Xiao Qiang, a 2001 MacArthur Fellow, is executive director of Human Rights in China, a monitoring and advocacy organization based in New York and Hong Kong. Sophie Beach is Asia research associate at the Committee to Protect Journalists. NEW YORK — Last month, the Chinese government announced that some 45.8 million of its citizens had…
August 14, 2002, New York—Authorities in Vietnam will soon bring Internet essayist Le Chi Quang, 32, to trial on national security charges, according to CPJ sources. Quang has been in prison since February 21, 2002, when he was arrested for writing articles that criticized Vietnam’s border agreements with China. Officials from the Prosecutor’s Office informed…
August 6, 2002 Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Prime Minister’s Office Singh Durbar Kathmandu, Nepal Via facsimile: +997 1 227286 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent detention of Kishor Shrestha, editor of the Nepali-language weekly newspaper Jana Aastha. Although police claimed the detention was because of a July 31 article,…
New York, August 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent 11-year sentence handed down to activist Li Dawei for downloading and printing materials from the Internet. This is the longest sentence CPJ has documented for Internet-related activities in China. On July 24, 2002, the Intermediate Court in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, sentenced…
New York, August 1, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the recent attack on the office of the Tamil-language newspaper Dinamalar in Thanjavur, a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On the afternoon of July 30, about six people armed with wood sticks charged into the Dinamalar office and…
New York, July 24, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the deteriorating health of imprisoned journalist U Win Tin, one of Burma’s most prominent political prisoners. A former editor-in-chief of the daily Hanthawati and vice-chairman of Burma’s Writers Association, U Win Tin, 73, is currently serving the 13th year of a…
New York, July 23, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists has just learned that writer Nguyen Vu Binh has been released from Vietnamese police custody. Authorities, however, have summoned him for questioning each day since his detention on July 21. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Phan Thuy Thanh told reporters today that, “Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh has committed…
Bangladesh: TIPU SULTAN For Tipu Sultan, an award-winning free-lance reporter from Bangladesh, writing the truth almost cost him his life. On January 25, 2001, Sultan was abducted and savagely beaten by about 15 thugs wielding baseball bats, hockey sticks, and iron rods after producing an article accusing a local legislator of criminal activity. Joynal Hazari,…
New York, October 22, 2002–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will present its 2002 International Press Freedom Awards to four journalists–from Colombia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, and Eritrea–who have reported fearlessly on government malfeasance. They have survived brutal physical attack, endured death threats, defied criminal charges, and suffered imprisonment, all in reprisal for their work. The 12th…
New York, July 22, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the detention of writer Nguyen Vu Binh, who is currently being held incommunicado. At around 9 a.m. on July 20, police officers picked up Binh from his home in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, and brought him to the local precinct. Officers also searched his computer,…