Olympics

CPJ has set up a press freedom hotline for journalists in China covering the Olympic Games. At +852 6717 0591, the CPJ hotline will take calls in English or Mandarin from journalists facing censorship, threats, attacks, or other press freedom abuses. CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz, who is reporting from Hong Kong during the…

Coverage of today’s attack on a police station in Kashgar will be important to watch. The coming hours will determine if the government’s more liberal rules on foreign reporters’ travel will be observed or ignored. The policy–which ostensibly allows foreign media to travel and interview people freely–was put into place in January 2007 as part…

We released the following statement after news reports that two men attacked and killed 16 policemen in an apparent suicide attack in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region: “Journalists must be allowed to travel to Kashgar to report on this terrible incident. The world must not be forced to rely only on government-approved reports of…

Information about today’s attack on border police in the western Chinese city of Kashgar is coming almost entirely from the official Xinhua News Agency. What’s interesting is the huge difference in the agency’s own reports, depending on what language you’re reading. In English, the attack was a suspected act of terrorism by Uighur separatists. In…

Many Hong Kong papers ran a story about the ill-advised remarks of Regina Ip, the former secretary of security for Hong Kong, and a candidate in September’s elections for a seat in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco). Ip said the “neck-shoving” techniques used by Beijing police to roust Hong Kong reporters covering the July…

Last week’s dispute over Internet access for foreign reporters is still reverberating, only partially resolved. More Web sites have become available to reporters inside the Olympic Games’ Main Press Center and around the country, although plenty remain blocked (those perceived as being backed by the Falun Gong and those supporting Tibetan independence most notably). Amnesty…

The media is in the news. The official Xinhua News Agency chimes in on the fracas over Web access for foreign journalists in the Olympic press center. In a commentary headlined “Do not let ‘press freedom’ supersede Chinese law” Xinhua defends the government’s policy of blocking sensitive Web sites, repeating the justification Games spokesman Sun…

Facing massive outcry over Internet restrictions at the Olympic press center, the International Olympic Committee says it met today with Beijing organizers and that “the issues were put on the table.” In a statement issued this afternoon, the IOC says it has not made any deal that allows Internet restrictions to be imposed at the Main…

With the Olympics preparations crowding the headlines, news related to the deadly May earthquake in Sichuan province has faded. There is still plenty to report, including the recovery effort and the bitter resentment of grieving parents who believe that faulty construction played a role in their children’s deaths. But a search of recent Chinese news on the quake…

Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday stressed the importance of a secure Olympics, calling the responsibility as heavy as Mount Tai. But while Chinese media today reported on the new checkpoints guarding access to Tiananmen Square, no mention was made of a security measure on the minds of many visiting journalists. Olympic officials today admitted that…