Asia

2019

  
A man reads a newspaper in Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu, in May 2015. Journalists in Nepal say proposed regulations and pressure from authorities are damaging press freedom. (AFP/Prakash Singh)

Nepal’s hard-fought press freedom at risk amid restrictive bills, government pressure

Last year, when Raju Basnet was covering landgrabs in the Nepali city of Lalitpur, he knew he was playing with fire. His reports in the weekly Khojtalas alleged that powerful people, including government officials, were involved in the scheme and Basnet had already received multiple warnings to back off the story. Despite this, Basnet told…

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A relative of one of the Maguindanao massacre victims addresses the crowd during a rally to call for justice in Quezon city, on December 18, 2019. A Philippines court today issued its verdict on the 2009 attack, in which 58 people, including 32 journalists and media workers, were killed. (AP/Aaron Favila)

Ten years for justice in Maguindanao case is too long: We can do better

Never Forget. This became the rallying cry among journalists, freedom of expression activists and human rights defenders as they demanded justice following the massacre on November 23, 2009 of 58 people in Maguindanao. The attack, in which 32 journalists and media workers were killed, was the single deadliest event for the press that CPJ has…

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CPJ
Covers of CPJ's 'Attacks on the Press' books. Starting in 1987, the annual publication acted as a database of press freedom violations. (CPJ/Mustafa Hameed)

CPJ deepens database of attacks on the press

He couldn’t have known it at the time, but when a Moroccan court sentenced editor Mohammed al-Herd on August 4, 2003, to three years in prison, he was emblematic of a new trend, one that would accelerate and continue to the present day.

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Indian paramilitary soldiers use their cellphones in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, on October 14, 2019 after the partial lifting of a communications lockdown in place since India's government downgraded the region's semi-autonomy in August. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

India uses opaque legal process to suppress Kashmiri journalism, commentary on Twitter

On August 10, 2018, the Indian government informed Twitter that an account belonging to Kashmir Narrator, a magazine based in Jammu and Kashmir, was breaking Indian law. The magazine had recently published a cover story on a Kashmiri militant who fought against Indian rule. By the end of the month, Indian police had arrested the…

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An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard on a road in Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city, on September 7, 2019. Since the government stripped the region of its limited autonomous status and imposed a communication blackout in early August, Kashmir’s news media has faced a deep existential crisis. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

Kashmir’s news media faces existential crisis amid restrictions, arrests

On August 5, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a strict communication blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after stripping the state of its limited autonomous status under the Indian constitution. A month later as the restrictions continued, CPJ India Correspondent Kunal Majumder traveled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, to speak to local…

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Indian security personnel check the identity of a motorist during a curfew in Srinagar on August 8, 2019, as widespread restrictions on movement and a telecommunications blackout are in place after the Indian government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

In Kashmir, obstruction, confiscated equipment, and hand-carrying stories and photos on flash drive

“You are from the press, you are not allowed,” a local Kashmiri news editor says Indian security forces told him yesterday at one of the dozens of checkpoints set up across the region.

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A market stall sells newspapers in Yangon, in June 2019. Journalists in Myanmar say their reporting is still met with legal action and censorship. (CPJ/Shawn Crispin)

From conflict zones to courtrooms, Myanmar’s journalists are under fire

Hopes for greater press freedom when Myanmar moved to quasi-democratic rule were quickly quashed with the jailing in 2017 of two Reuters reporters. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have their freedom again, but journalists and press freedom activists who met with CPJ’s Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin in Yangon in June said that…

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Journalists are seen in Hong Kong on July 7, 2019. The Hong Kong Journalists Association recently released a report showing a deterioration of press freedom in the special administrative region. (AP/Andy Wong)

Hong Kong Journalists Association finds government has done little to safeguard press freedom

The Hong Kong Journalists Association annual report, released on July 7, shows a deterioration of press freedom in the special administrative region as China toughens its “one country” policy.

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Newspaper vendors collect copies of the papers in Srinagar, in July 2016. The Kashmir Times, one of the oldest papers in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, is suffering under a nearly 10-year ban on government advertising. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmir Times feels the strain of government advertising ban

In a Q&A with CPJ, Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of Kashmir Times, talks about the impact a government advertising ban on the daily has had on the way its journalists are able to report the news.

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on May 15, 2019. In the wake of a deadly terror attack in Christchurch, tech regulation in the EU and Australia risks restricting journalism. (Yoan Valat/Pool Photo via AP)

In wake of Christchurch, tech regulation in EU and Australia risks restricting journalism

Terrorism has gone viral. The livestreaming on Facebook of the March attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that news reports said left more than 50 people dead was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks designed for the digital age. More than a dozen world leaders met in Paris last month to…

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2019