Myanmar / Asia

“Get that guy–he’s a reporter.” The order, shouted in Burmese amid the chilling sound of gunfire, can be heard in the preview of the new documentary, “Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country” by Danish filmmaker Anders Ostergaard. The preview also includes the now-notorious footage of a Burmese soldier fatally shooting Japanese cameraman Kenji Nagai…

“If nobody goes, then somebody has to go.” That, according to his editors at APF News, was the personal motto of fallen Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who until his tragic death had reported from conflict zones around the world. That journalistic drive put Nagai in the line of fire during Burma’s 2007 Saffron Revolution,…

“If nobody goes, then somebody has to go.” That, according to his editors at APF News, was the personal motto of fallen Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who until his tragic death had reported from conflict zones around the world. That journalistic drive put Nagai in the line of fire during Burma’s 2007 Saffron Revolution,…

China’s media-control model s being embraced in Southeast Asian nations as diverse as communist-led Vietnam, military-run Burma, ostensibly democratic Thailand, and predominantly Muslim Malaysia. By Bob Dietz and Shawn W. Crispin

Burma’s already beleaguered journalists came under heavy attack after massive Cyclone Nargis pounded the country’s southern coastal region in May, killing an estimated 84,500 people and severely affecting another 2.4 million, according to U.N. estimates. As local and international criticism grew over a slow and inadequate response to the natural disaster, the military junta intensified…

Also: See capsule reports on journalists in jail as of December 1, 2008 New York, December 4, 2008–Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found…

New York, November 21, 2008–A Burmese court sentenced entertainer, blogger, and activist Maung Thura–known by his stage name, “Zarganar”–to 45 years in prison today for violations of the Electronics Act, according to Burmese rights groups and international news reports. Sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, and two other defendants were also sentenced to at least 15…

New York, November 17, 2008–Amid a growing crackdown on political dissent and freedom of expression, a Burmese court on Friday handed down a two-year prison sentence to Eine Khine Oo, a journalist with the local weekly Ecovision Journal. 

New York, November 11, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the long prison sentence handed down by a Burmese court to blogger Nay Phone Latt, who has been held in detention since his arrest on January 29.

New York, September 23, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of U Win Tin, the longest serving political prisoner in Burma, and one of the world’s longest-jailed journalists. The 79-year-old former editor had at least two heart attacks and suffered from high blood pressure, a degenerative spine condition, and diabetes since his 1989…