2015
How Sri Lanka’s new president can ease decade of repressive press measures
The stunning defeat of Sri Lanka’s incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa by challenger Maithripala Sirisena on Friday has given way to questions about what changes, if any, will come for press freedom in a country that had grown deeply repressive under the previous leadership.
German daily firebombed over Charlie Hebdo cartoons
On January 11, 2015, attackers firebombed the offices of the German daily Hamburger Morgenpost, in Hamburg, northern Germany, in apparent retaliation for the tabloid’s reprinting of several cartoons from the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on its front page, according to news reports. The press reported that arsonists threw a firebomb and stones through a…
With new round of journalist detentions, prosecutions, Iran continues to silence press
New York, January 9, 2015–A new wave of arrests and prosecutions has been carried out by Iranian authorities in the past month, cementing the country’s status as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
In Vietnam, arrests dash hopes that crackdown on bloggers will end
What one hand gives, the other takes in Vietnam. Last October’s early release of jailed blogger Nguyen Van Hai, more commonly known as Dieu Cay, has proven to be an anomaly as authorities have subsequently ramped up their repression of other independent bloggers.
News rationed as Venezuela seeks to control newsprint imports
Venezuelan newspapers have traditionally handed out hundreds of courtesy copies in their lobbies and at hotels. But Correo del Caroní, an independent daily in the industrial city of Ciudad Guayana, treats every edition as if it were precious and now gives away just 14 copies, including one to the owner.
Gambia radio station censored, director harassed after foiled coup
Abuja, Nigeria, January 8, 2015–An independent radio station that Gambian authorities ordered to stop broadcasting from January 1 to 4 after a failed coup attempt in the country has been allowed back on air, but ordered to play only music, according to news reports and local journalists.
Yemeni journalist killed in explosion
New York, January 8, 2015–A television correspondent was killed in the Yemeni city of Dhamar on January 4 when a bomb exploded while he was covering attempts by Houthi militiamen to defuse it, according to news reports. Khaled al-Washli, a correspondent for the Houthi-owned Al-Masirah TV, was one of at least six victims killed by…
Charlie Hebdo attack unites France on free expression, but will solidarity hold?
The attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has sent shock waves through France and beyond. Not only because 12 people have been killed in cold blood and many were wounded in what was the deadliest terrorist attack in France since 1961, when right wingers bombed a train killing 28 people. Not only because,…
Gunmen attack Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, kill at least 12
Brussels, January 7, 2015–Heavily armed and hooded gunmen attacked the Paris office of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo today, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 11, in the worst attack on the media since the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines.