Malaysia / Asia

Dear Mr. McKinnon, On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its concerns about press freedom violations in Malaysia and Sierra Leone, which have been Commonwealth member states since 1957 and 1961, respectively. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the leaders of these Commonwealth countries rank among CPJ’s “10 worst enemies of the press” for 2000.

On World Press Freedom Day ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1999 ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1998 ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1997ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1996

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the effective banning of the independent bimonthly magazine Detik, whose publishing license has been cancelled by your government.

By Kavita Menon and A. Lin NeumannMuch of Asia remained hostile to a free, independent media, despite the growing consensus that Asian political and economic stability depends in great measure on governments’ willingness to improve transparency and lift restrictions on the press. In China, Burma, Vietnam, and even Malaysia, government suppression of the media is…

Each year on World Press Freedom Day (May 3), CPJ announces its list of the ten worst enemies of the press. Those who made the list this year, as in the past, earned the dubious distinction by exhibiting particular zeal in the ruthless suppression of press freedom. They were singled out for their unrelenting and…

At the heart of Malaysia’s authoritarian reputation is its Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, which requires all publications to obtain licenses that can be revoked at will by the Minister for Home Affairs. The minister’s decisions are final, and there is no judicial review. A holdover from British rule, when a communist insurgency…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by your government’s ongoing harassment of Harakah government’s ongoing harassment of Harakah, the newspaper of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by today’s arrests of Zulkifli Sulong, the editor of Harakah, the biweekly newspaper of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and Chia Lim Thye, the owner of the company that prints Harakah and formally holds the newspaper’s publishing license.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the Ministry of Home Affairs’ recent threats to close five Malaysian publications, including the widely-read opposition biweekly Harakah.

October 12, 1999 — Murray Hiebert, the Far Eastern Economic Reviewcorrespondent imprisoned in Kuala Lumpur on September 11, was released yesterday morning, according to a spokesman for Reviewpublisher Dow Jones. “My spirits are in good shape and I managed to come out in one piece,” Hiebert told Canadian TV from Hong Kong (as quoted by Reuters).