Pakistan / Asia

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…

Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…

Pakistani journalists have long navigated a treacherous course, threatened by militant groups, criminal gangs, political bosses, and powerful intelligence agencies, but the rest of the world scarcely noticed these dangers until the assassination of American reporter Daniel Pearl. Months after Pearl’s murder, another journalist was killed in Pakistan: Shahid Soomro. Like Pearl, Soomro was killed…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about a recent threat allegedly made by a senior official of the Punjab provincial government to the Weekly Independent—a Lahore-based, English-language newspaper. On March 10, Punjab home secretary Ejaz Shah reportedly telephoned Weekly Independent publisher, Ilyas Mehraj, and told him, “Enough is enough. The…

Guide for reporting in hazardous situations.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the brutal murder of Shahid Soomro, a correspondent for the Sindhi-language newspaper Kawish. Pakistani journalists fear that Soomro, who was based in the town of Kandhkot, Sindh Province, was killed in reprisal for his reporting on abuses committed during recent general elections held on October 10.

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express concern about the reported detention without charge of Sami Muhieddine Muhammad al-Haj, a 33-year-old assistant cameraman for the Qatar-based satellite television network Al-Jazeera.

In the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, journalists around the world confronted an unprecedented press freedom crisis.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to draw your attention to recent harassment of the well-known journalist Shaheen Sehbai, who is living in the United States, and his family members who are living in Pakistan.

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…