Asia

  
A journalist photographs soldiers patrolling a street following riots in New Delhi, India, on February 27, 2020. At least a dozen journalists were attacked or harassed covering the riots. (AP/Altaf Qadri)

Journalists harassed, attacked while covering Delhi riots

More than a dozen journalists were harassed or physically attacked while covering riots that broke out in northeast Delhi in late February 2020, according to news reports and journalists and their colleagues, who spoke to CPJ.

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Newspapers are seen in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 20, 2018. The Pakistan government recently suspended advertising to two independent media groups. (AFP/Rizwan Tabassum)

Pakistan government suspends advertising in 2 independent media groups

Washington, D.C., March 2, 2020 — Pakistani authorities should grant government advertising to outlets without regard for their editorial stances, and should lift the suspension of advertising in the Dawn and Jang media groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A journalist uses a phone to take photos during a National People's Congress press conference in Beijing in March 2019. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China annual survey finds conditions for the foreign press deteriorated in 2019. (AFP/Wang Zhao)

China uses visa process to intimidate foreign press, FCCC survey finds

Conditions for foreign correspondents in China deteriorated in 2019, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) annual survey found. The report, published today, noted that for a second year none of the respondents gave a positive response when asked if conditions had improved.

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Jimmy Lai, founder of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, leaves a police station in Hong Kong on February 28, 2020 after being held over his participation in a pro-democracy protest. Lai's independent media house has been harassed for its pro-democracy stance. (The Initium Media via AP/Lam Chun Tung)

Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy media founder Jimmy Lai over illegal assembly

Taipei, February 28, 2020–Authorities in Hong Kong should drop legal charges against Jimmy Lai, founder of Next Media, and stop harassing journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Demonstrators opposing a new citizenship law throw pieces of bricks towards riot police and those supporting the law during a clash in New Delhi, India, on February 24, 2020. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering protests in India

Also available in हिंदी में and اردو میں Demonstrations are continuing across India following the introduction of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019, as reported by The Guardian. Violence has escalated with at least four people killed yesterday, and at least 10 people killed and over 150 injured today, according to news…

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A police officer is seen at the office of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Chennai on November 9, 2019. BJP officials recently incited a harassment campaign against journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani. (Reuters/P. Ravikumar)

Indian journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani receives death threats after BJP officials share edited video

New York, February 24, 2020 — Bharatiya Janata Party officials must cease inciting online harassment against journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani, and Indian authorities should ensure that threats against journalists are taken seriously, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga is adjusting to life in the U.S. after authorities ordered her into forced exile as a condition of her early release from prison. Nga served three years of a nine-year sentence over her reporting. (Family photo)

Freedom at a high cost for Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga

When Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga was arrested by authorities on January 21, 2017, she did not know at the time it would likely be the last time she would ever be in her home in northern Ha Nam province.

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A man reads at a stand of the Israeli technology firm NSO Group at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. WhatsApp has alleged the group's technology enabled the remote surveillance of members of civil society via their phones, with several Indian journalists among the targets. (Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke)

After WhatsApp spyware allegations, Indian journalists demand government transparency

In the summer of 2019, Saroj Giri was preparing a lecture on the panopticon—an 18th century system to surveil an entire prison from a single viewpoint—when a message lit up his phone. It was from WhatsApp, warning Giri that someone had tried to hack the popular messaging app to spy on his cell phone remotely.

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Journalist Valley Rose Hungyo sits at her dinner table in her home in Manipur, India. Hungyo recently talked to CPJ about running the only newspaper for Nagas in Manipur. (CPJ/Aliya Iftikhar)

Journalist Valley Rose Hungyo on running the only daily newspaper for Nagas in Manipur

Editor Valley Rose Hungyo founded the bilingual Tangkhul and English Aja Daily, the only daily newspaper among the Naga people in India’s northeastern Manipur state, in the early 1990s with her late husband. They saw a need for a Naga-language paper, amid a media scene in the state dominated by English and Manipuri outlets.

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Journalist Babie Shirin is pictured in the office of the Imphal Free Press newspaper. The chief minister of Manipur accused the publication of criminal defamation in relation to an article Shirin wrote in 2018. (IFP/Telheiba)

Manipur’s ex-journalist chief minister pursues Imphal Free Press for defamation

On the morning of February 1, instead of working on her usual assignments for the Imphal Free Press, journalist Babie Shirin drove with the newspaper’s publisher Mayengbam Satyajit Singh to a court on the other side of town. On arrival, they were arrested, then granted bail on a bond of 30,000 rupees (US$420) each. Their…

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