishes a list of journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. This list has become the most widely cited press freedom statistic and is often seen as a barometer of the state of global press freedom. While the correlation…
Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.