Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about your government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for last month’s attack on Tempo magazine. Moreover, we are disturbed that two of the journalists injured in the attack are now themselves in danger of arrest under Indonesia’s criminal libel laws. On March 7, Tempo…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the prolonged detention of South Korean photojournalist Jae Hyun Seok, who was arrested on January 17. Seok is expected to appear for a court hearing within the next few days, according to his family. Seok was arrested while photographing the exodus of 48 North Korean refugees…
Many reporters find themselves in a dilemma when the press comes under attack. Our pride, our institutional and tribal loyalties, all clamor for a retort. We may be the bearers of bad tidings, but we are not their cause. If the truth is inimical to you, we want to argue, assailing us will not alter…
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…
In many obvious ways, press conditions in Afghanistan in 2002 were far better than the year before, when virtually no local independent media outlets operated, and eight journalists were killed covering the U.S.-led military offensive that ended the repressive rule of the Taliban regime. During 2002, Afghan journalists produced some 150 publications in the capital,…
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from 19 months of house arrest on May 6 did nothing to improve conditions for the media in one of the world’s most repressive countries. More than seven months after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was freed with the help of a U.N. special rapporteur, the ruling State…
While Cambodia’s many boisterous newspapers are generally free from official sanction, the broadcast media remain captive to the political interests of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his allies. Because Cambodia has a low literacy rate and poor newspaper distribution outside the capital, Phnom Penh, the press there will not be completely free until restrictions on…
During the run-up to the 16th Communist Party Congress, which was held in November and marked the first orderly transfer of power in the party’s history, China’s leaders used the national media to launch a propaganda blitz reminiscent of Chairman Mao’s days. Throughout 2002, officials issued strict new guidelines to prevent any independent report- ing…