Singapore blogger: ‘I have been waiting’ for government backlash
EDITOR’S NOTE: This week, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong demanded an apology from a critical blogger who has allegedly accused him of corruption. Roy Ngerng Yi Ling, who is also a healthcare worker, has frequently posted critical commentary on the ruling People’s Action Party on his blog, The Heart Truths.
Media squeezed in Thai military coup
Bangkok, May 22, 2014–Thailand’s military-led National Peace and Order Maintaining Council today seized administrative power in a coup and ordered local broadcast media to halt regular programming and local satellite and cable service providers to block international news channels, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the military-imposed censorship and calls for an…
Saudi censorship blurs lines between journalism, activism
Since the surprise Arab uprisings of 2011, the Saudi government has worked assiduously to ensure it has all the tools of censorship it needs to control dissent. These tools–a combination of special courts, laws, and regulatory authorities–are starting to fire on all cylinders. The result has been a string of arrests and prosecutions in recent…
CPJ concerned by EU court ruling censoring search engines
San Francisco, May 13, 2014 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by today’s ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which holds that Internet search engines can be compelled to remove “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” links about an individual, even if the content at the link…
Somaliland authorities arrest two journalists
Nairobi, May 12, 2014–A regional court in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland remanded two journalists into custody on Saturday after charging them with libel, false publication, and anti-state propaganda, according to news reports and the local Somaliland Journalists’ Association. Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, chairman of the Haatuf Media Network, and Ahmed Ali, chief editor of the…
Rousseff to CPJ: ‘Brazil committed to fighting impunity’
“The federal government is fully committed to continue fighting against impunity in cases of killed journalists,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told a CPJ delegation during a meeting on Tuesday in Brasilia, the country’s political capital. Accepting that deadly violence against the media is a detriment to freedom of the press, Rousseff said her administration will…
SABC betrays South Africa’s young democracy
This week, South Africans go to the polls for their fifth democratic elections since 1994, but despite constitutional guarantees of media freedom, the vast majority of South Africans who vote will do so informed only by the positive news and information carried by a public broadcaster widely criticized for its partiality to the ruling party.
Video: CPJ warns of impunity in Iraqi Kurdistan
On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its concerns over the press freedom climate in Iraqi Kurdistan at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. where we launched our special report, “Mountain of impunity looms over Kurdistan journalists.” You can watch a video of the press conference here.
CPJ disturbed by new bill to restrict blogging in Russia
New York, April 22, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Vladimir Putin to veto a new bill that would subject popular bloggers to the same restrictions as traditional media in Russia. The bill was approved by Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, in a final reading today.