PHILIPPINES Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno told a visiting CPJ delegation in July that he would personally seek justice for the unsolved killings of journalists and use his judicial authority to better protect press freedom. “The fact that the killings remain unsolved heightens public distrust in our system of justice,” Puno told CPJ.…
SRI LANKA In May, senior journalist Iqbal Athas wrote to CPJ warning that press freedom conditions had deteriorated under President Mahinda Rajapaksa. By September, Athas, a well-known defense correspondent for The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka and a 1994 CPJ International Press Freedom Award winner, had to leave the country temporarily in fear for his…
THAILAND Fallout from the September 2006 military coup cast a chill over Thailand’s media throughout 2007, as the junta maintained martial law over nearly half the country’s provinces and used its discretionary powers to censor broadcast news, seize control of the country’s only privately run television station, and pass new legislation that severely curtailed free…
New York, February 4, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the recent release from prison of Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, an award-winning writer and journalist. Thuy, 47, had an unexpected trial before the Hanoi’s People’s Court on Thursday. She was sentenced to nine months and 10 days on charges of “causing public disorder” under Article…
See also: Journalists killed | Journalists abducted | Background reports The war in Iraq illustrated the dangers faced by people who work with journalists in supporting roles–as drivers, interpreters, fixers and guards. Here is a statistical look at media support workers killed in Iraq 2003-09. Capsule reports detailing each death are…
JANUARY 26, 2008 Posted February 1, 2008 Syed Jaymal Zahiid, Malaysiakini DETAINED, BEATEN Police arrested Syed Jaymal, a correspondent for the online news provider Malaysiakini, while he was covering demonstrators protesting high food costs in Kuala Lumpur. He was charged with obstructing a police officer, a criminal offense punishable by two years in prison and…
New York, January 31, 2008—As part of its ongoing campaign to urge China to adopt reforms promised when the International Olympic Committee awarded the country the 2008 Olympics, CPJ today delivered more than 500 advocacy cards to the Chinese Consulate in New York urging the government to release 29 jailed journalists. The IOC granted China…
Dear President Karzai: The Committee to Protect Journalists has been closely monitoring the case of Parwez Kambakhsh, the journalism student who was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by the provincial court in Balkh province. We are disturbed that the upper house of Afghanistan’s parliament gave their public support to this verdict today, according to The Associated Press and the BBC.
New York, March 11, 2008—Six people affiliated with the Sri Lankan news Web site OutreachSL have been detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan police force in Colombo since last week, according to Agence France-Presse and local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the government of Sri Lanka to charge…