Free Maziar Bahari: 100 global journalists petition Iran
Your Excellency: We are writing to express our grave concern at the detention of our esteemed fellow journalist Maziar Bahari and to request his immediate release. Mr. Bahari has been detained since June 21. No charges have been brought against him, and he has not been granted access to a lawyer. As one of the most impartial and committed journalists in his field, he has reported regularly over the past decade from the Middle East, principally from Iran and Iraq, and provided consistently balanced and insightful reports. As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, he has earned global respect for his work.
Looking at Tiananmen as a ‘development opportunity’
The English-language version of the state newspaper Global Times raised eyebrows on Tuesday with an article headlined, “Evolution of Chinese intellectuals’ thought over two decades.” The opinion piece included a quote from an academic referencing the “June 4 incident”–a departure for domestic, state-run media, which never refer explicitly to the peaceful demonstrations that were crushed…
China to intensify regulations for reporters
New York, February 13, 2009–China’s decision to establish a list of reporters who break reporting rules and prevent them from continuing to report or edit news is a cause for concern, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The decision to create a blacklist was reported in an article on the Web site of the…
In China, relaxed restrictions to expire
China’s decision to extend or end the eased restrictions on foreign journalists it put in place for the Olympics is almost a moot point. The decision is expected to be announced tomorrow, and in the past, officials have suggested the new rules will be extended. But a change in the rules will be largely irrelevant…
China unsure on reporting rules
At the Foreign Ministry’s weekly press conference today, Jiang Yu, the ministry’s spokeswoman, left hanging for now whether or not China will continue allowing foreign journalists to travel around China without asking permission from the government, or whether they will be allowed to interview anyone who agrees to speak with them. The new relaxed rules…
Olympics-China Media Watch: Re-education scrubbed from Web, mostly
Bob Dietz called attention to the Chinese propaganda department’s recent 21-point press directive, first reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. The whole thing in English and Chinese is posted today at Berkeley’s China Digital Times. Among the orders given to the domestic media during the Olympic Games is that they are not to report on…
Olympics-China Media Watch: The farmer’s fuel and the emperor’s clothes
Even with the world enthralled in the drama of the Olympic Games, the more basic struggles in the rest of China continue to quietly unfold. Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily) today published a long article with little apparent connection to the Olympics, a rarity these days. It is actually re-posted from Zhejiang Daily, and tells the story of a farming…