China shuts down internet reporting as Xi’s sensitivity begins to resemble lèse-majesté
On July 1, popular internet portal Tencent, in its original news reporting section, published an article on a speech that President Xi Jinping gave the same day at a conference celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. One line of the article read, “Xi Jinping outburst an important speech.” To…
China sentences Hong Kong publisher, editor
New York, July 26, 2016-The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the convictions and prison sentences by a mainland Chinese court of Wang Jianmin and Guo Zhongxiao, the publisher and editor, respectively, of two Hong Kong magazines, alongside an editorial assistant and the publisher’s wife.
Two Congolese journalists held by police for critical reporting on military
New York, July 15, 2016 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arbitrary detention of two radio journalists in the Ituri district of Oriental Province in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and calls on Congolese officials to release them both immediately.
China’s information and internet controls will only tighten under Xu Lin
When the new director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Xu Lin, issued on July 3 a warning that websites not report unverified content drawn from social media without facing possible punishment, it was clear that Beijing would move quickly beyond the Lu Wei era of information control. The announcement demanded that news websites provide…
CPJ calls on Merkel to use Kyrgyzstan visit to secure Askarov’s release
CPJ calls on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to use her upcoming visit to Kyrgyzstan to call on officials there to release the imprisoned journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov. The U.N. Human Rights Committee found in April 2016 that Kyrgyzstan is obligated to free Askarov, quash his conviction, and pay him compensation for unjust imprisonment. Chancellor Merkel is scheduled to visit Kyrgyzstan on July 13 and 14.
CPJ joins call for Kyrgyzstan to release jailed journalist Azimjon Askarov
On July 11, the Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court will hear a petition for the release of Azimjon Askarov, a journalist and human rights defender who is serving a life sentence in prison. This week, CPJ and Human Rights Watch jointly called on Kyrgyzstan authorities to fully abide by an April 21 ruling by the U.N. Human…
TV station staff who produce satirical news shows arrested in Algeria
New York, June 27, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the arrest of two senior staff at a privately owned television station in Algeria on June 24. Mahdi bin Issa, the manager of KBC, and Riyadh Hartouf, a producer, face charges of falsifying permits and complicity in abuse of position, and were ordered…
Vietnamese jailed blogger moved to distant province, wages hunger strike
On May 7, my uncle, imprisoned Vietnamese blogger Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, was unexpectedly moved from the Xuyen Moc prison camp situated near our family in Ho Chi Minh City to another detention facility about 1,500 kilometers away known as Camp No. 6 in central Nghe An province. His family was not informed in advance…
Two Chinese writers sentenced for ‘subversion’
New York, June 16, 2016 – Chinese authorities should release Lü Gengsong and Chen Shuqing and drop all charges against them stemming from their writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The two were individually sentenced to more than a decade in prison on “subversion” charges today, according to press reports.
World Refugee Day: Fear of arrest drives journalists into exile
In August 2014 two journalists living more than 4,000 miles apart slipped across a border to find safety: one with his wife and three children, the other alone. Idrak Abbasov, from Azerbaijan, and Sanna Camara, from Gambia, faced imprisonment because of their reporting. Neither has been able to return home.