CPJ calls for investigation into murdered journalist
THAILAND: New York, August 6, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Thailand’s government to launch an independent investigation into the recent shooting death of Athiwat Chaiyanurat, a reporter with the Thai-language daily newspaper Matichon and a stringer for the army-owned Channel 7 television station. A local press freedom group said he had been threatened…
Olympics-China Media Watch: Nationalist fervor and the Olympics
Basketball star Yao Ming carried the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square today in the triumphant final leg of a relay fraught with protest. His long-legged saunter under the gaze of Mao’s portrait captured headlines in today’s Web news outlets, along with speculation about who will light the torch at the opening ceremony of the Games on Friday. Also…
Olympics: Dark skies for Games? Maybe ‘Sunshine Government’ can clear them
Yesterday, I posted two pieces that showed how China’s good intentions toward the media can go wrong, or never get under way in the first place. The first item described a Reuters report on new guidelines that had been handed down to the police about how to handle the media if an embarrassing demonstration should…
Olympics: An Olympian Challenge? Getting There
Visas into China have been hard to get since early this year, when new policies were instituted. The tighter restrictions had already hit me in late February, when I tried to get a tourist visa to visit my wife’s family in Beijing. I was in Hong Kong to launch the 2007 edition of CPJ’s annual…
Police in China detain, beat Japanese reporters; Reuters staffer threatened
Hong Kong, August 6, 2008—Reporters covering the aftermath of Monday’s attack on a border police outpost in Kashgar have been detained, beaten, and harassed, according to international news reports. Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported today that police in Kashgar dragged Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper’s Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a…
Philippine journalist shot, in critical condition
New York, August 5, 2008—Gunmen shot and critically wounded radio journalist Dennis Cuesta in the southern Philippines late Monday, according to news reports. Police told international reporters the shooting may be related to Cuesta’s aggressive broadcasts on crime and social issues. Two gunmen traveling by motorcycle fired several shots at Cuesta, a program director and…
Vietnamese authorities revoke seven journalists’ press credentials
New York, August 5, 2008—The Vietnamese government revoked the press credentials of seven local journalists from four newspapers, of which at least two had aggressively covered the controversial arrest of two journalists in May, according to local and international new reports. All seven of the accused journalists are forbidden to work while their press cards…
Olympics-China Media Watch: All the (good) news fit to print
All the news is excellent in China today. The Web site of Xinhua News Agency today leads by telling its audience: “Olympic dream brightens the world.” At the provincial levels, the news is equally good, but with a local angle. The Web site of the Southern media group reports that cooperation between south China’s Guangdong province…
Olympics: Police get rough in Kashgar
Police in Kashgar apparently didn’t get the message about new tactics for relating to the media. Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper’s Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for Nippon Television Network’s China general bureau, were slightly injured when police in Kashgar dragged them from…
Statement on police abuse of journalists in Kashgar
We issued this statement from Hong Kong after learning of reports today of the detention and beating of two Japanese reporters, Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper’s Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for the Nippon Television Network, and the harassment of Reuters reporter, Emma Graham-Harrison, in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang…