Censored

The blocking of YouTube in China is “inconsistent with the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression,” the Global Network Initiative said in a statement today. CPJ is a member of the Initiative, a coalition of information and communications companies, human rights organizations, academics, and investors that resists government censorship worldwide.

New York, March 18, 2009–Chinese public security officials in northwest Gansu province should release two Tibetan journalists detained in the past month or charge them with an offense, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

Dear Mr. Michel: Your planned trip to Havana this week coincides with the sixth anniversary of Cuba’s massive crackdown on independent journalists and dissidents. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to urge Raúl Castro’s government to release the 21 journalists still jailed in Cuban prisons and extend the internationally guaranteed right of free expression to all Cubans.

New York, March 13, 2009–Amid widespread civil demonstrations and a growing political crisis, Pakistan’s largest independent news broadcaster, Geo TV, was removed today from cable carriers in five major cities, Managing News Editor Azhar Abbas told CPJ. 

Has the Chinese government learned a public relations lesson from its handling of the unrest in Tibet last year? 

New York, March 10, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Saturday’s ransacking of a TV and radio broadcaster by security forces in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. The raid was part of ongoing government efforts to censor independent media coverage of political unrest, stemming from a bitter power struggle between opposition leader Andry Rajoelina…

New York, March 9, 2009–Chinese authorities in Tibet should open the region to foreign journalists and release imprisoned Tibetan journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule.

In a ruling issued on January 9, 2009, the state-run media regulator, the High Communication Council, suspended from circulation the private daily Le Citoyen for one month for allegedly violating journalism ethics, according to news reports and local journalists.  

The Sudanese weekly Al-Maidan was not issued on February 10, 2009, because of official censorship, Abdul Qadir Muhammad, a reporter for the newspaper told CPJ in an e-mail. Muhammad wrote that the Sudanese security staff responsible for censorship omitted six articles and the banner headline on the front page and at least 10 articles in…

This week in the mountain Kingdom of Swaziland, the state-owned daily Swazi Observer reported that an official has apologized for summarily dismissing a female reporter from Parliament nearly two weeks ago. It was the latest in a controversy sparked by allegations of gender discrimination against Mantoe Phakathi, an award-winning journalist with the private monthly The…