No spring in China, but are the media heading for a fall?
Here’s a quick toss to a video posted on YouTube by Australian Broadcasting’s reporter Stephen McDonell. He and his crew decided to confront some Chinese security types (not surprisingly they didn’t identify themselves) who had been following them in Wenzhou while reporting in China. The team was covering religion, including underground or “house” churches–those not…
One media executive killed in Honduras, another wounded
New York, May 25, 2011– In two recent shooting attacks, a Honduran media owner has been killed and a newspaper manager wounded. Honduras authorities must put an end to the record level of violence against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Uganda police raid private newspaper, arrest four
New York, May 25, 2011–Police raided the offices of the independent, Luganda-language weekly, Gwanga, Tuesday, arresting two senior editors and two other staff members on criminal libel charges, local journalists told CPJ. Twelve officers came to their offices in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, arresting Managing Editor Kizito Sserumaga, Coordinating Editor Alex Lubwaga, reporter…
From a Cuban youth movement, to journalism, to jail
I joined the political civilist youth movement in 1991. Curiously, what I remember most from that period is how my apprehensions led me to disguise myself with a hat and glasses when traveling from my town of Artemisa to Havana to meet with other activists. These feelings of fear, defenselessness, and even blame, are common…
Syrian Facebook users develop strategies against online threats
Jennifer Preston in the New York Times reports on some stories that we also have been hearing from Syrian Internet use. She documents incidents of passwords extracted by force, and the deliberate defacing of social networking pages by security forces, apparently in order to sabotage reports of unrest from that country. A man in his…
Violent media intimidation in Yemen and Bahrain
New York, May 24, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the governments of Yemen and Bahrain to end all intimidation and harassment of and physical violence against journalists. In Yemen, on Saturday, a journalist was attacked and repeatedly stabbed by unidentified assailants. In Bahrain, the authorities continue to detain and abuse journalists.
Exiled Somali journalists rally around wounded colleague
Hassan Mohamed, nicknamed “Jaeyl” by his colleagues, used to be a jack-of-all-trades for Somalia’s first independent broadcaster, HornAfrik. He was a journalist, a producer, and a librarian. He was even a dramatist. His most powerful professional role was keeping HornAfrik running when most senior staff members fled the country, fearing for their lives.
Threats, security in Afghanistan: Some responses
Last Friday’s post, “After bin Laden, a warning to foreign journalists,” generated several responses from Western journalists in Kabul. I also did two lengthy interviews on Monday with the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of America, and fielded questions from several other news outlets.