The Burmese Internet on the eve of election
Burma tops CPJ’s “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger.” With the scheduled general election in the country approaching, there have been reports of growing interference with both local and exiled journalists. As Burma enters the final stretch of the campaign, CPJ’s senior South East Asia representative, Shawn Crispin, give me a brief summary of the…
Naming names in a Pakistan abduction case
CPJ has always been careful to avoid making accusations when journalists are abducted or killed in Pakistan. Our tactic is to call for full investigations either by the police, the courts or special investigative bodies. In many such cases, the local journalists’ community blames government security agencies, including the powerful Inter Services Intelligence group (ISI),…
Another blogger arrested in Vietnam crackdown
Bangkok, October 28, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest and detention of Vietnamese blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra. Her arrest is the latest episode in a mounting crackdown on bloggers leading up to a crucial Communist Party congress scheduled for January 2011.
Arnada’s Supreme Court appeal continues in Indonesia
Here’s a quick update on the Indonesian Supreme Court’s ongoing hearing to review its decision to sentence Playboy Indonesia editor Erwin Arnada to two years in jail for “public indecency.” It’s a case I’ve been following closely, because the outcome is an indicator of which direction Indonesia will be moving in the coming years –…
Internet Blotter
A powerful advocate for press and Internet freedom, Persephone Miel sadly passed away in June. The Pulitzer Center, in partnership with Internews, has launched a memorial fellowship in her name. How the Great Firewall of China breaks the global Internet: stories of Chinese re-routing and censorship affecting services in Chile, the US, and even the…
Protecting journalists from Firesheep
There’s been a great deal of coverage in the last day or so of Firesheep, a plugin for Firefox that lets you take over the Facebook and Twitter accounts of others on your local network. If you use Firesheep, you can pick one of the people on, say, the same open wireless at your nearby…
Journalists in Pakistan remain under threat
New York, October 25, 2010–Pakistan must take immediate steps to rein in police and government agencies that threaten reporters. Two cases in recent days–those of journalists Hafiz Imran and Umar Cheema–demonstrate how reporting on stories that are critical of the authorities can bring officials’ wrath down on reporters.