China / Asia

New York, February 26, 2014–Chinese authorities should immediately release a Uighur blogger and academic who has been charged with separatism after being held incommunicado and without charge since January 15, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The scope of the National Security Agency’s digital surveillance raises doubts about the U.S. commitment to freedom of expression online. By Joel Simon

Economists and political scientists acknowledge that journalism is vital to development and democracy. By Robert Mahoney

Surveillance, restrictive Internet legislation, and cyberattacks compel CPJ to add cyberspace to the list of places trending in the wrong direction. By Maya Taal

Media owners’ reluctance to draw China’s disfavor imperils the ability of the Hong Kong and Taiwanese press to play a watchdog role. By a CPJ Contributor Popular protests like this one in Taipei on January 1, 2013, helped derail a plan for a wealthy business tycoon with interests in China to buy Taiwan’s largest newspaper.…

Despite expectations for greater transparency after President Xi Jinping took office in March, Beijing continued to try to suppress information on a broad range of issues. A CPJ report in March found that the government struggled to cope with ever more pervasive digital platforms that Chinese citizens used to express themselves. In September, authorities once…

Late in 2013, Time’s Hannah Beech posted a great blog on the magazine’s website around the time that about 24 foreign journalists were worried that the visas allowing them to work in China might not be approved: “Foreign Correspondents in China Do Not Censor Themselves to Get Visas,” she told readers. She’s right, of course,…

Hong Kong’s besieged media were dealt another blow this week, with news that the editor-in-chief of the city’s once most trusted Chinese-language newspaper will be replaced with a potentially pro-establishment editor.