Asia

We issued the following statement in response to reports today from the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that imprisoned U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been pardoned and will be released:

The Committee to Protect Journalists is encouraged by news reports that former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to negotiate the release of two American television journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. They were convicted on June 8 of entering North Korea illegally and planning “hostile acts” and were sentenced to 12 years’…

While the general trend in China is toward a more open environment, there is a tendency toward “soft harassment” by police, who threaten retribution to sources and news assistants for helping foreign journalists rather than interfering directly with the journalists themselves. 

New York, July 27, 2009–Police in Mindanao must investigate the motive for today’s shooting murder of radio journalist Godofredo Linao and pursue those responsible, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

A group of political supporters attacked freelance photojournalist Jay Mandal at an election rally in Nandigram, West Bengal, India, on May 5, 2009, according to news reports and the New York-based South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). 

China Daily filed an appeal on July 2, 2009, challenging the Taiwanese government’s decision to revoke distribution rights of the Beijing-based English-language newspaper in Taiwan, according to international news reports. 

Social networking sites are under increasing pressure in China. Someone seems to have realized just how difficult they are to monitor when it comes to breaking news.

With elections due on August 20, pressure is mounting on Afghan journalists, and it’s coming from all sides. The International Federation of Journalists helped organize a meeting in Kabul last week to draw the fractious journalists’ community together; there are four or five competing organizations, all vying for recognition, dominance, and funding. In March, the…

In response to a report by The Associated Press saying that the agency’s Sri Lanka bureau chief Ravi Nessman left the country on Monday after the government refused to renew his visa, we released this statement…