Attacks on the Press 2009: Sri Lanka
Top Developments• Editor murdered, broadcaster bombed, reporters assaulted.• Columnist convicted of terrorism for his writing. Key Statistic 0: Number of convictions in 10 journalist murders since 1992. On May 19, the government formally declared a victory in its 26-year civil war with the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which had claimed territory for…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Thailand
Top Developments• Amid partisan conflict, media owner is target of failed assassination.• Heavily used lese majeste laws criminalize criticism of royal family. Key Statistic 2,000: Web sites blocked by government for violating lese majeste laws. Thai media were caught in the middle of a political conflict that entered its fourth year of destabilizing antigovernment street…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Vietnam
Top Developments• Bloggers face regular harassment and detention.• Government conducts extensive online censorship. Key Statistic 300: Number of cybercafés outfitted with software tracking visits to banned Web sites. While maintaining its tight grip on traditional news media, the government intensified its already significant controls over the Internet with new restrictions on content and heightened monitoring of…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Asia Developments
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2009 • Main Index ASIA Regional Analysis: • As fighting surges,so does danger to press Maguindanao: • Makings of a Massacre Country Summaries • Afghanistan • Burma • China • Nepal • North Korea • Pakistan • Philippines • Sri Lanka • Thailand • Vietnam • Other developments BANGLADESH India’s Border…
Protective bylines, and why they’re necessary
I’ve been writing a lot recently about the urgent need to protect journalists in Afghanistan and Pakistan (a string of links is at the bottom of this entry). While neither country has become as dangerous as, say, Iraq at the height of the conflict, conditions are getting more dangerous for reporters. And very often, it…
Amid crackdown, two blogs shuttered in Vietnam
New York, February 12, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Vietnamese government’s apparent shutdown of two politically oriented blogs, Blogosin and Bauxite Vietnam. The sites, both of which published critical perspectives on sensitive government issues, had been the targets of ongoing hacking, The Associated Press and the Agence France-Presse reported.
Japanese journalists under pressure: Kisha Clubs and stress
Katsuya Fujimoto and Shuichi Yutaka, the general secretary and the president of Shinbun Roren, the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions, sit at a table in their office in Tokyo’s Bunkyo-ku district amid a pile of papers. A software engineer with a media company and a journalist, each on two years’ leave, they are shuffling…
Feng Zhenghu home safe after Kafkaesque exile in Japan
Journalists, friends, and supporters of Feng Zhenghu, who I interviewed in Tokyo on Monday as he was about to end his involuntary exile in Japan, have been making full use of the Internet to document his arrival home in Shanghai’s Pudong Airport this afternoon.
Two journalists missing in Sri Lanka
New York, February 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the disappearance of two journalists in Sri Lanka. Chandana Sirimalwatte, chief editor of the Sri Lankan weekly newspaper Lanka, was detained by police around noon on January 30, according to his wife, Hemali Abeyratne, and staffers at the paper. Lanka e News journalist Prageeth…
Japanese investigative reporter challenges Kisha system
Yu Terasawa seems philosophical as he discusses plans for his fourth lawsuit against the Japanese state, which he says he plans to initiate next week. Lawsuits are a part of daily life for Terasawa, who has been at the forefront of Japan’s investigative journalism community for almost 20 years as a freelance reporter specializing in…