Asia

  

The HRCP’s call to address threats against journalists

A quick pointer to a statement issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Monday: It said, in part, that “The HRCP is alarmed at reports of threats received by journalists on account of their work.” The commission asked the government to ensure that threats to journalists end and that risks associated with practicing…

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Sri Lanka’s woeful January way-points

For Sri Lankan journalists, January might be the cruelest month. In January 2011, Sonali Samarasinghe wrote about the death of her husband Lasantha Wickramatunga two years earlier on January 8, 2009. In January 2010 I reported in “Sri Lanka: A year later, still failing to fight media attacks” about the government’s inactivity in investigating Wickramatunga’s…

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Chinese online critic Chen Xi was sentenced to 10 months in prison in December. (Reuters)

Online writer imprisoned in China

New York, January 9, 2012–A 10-year prison term given to online critic Chen Xi last month is the latest severe sentence targeting dissenters in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Philippine journalist shot, killed in front of wife, daughter

Bangkok, January 6, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting death of Philippine radio commentator and community newspaper publisher Christopher Guarin and calls on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice quickly.

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Vietnamese police detain reporter who covered corruption

New York, January 4, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Van Khuong’s detention on Monday in Ho Chi Minh City on charges related to “giving bribes.” Khuong can be held in detention for as long as four months while authorities investigate his case, according to official statements.

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Pakistani journalists and CPJ award winners Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin in 1999. (Saeed Khan/AFP)

More revelations of threats to Pakistani journalists

We released a statement Thursday–CPJ supports Pakistani journalists facing threats–about the decision of two Pakistani journalists to publicly announce the threats they had been receiving. Najam Sethi, editor of The Friday Times and host of a popular Urdu-language political program on Geo TV, and Jugnu Mohsin, also a Friday Times editor, said they had lived…

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Sethi at CPJ offices earlier this year. (CPJ/Sheryl A. Mendez)

CPJ supports Pakistani journalists facing threats

New York, December 29, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists admires and supports the decision of Pakistani journalists Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin to make public the threats that have driven them at times to live outside their country in recent months. Sethi and Mohsin are returning to their home in Lahore and are determined to…

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Sites like this Facebook discussion group have been the subject of complaints to the Indian police by activists. (CPJ)

India struggles to cope with growing Internet penetration

As Internet penetration deepens, largely religiously and socially conservative India is struggling to cope with concerns about controversial web content and its easy accessibility to a vast population, all with little oversight. Local courts have become the launching point for some of the anti-Web offensives.

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Students are taken away from a Karachi seminary where they were found in chains. Producers from Samaa TV who broke the story have been threatened. (AFP/Asif Hassan)

‘Where is the state?’ asks Pakistani journalist under threat

Since making me aware of threats to Hamid Mir on December 20, Umar Cheema and I have been encouraging Pakistani journalists we know who are under threat to step forward with their own experiences. Ghulamaddin, producer for Samaa TV in Karachi who broke the story of students held in chains at a seminary, is coming…

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Chinese writer-dissident given nine years for online posts

New York, December 23, 2011 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns China’s harsh sentencing of online journalist and activist Chen Wei, who was handed a nine-year prison term on Friday for “inciting subversion.”

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