Thailand bans foreign correspondents club event, citing ‘national security’
Bangkok, May 3, 2017–Thailand’s ruling military junta banned a panel discussion event scheduled for today by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, marking the latest act of harassment against the club under military rule.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 30, 2017
Court overturns reporter’s terrorism conviction The Fourth Court of Appeals in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır today overturned its previous conviction of Bertitan Canözer, a former reporter for the shuttered JİNHA news agency, on charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” the news website Gazete Sujin reported. Police detained Canözer in December 2015…
Azerbaijan government seeks order to permanently block news websites
New York, April 28, 2017–The Azerbaijani government should immediately stop trying to permanently block access to five independent media outlets’ websites and should instead lift a decree that has rendered them currently inaccessible, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A district court in the capital Baku yesterday began hearing a government lawsuit that seeks…
Jammu and Kashmir state government censors 22 social media services
New York, April 26, 2017–Indian officials in the state of Jammu and Kashmir should immediately revoke a one-month ban on access to social media services, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The order, announced today, directed all internet service providers to block users’ access to 22 platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and YouTube,…
Fighting for the Truth
Journalists have a huge amount of work to do By Christiane Amanpour Never in a million years did I expect to find myself appealing for the freedom and safety of American journalists at home. Despite the hostile rhetoric of the U.S. presidential campaign, I hoped that after becoming president-elect, Donald Trump would change his approach…
Zone of Silence
The public is robbed of information when journalists are murdered By Robert Mahoney Journalist Avijit Roy founded the blog “Mukto-Mona,” or Free Thinker, as a forum for free expression and ideas that challenged the growing religious intolerance in his native Bangladesh. His blog for intellectual freedom cost him his life.
Eluding the Censors
For all its faults, Facebook is a lifeline for journalists in less developed countries By Karen Coates Squeezed between China and Vietnam, Phongsali is the northernmost province of Laos, a land of mountains, valleys and isolated villages that is home to more than 15 ethnic groups. As recently as a few years ago, news traveled…
Right Is Might
We have the laws and institutions to fight attempts at information control By David Kaye Yevgeny Zamyatin’s strikingly original 1920s Russian novel We gets read far less than its canonical English-language descendants, Brave New World and 1984. Yet George Orwell knew of and clearly drew from Zamyatin’s book in creating 1984. The homage-paying is obvious:…
Fiscal Blackmail
The Kenyan government withdraws advertising when newspapers step out of line By Alan Rusbridger In some parts of the world, it is still possible to silence a journalist with a sharp blow to the side of the head. But as newspapers the world over struggle with the financial disruption of digital technologies, governments are finding…