Is Taiwan’s media independence under threat?
As business relations develop between China and Taiwan, concerns are growing that Taiwan’s media freedom may be compromised. The culprits include some journalists themselves, promoting China to preserve their own business interests, and Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) government, apparently attempting to exert control over the media through legislation.
China limits reporting on Egypt unrest in favor of ‘harmony’
Chinese information authorities are filtering results of Chinese-language Internet searches for “Egypt” and “Cairo,” according to Global Voices Online and The Wall Street Journal. The unrest raging there could prompt comparison with the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 or incite anti-government demonstrations.
Combating impunity, from commitment to action
This afternoon we sent out a press release announcing a $100,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support CPJ’s Global Campaign Against Impunity. The campaign enters its third year in 2011, having achieved some significant successes, including high-level commitment to prosecute the killers of journalist in the Philippines and Russia.…
Suspect says he was hired to silence broadcaster
Police in the southern Philippine province of Palawan have an unusual head start in their investigation of Monday’s murder of radio broadcaster Gerardo Ortega. They apprehended the assassin at the scene, with the help of local firefighters and bystanders, and an unusual amount of information about the killing is already in the public domain.
In China, Kristof’s blogs are shut down
Nicholas Kristof’s Sunday column in The New York Times documents the latest in a series of tests the journalist has performed in Chinese cyberspace. The conflicting results he achieved while setting up a Chinese-language blog and micro-blog demonstrate how difficult it is to judge what censors will permit in an online space.
In Chinese media, ‘a lot to be done’ is left unsaid
It is fair to report, as Agence France-Presse and others did today, that Chinese media largely avoided President Hu Jintao’s comments on human rights during a Washington press conference on Wednesday. But the nature of the omission is significant. Chinese reports acknowledged that a discussion of human rights took place between Hu and U.S. President…
Washington reporters press China’s Hu on human rights
Thanks to Ben Feller and Hans Nichols for raising questions about China’s human rights and press freedom record. A lot of Chinese journalists are grateful, too. When we urged U.S. President Barack Obama last week to raise press freedom concerns in his meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, we received no response. But when Feller of…
Flawed, but important: The Danny Pearl case revisited
It’s good to see that not everyone has forgotten about the Danny Pearl case. The Pearl Project, a three-year investigation carried out by a team of American journalists and students at Georgetown University says that the Pakistani government’s conviction of the four men it claimed beheaded Pearl sometime in February 2002, were convicted on conflicting…
Lasantha–journalist, activist, citizen–deserves justice
On January 13, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Sri Lankan media his government had no evidence to continue an investigation into the murder of Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickramatunga. Rajapaksa made this comment in response to a question raised by Lasantha’s brother Lal in the presence of about 60 media personnel, including editors, publishers and government…
In Sri Lanka, press marks a bitter anniversary
In recent years, January has emerged as Sri Lanka’s cruelest month for journalists. To commemorate that ugly fact, 100 journalists and press freedom activists gathered Tuesday outside the Fort Railway Station in the capital, Colombo, demanding that the government expedite investigations into a series of attacks and January killings that occurred in both 2009 and…