Asia

  
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at a seminar on the safety of journalists in Colombo in December 2017. Despite Sri Lanka's commitments to address impunity, no justice has been secured in the cases of 10 murdered journalists. (AFP/Ishara S. Kodikara)

Lots of talk but little progress in Sri Lanka over journalist murders

It was the police line-up from hell. Forget all those “Law and Order” scenes where a victim stands anonymously behind a one-way mirror. Sri Lankan journalist Namal Perera had to stand eyeball-to-eyeball with 42 army intelligence officers in April, each of whom, Perera explained to me while demonstrating his fiercest tough-guy glare, faced him with…

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Press freedom oppressors, clockwise from left: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, and Donald Trump of the U.S. (Reuters/AFP/AFP/AP)

In response to Trump’s fake news awards, CPJ announces Press Oppressors awards

Amid the public discourse of fake news and President Trump’s announcement via Twitter about his planned “fake news” awards ceremony, CPJ is recognizing world leaders who have gone out of their way to attack the press and undermine the norms that support freedom of the media. From an unparalleled fear of their critics and the…

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Reuters journalists Wa Lone, left, and Kyaw Soe Oo, face up to 14 years in prison for their reporting in Myanmar. (Reuters/Antoni Slodkowski)

Myanmar must free Reuters journalists, drop investigation

Washington, D.C., January 8, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Myanmar authorities to cease all legal proceedings and release from jail two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, whose work involved reporting on conflict-ridden Rakhine state. The two were arrested December 12 on suspicions of violating Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act,…

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Residents gather at the site of a December 28 bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed at least one journalist. (AFP/Shah Marai)

At least one journalist killed in Kabul attack

New York, December 28, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned an attack today on a Shiite cultural center and office of the news agency Afghan Voice, in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least one journalist was killed and four media workers were injured in the attack, which killed more than 40 people and injured at least 80,…

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Residents ride electric scooters in a resettlement town in rural Shaanxi province. A journalist investigating a story at a hospital in the province says he was beaten by security guards. (Reuters/Sue-Lin Wong)

In China, hospital security guards beat reporter investigating claims of misconduct

Several security staff allegedly beat Shaanxi Broadcasting Corporation reporter Wang Yi, when he went to a public hospital in Shaanxi province on December 4, 2017 to report on claims of misconduct, according to news reports.

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, second left, meet during a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Nicolas Asfouri/Pool/AP)

Guards beat two journalists during South Korean president’s state visit to China

A group of Chinese security guards assaulted two South Korean journalists who were covering South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to a business fair in Beijing, on December 14, 2017, according to news reports.

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Two Reuters reporters arrested in Myanmar

Bangkok, December 13, 2017–Two Reuters reporters were arrested on Tuesday evening by police in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon, Reuters and other news outlets reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for the reporters’ immediate and unconditional release.

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Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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People pay tribute to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in a park near Hong Kong's Victoria Habour in July 2017. The journalist died a few months after China finally agreed to release him on medical parole. (AP/Vincent Yu)

In China, medical neglect can amount to a death sentence for jailed journalists

Four months after Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer shortly after his release from jail on medical parole, the writer and journalist Yang Tongyan died under similar circumstances in a Shanghai hospital. Like Liu, Yang had been seriously ill for several years, but Chinese authorities granted him medical parole only three months before…

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Indian paramilitary soldiers and a policeman, second from left, guard a checkpoint during a strike to mark International Human Rights Day in Srinagar, India, on December 10, 2017. State police arrested french filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards on December 9, in Srinagar while he was shooting a documentary on people injured by pellet guns. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

French documentary filmmaker arrested in Kashmir

New Delhi, December 12, 2017– Authorities in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state must immediately release French documentary filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards from custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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