2010
Google’s Chinese wake-up call
On Monday, Google made good on its promise to stop censorship of its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, by rerouting viewers to its unfettered Hong Kong site. According to the company’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, the move was “a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information…
Media in Leogane devastated
Of the 12 radio stations in the city Leogane, south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, only five are back on the air more than two months after the earthquake. Most stations were seriously damaged and several broadcasters are struggling to restore transmission, the head of the Leogane Press Association (APL), Julmane Saint Fort, told CPJ. Saint…
Ruling obstructs Belarusian Association of Journalists
New York, March 23, 2010—The Belarusian Supreme Court has upheld a government order that will obstruct the work of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the country’s most prominent press freedom and media support organization. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the ruling, which was handed down Monday.
Circumventing India’s radio news ban
Violence against provincial journalists, self-censorship, and the rise of paid news were the leading press freedom concerns cited by editors and journalists that I met with during my recent visit to India. But for Shubhranshu Choudhary, known as Shu, it’s the ban on radio news that most concerns him. He believes the ban is fueling India’s long-simmering Maoist insurgency,…
Philippine editor Vitug receives series of death threats
New York, March 23, 2010—The Philippine government must vigorously pursue its investigation into a series of death threats received by Marites Dañguilan Vitug, editor-in-chief of the online news outlet Newsbreak, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Colombian journalist shot dead by unidentified gunman
New York, March 22, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Colombian authorities to fully investigate the death of journalist Clodomiro Castilla Ospino, left, who was shot on Friday by an unidentified gunman in the northern city of Montería, according to local press reports.
In bad company: Kazakhstan takes page from Belarus
Belarus has been termed Europe’s last dictatorship because of its long intolerance of dissent and press freedom. So accustomed is the world to the clampdowns of President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime that neither a recently issued decree on Internet access, which requires that providers record users’ personal data, nor last week’s police raids at a number…
At least 5 Ugandan journalists wounded covering protest
New York, March 19, 2010—At least five journalists were wounded while covering violent clashes between security personnel and protesters outside the capital, Kampala, on Wednesday. Scores of protestors and mourners came to Kasubi, a Kampala suburb, after a fire of unknown origin destroyed the historically significant royal tombs of the Buganda kingdom on Tuesday.