China / Asia

Taipei, February 22, 2024—Chinese authorities must immediately release documentary director Chen Pinlin, drop all legal proceedings, and allow journalists to document demonstrations, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On February 18, Chinese authorities charged Chen, who published a documentary on anti-COVID restriction protests in late 2023, with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to…

Taipei, February 5, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Chinese court’s decision to hand Australian blogger and writer Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence, and urges the Chinese authorities to free him immediately and unconditionally. “The suspended death sentence for Yang is completely unacceptable, revealing the arbitrary nature of the Chinese legal system,” said…

Taipei, February 1, 2024— A Hong Kong court found journalists Wong Ka-ho and Ma Kai-chung guilty of unlawfully entering the legislative council on July 1, 2019, during a protest where demonstrators stormed the parliament in opposition to an extradition bill that would have allowed authorities to send Hong Kong citizens to mainland China for trial,…

Taipei, January 12, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the 15-year prison sentence issued to Chinese journalist Shangguan Yunkai and calls on the authorities to release him immediately. A district court in the central city of Ezhou handed down the sentence on January 5 after Shangguan was convicted for selling fake medicine, picking quarrels and…

Giant portraits of President Emomali Rahmon adorn even the most nondescript buildings in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe. Throughout the country, his sayings are featured on posters and billboards. Their ubiquitous presence underscores the consolidation of power by Rahmon – officially described as “Founder of Peace and Unity, Leader of the Nation” – since he emerged…

New York, December 15, 2023 – The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Hong Kong authorities to release publisher Jimmy Lai ahead of the scheduled start of his national security trial on December 18. The 76-year-old Lai could be jailed for life if convicted. Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper…

Taipei, December 1, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately account for Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan’s whereabouts, after news reports of her disappearance following her travel to the Chinese capital in October to cover the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a security conference. “Reports about the disappearance of Hong Kong journalist…

The smears began the day Christian Ulate began representing jailed Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora: tweets accusing the lawyer of being a leftist or questioning his legal credentials. He began to fear he was being surveilled.  Ulate had taken over the case in August 2022 from two other lawyers, Romeo Montoya García and Mario Castañeda,…

Taipei, September 25, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Hong Kong court’s decision on Monday to sentence Ronson Chan, head of the city’s largest journalists’ group, to 5 days in prison on charges of obstructing a police officer. “The 5-day sentence issued to journalist Ronson Chan is another deliberate humiliation to the freedom of the…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 10 other press freedom and human rights groups on Monday in calling on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to take immediate and decisive action to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and a British citizen. On Tuesday, 75-year-old Lai will have…