New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the politicized prosecution of Cambodian journalists and calls on Prime Minister Hun Sen to drop all criminal defamation charges against Mom Sonando, Kem Sokha, and Pa Guon Tieng. The prime minister ordered the men released on bail Tuesday to coincide with a visit by U.S.…
New York, January 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the well-being of dissident Internet writer Yang Tongyan (commonly known as Yang Tianshui), who was detained by plainclothes police in Nanjing late last month. Yang’s family has not been informed of any details of his case, including where he is being held…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrests and detentions of Cambodian journalists Mam Sonando, Hang Sakhorn, and Pa Guon Tieng. These detentions come as Cambodia wages an alarming campaign to stifle the voices of numerous government critics and human rights activists. In the cases of the three journalists, your government resorted to charges of criminal defamation to justify imprisonment.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to refrain from signing a bill before you that threatens freedom of the press and free expression by imposing harsh penalties for defamation. As you know, Prime Minister Mari bim Altakiri approved on December 6, 2005, a bill revising the penal code, which had been passed by the National Parliament. The penal code revisions now before you allow for up to three years imprisonment and unlimited fines for publishing statements deemed defamatory of public officials.
DECEMBER 15, 2005—JANUARY 5, 6, 2006 Yarl Thinakkurl Joy Jeyakumar, Veerakesari Namathu Eelanaadu HARASSED The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance said Tamil journalists were targeted several times for official harassment. The claims came at a time of rising tensions between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatist groups.
New York, January 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in India’s northeastern state of Assam to fully investigate the death of Prahlad Goala, who was apparently murdered on January 6. Goala had recently written a series of articles on corruption in the Assamese-language daily Asomiya Khabar that linked local forestry service officials…
New York, January 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Chinese authorities for censoring well-known blogger Zhao Jing, and is alarmed by Microsoft’s agreement to pull down his site. Zhao, whose online pen name is An Ti, lost his site on the U.S. company’s hosting service MSN Spaces on December 30 after he wrote…