Asia

Taiwan’s media continued to operate with little interference in 2003, though the conviction of a reporter on charges of revealing state secrets renewed an ongoing debate about the importance of national security concerns versus press freedom.

For the last two years, Thailand’s powerful and freewheeling media have been reeling from the effects of a popular and savvy prime minister who seems intent on using his absolute majority in Parliament to control the press. The process has been as subtle as it has been painful, with journalists saying that most pressure is…

Tonga’s small media sector suffered a major assault in 2003 from the monarchy of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. One of the country’s few independent news outlets, Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), was banned for much of the year, and in October the government passed an amendment that weakens constitutional guarantees of free speech.

The U.S. media went to war in 2003, with both embedded and independent reporters pouring into Iraq to cover the U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath. U.S. officials called the invasion the best-covered conflict in history, but it was also one of the most deadly for journalists. All told, 19 reporters died while working in Iraq,…

The already dire situation for Vietnamese journalists deteriorated in 2003, with attacks increasing against reporters covering crime and corruption. Those who used the Internet to distribute independent news and opinion faced harsh prison sentences and increasing surveillance. The traditional media remained under the tight regulation of government censors.

There were 138 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2003 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is the same as last year. An analysis of the reasons behind this is contained in the introduction on page 10. At the beginning of 2004, CPJ sent letters of inquiry to…

New York, March 10, 2004—Authorities in Beijing interrogated three reporters from the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily newspaper yesterday and then deported them to Hong Kong, according to a spokesman for the paper. Apple Daily is the second-largest Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. Early on the morning of March 9, security officials arrived at the journalists’…

Dhaka, March 5, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called upon the government of Bangladesh to vigorously investigate and prosecute all those who murder, assault, or threaten the country’s journalists, in order to end a long cycle of violence against the media and enable journalists to do their jobs safely. During a press conference…

New York, March 3, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s attack on the offices of Geo television in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan Province. On March 2, about 20 rioters broke into the offices of the private Geo television station and set fire to administrative records, newspapers, and other materials, according…