Q&A: Press Council of India’s Katju on media safety
Retired Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju is shaking things up at the Press Council of India, where he was appointed chairman in October. The statutory body, mandated to look at media freedom and address complaints against the print media since 1966, has often been criticized for ineffectiveness, its role limited to admonishing news outlets.
China’s jailed Uighurs: Out of sight, not out of mind
For the first time in more than a decade, China is not the world’s worst jailer of the press in CPJ’s annual census of imprisoned journalists. Among the 27 jailed in China, one group has seen a massive jump in imprisonments. In another first since CPJ began taking its census, more than half of those…
Six years later: Hayatullah Khan’s family calls for justice
Six years after the murder of journalist Hayatullah Khan, his brother Ahsan Ahmad Khan has asked CPJ to put pressure on the government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan to ensure that a special investigation carried out in September 2006 into the journalist’s death be released. (A copy of Ahsan Ahmad’s message can be found…
Pakistan should release investigation into 2006 death
Dear President Zardari: This week marks the six-year anniversary of the abduction of journalist Hayatullah Khan. We join his family in asking your government to release the report on the investigation into his death that was prepared by High Court Justice Mohammed Reza Khan in September 2006 under the orders of former President Pervez Musharraf.
Fiji’s journalists should not be censored
Dear Commodore Bainimarama: Five years after the military coup that brought you to power in Fiji, we note with concern the letter to you by Human Rights Watch and other organizations that was issued Friday. We would like to underscore their points on press freedom restrictions in Fiji.
CPJ calls on Pakistan to unblock BBC World News
New York, November 30, 2011–The All Pakistan Cable Operators Association must immediately unblock the BBC World News television channel in Pakistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Operators began censoring the channel Tuesday in response to a documentary they considered “anti-Pakistan,” and threatened to pull other foreign news channels, the BBC said.
Clinton must tread carefully in Burma
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets this week with Burmese President Thein Sein, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and senior ranking members of the military establishment, she conspicuously will not have the opportunity to meet with journalist Sithu Zeya. Sithu was detained by police after recording the impact of a bomb that…
Planners conference must strengthen Afghan media
New York, November 29, 2011–When delegates from more than 100 countries and international aid organizations meet in Bonn on December 5 at an international conference on Afghanistan’s future, they must alter their tactics and aim more to support the professionalization and safety training of the country’s emerging press corps, the Committee to Protect Journalists said…
