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Sri Lankans are calling for a boycott of U.S. products after the U.S. sponsored the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into possible war crimes. (Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte)

Eknelygoda’s wife latest victim of Sri Lankan intolerance

On Thursday and Friday, we wrote about the ugly government backlash to last week’s U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into Sri Lanka’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists.

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(Reuters/Hugo Correia)

Portuguese police assault AFP photographer

This combination of pictures shows a policeman beating Agence France-Presse photojournalist Patricia de Melo Moreira during a Portuguese general strike in downtown Lisbon yesterday, according to Reuters. The strikers were protesting economic austerity measures. A number of Melo’s photos from the strike can be viewed on the Guardian’s website.

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Sri Lankan ruling party lawmakers demonstrate in front of the parliament against the U.N. Human Rights Council in Colombo Thursday. (Reuters)

Amid Sri Lankan denial, threats rise for journalists

In the wake of the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into Sri Lanka’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists, the government has resorted to outright threats of violence against journalists who might dare to return home after taking part in the Geneva discussions.

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Mali junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo, center, poses surrounded by fellow soldiers in Bamako Thursday. (AFP/Habibou Kouyate)

With coup, quiet #Mali generates noise on Twitter

Yesterday, while reporting on breaking news in Mali from studios in Atlanta, CNN Wire Newsdesk Editor Faith Karimi made an ominous observation that presaged the outcome of developments unfolding 5,000 miles away. “#Mali president @PresidenceMali has not tweeted in 10 hours after reports of gunfire and a coup attempt,” she tweeted.

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Journalists Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık were threatened shortly after their release from prison. Here, colleagues protest the journalists' imprisonment, which lasted more than a year. (AP)

Investigation, threats against freed Turkish journalists

New York, March 22, 2012–Turkish authorities must immediately dismiss the new criminal investigation against journalist Ahmet Şık and should thoroughly investigate threats made against Şık and investigative journalist Nedim Şener, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Sri Lankan government calls journalists ‘traitors’

New York, March 22, 2012–The Sri Lankan government must immediately halt its intimidation of journalists who supported the adoption of a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into the country’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists.

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Ahmed Rashid on U.S. policy in South Asia

At Columbia University on Monday evening, CPJ board member Ahmed Rashid held forth to a full house in a conversation with Steve Coll about U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you’re reading this blog, there’s most likely no need to explain who Rashid is–or Coll, for that matter. The earliest reference I could…

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Journalist Suleiman Mbatiah is escorted to the police station where he was detained for almost nine hours. (Courtesy News 24)

Kenyan police assault three journalists, detain one

New York, March 21, 2012–Kenyan authorities should hold responsible police officers who assaulted three reporters last week and drop a baseless legal case against one of them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Anatoli Luswata shows injuries from a police beating. (AFP)

Ugandan police beat journalists covering Besigye’s arrest

New York, March 21, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns attacks by Ugandan police against two journalists in separate incidents outside of police stations today.

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Hassan Mohamed in 2011 (CPJ)

Exiled Somali journalist Hassan Mohamed dies in Nairobi

Veteran Somali radio journalist Hassan Mohamed, 45, died early yesterday morning in Eastleigh, a Nairobi suburb. He had fled Mogadishu in 2010, having been threatened, kidnapped, and shot twice. One of hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya, many of them journalists, Hassan struggled to support himself and survive worsening diabetes-related ailments, despite relentless support from…

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