Men in police uniforms abduct and beat Pakistani journalist
New York, September 8, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Pakistani government to thoroughly investigate the kidnapping and beating of Umar Cheema, a correspondent of the English-language daily The News in Islamabad. Men in police uniforms seized Cheema while he was driving in a suburb of Islamabad on Saturday, according to local and international media reports.
TV anchor stabbed to death outside his Kabul home
New York, September 7, 2010–A well-known TV anchor was found stabbed to death outside his home in Kabul on Sunday, according to international news reports. Sayed Hamid Noori worked for the state network Radio Television Afghanistan and was active in the National Union of Afghan Journalists. In 2004, he served as the spokesman for an opponent…
Kidnapped Japanese freelancer released in Afghanistan
New York, September 7, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the weekend release of Japanese freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka, who spent more than five months in captivity in Afghanistan. Tsuneoka’s kidnappers released him to the Japanese Embassy on Saturday night and he returned to Japan on Monday, according to local and international news reports. He…
Pakistani union appeals for flood-affected journalists
The Pakistani Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) is appealing to the international community, media workers, and human rights organizations to support journalists affected by the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history. PFUJ has compiles a list of some 230 affected journalists, citing at least 213 who have had their homes washed away in the floodwaters, and journalist Asma…
Malaysia power firm can’t take joke, prosecutes blogger
New York, September 2, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Kuala Lumpur to drop a criminal charge against blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman. He was charged today with “intent to hurt” in connection with a satirical entry on his blog, nose4news, that made fun of Malaysia’s state-run power company Tenaga, news accounts said.
What should journalists know about BlackBerry fights?
The discussions between Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, and governments such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India continue to hit the headlines. In each case, disagreements center on providing customer communications to security and law enforcement services. The rumblings from these nations over monitoring powers aren’t just limited to RIM:…
Global Voices Advocacy: Great Firewall of China Upgrade?
Oiwan Lam reports widespread disruption for users of Freegate, the popular circumvention software in China: According to the RFA report, users from several provinces across the country have encountered similar problem and they believe that it is due to the upgrade of Great Fire Wall. Apart from the Freegate, when running UltraSurf and FreeU the…
Indonesian TV journalist killed covering clashes
New York, August 24, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on police in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku today to thoroughly investigate Saturday’s death of journalist Ridwan Salamun, who was killed while covering violent clashes between local villagers.
Despite fatal shootout, Philippines officials meet with CPJ
About 18 hours after eight hostages and the gunmen holding them in a tourist bus were killed in a shootout with police in the heart of Manila, officials broke away from the demands of the moment to meet with a CPJ delegation in the president’s offices at Malacañang Palace. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was…