Obama, Clinton acknowledge World Press Freedom Day
Barack Obama first addressed press freedom as a global issue back when he was visiting his father’s native Kenya as a senator in 2006. “Press freedom is like tending a garden, it’s never done,” Obama told reporters in Nairobi after a recent Kenyan government crackdown on the press. “It continually has to be nurtured and…
Attacks on the Press in 2008: China
In the year of the “One World, One Dream” Olympics, China’s punitive and highly restrictive press policies became a global issue. International reporters who arrived early to prepare for the Games flocked to cover antigovernment riots in Tibet and western provinces in March and the Sichuan earthquake in May. They encountered the sweeping official interference…
A twisting road to Canada for a Chinese journalist
From his prison cell, veteran Chinese journalist Jiang Weiping wrote a poem to his daughter, Jennifer, which included the lines: “Though the road home has many twists and turns / Your daddy believes that we will be reunited soon.” She was little more than 10 years old when he was imprisoned in 2000 for reporting…
Olympics: Media control at work
China’s media response to the story of the stabbing of two Americans was standard procedure: The government took charge of a sensitive story and determined what would be said. Hong Kong reporters might break new ground, but look at the mainland’s media coverage (here’s Kristin Jones’s analysis) and the only story you will see is…
Olympics: Dissidents’ spouses face great strain
Amid the fanfare of the Olympic opening ceremony today, a press release from Human Rights in China highlights pressure on dissidents and their families as Chinese authorities try to quash anything that threatens to disturb the long-awaited Games. Police are watching jailed journalist Lu Gengsong’s wife and daughter, and they told the wife of recently…
Olympics: CPJ urges Bush to highlight jailed journalists
CPJ wrote an open letter to President Bush today, calling on him to raise the issue of China’s jailed journalists when he gets to Beijing. We put the current number of journalists behind bars at 26, which makes China the largest jailer of journalists in the world, the dubious distinction it has held since 1999.…
CPJ urges Bush to raise concern about jailed Chinese journalists
Dear President Bush, We are heartened to hear that on Thursday, before embarking for Beijing to attend the Olympic opening ceremony, you will deliver a speech in Bangkok reiterating U.S. commitment to press freedom and other human rights. The Associated Press, which reported on the prepared text of your speech, also said that you are expected to raise these issues with China’s leaders once you arrive in Beijing.
Chinese media stifled as Tibetan unrest continues
New York, March 18, 2008—With international attention focused on the unfolding violence in Tibet, the Chinese media are confronting massive censorship, leaving the Chinese public largely in the dark, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Chinese government has barred or expelled virtually all international reporters from the region, and the state media presents…