Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator
Five-day ban for Al-Jazeera in India, one year after map error
On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera was forced off the air in India after the government demanded the Qatar-based news broadcaster be suspended for five days for broadcasting images of maps between 2013 and 2014 that did not display Pakistan-controlled Kashmir as separate territory.
Jailed journalist Gao Yu saw what was coming. So should the IOC
Gao Yu was right, I was wrong. Gao, who was handed a seven-year prison sentence in a Beijing court on Friday, and I met at a conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris in April 2008, a few months before the Beijing Olympic Games were to get underway. CPJ…
One year later: Hamid Mir on the attempt to kill him and what came next
Hamid Mir and I last saw each other in Islamabad in late January at a meeting of the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety. Mir, a senior anchor for Geo News, seemed as if he was on the road to recovery, but he was obviously still in pain from injuries he sustained during an assassination attempt…
How China uses J-visas to punish international media for critical coverage
In November 2013, delays and some outright refusals in issuing visas for foreign correspondents in China were making headlines. A few months later, in its March 2014 survey of members, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) described the situation as “grim.” An emailed report on results of the most recent survey (which can be…
Mission Journal: Finding a legal solution to siege of Pakistan’s media
Pakistan’s media, long under siege, face new challenges. “We had managed to get the genie out of the lamp,” was the way one Pakistani journalist explained it to me during a trip there last month. “But now, the military has pushed it back in and I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get it…
China’s long-distance tactic to suppress Uighur coverage
When we conduct the research for our annual list of jailed journalists, we rely on a range of sources. And we come across a lot of information that doesn’t always make it on to our list. With China once again the largest jailer of journalists–44 this year–our research team spotted several stories that deserve notice,…
In China, mainstream media as well as dissidents under increasing pressure
In 2014, a record number of journalists imprisoned in China was documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The 44 in prison this year is an increase from 32 in 2013, and is the largest figure for China since CPJ began tracking imprisoned journalists in 1990. In recent years, the generally rising numbers for China…
More threats against Pakistan’s Hamid Mir
The well-known and controversial Pakistani television talk show host Hamid Mir survived a murder attempt on April 19, even though he was hit with six bullets–two of which are still in his body. “I can move, I can walk and I can talk, but I am still undergoing physiotherapy and taking medication,” he emailed to…
Hong Kong’s media battlefield
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests are among the best covered in history. The city is saturated with print, broadcast, and social media, traveling across some of the best networks on earth. Its citizens are among the most connected in the world. And for all the media’s flaws, consumers expect them to deliver.
When it comes to the right to report, journalists must stand together
Pakistani journalists I have met over the years know that while I might be an American, I have never been an apologist for the U.S. government. The goal of the Committee to Protect Journalists is to assist members of the press no matter where they are, and if we have to criticize their governments, well…