Newswatch | Newswatch

You are here

ARCHIVES: Censored

August 3, 2011

China: Media banned from covering Wenzhou high-speed train disaster properly

Severe restrictions have been placed by the Propaganda Department on media coverage of the high-speed train crash on July 23 in the southeastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, in which 39 people were killed, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Wang Qinglei, a producer with state-owned China Central Television, was fired on July 27 because of his investigative coverage of the crash. The previous day, his News 1+1 programme was suspended without advance warning... MORE
August 3, 2011

Azerbaijan: Authorities in lawless Nakhchivan impose news blackout on detainee’s death

Security officials in Nakhchivan – an autonomous Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and Iran – have been harassing journalists in an attempt to impose a news blackout on a death in detention and the disappearance of four other young people who had been summoned for questioning, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “After eliminating almost all the sources of news and information, Nakhchivan’s security services are carrying out intolerable human rights... MORE
July 22, 2011

China: Were business newspaper’s investigative reporters fired or given other jobs?

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the closure of the investigations unit at the daily China Economic Times at the behest of the newspaper’s management on July 18 and is concerned about the fate of Wang Keqin, the respected journalist who had run the unit for years, and the five other people in his team. The unit’s closure, which defies all editorial logic, comes at a particularly repressive time for those who defend fundamental rights and for... MORE
July 7, 2011

Azerbaijan: Foreign reporters denied entry as territorial dispute escalates

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have been denying entry to foreign journalists amid an increase in tension between the two countries over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory within Azerbaijan that has a mostly Armenian population. The media have become a hostage to this conflict, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We urge the Armenian and Azerbaijan authorities to leave the media out of their diplomatic dispute,” RSF said. “Journalists must be free to... MORE
June 30, 2011

Moroccan information minister has two Dubai TV journalists fired

Moroccan information minister Khalid Naciri obtained the dismissal of Dubai TV chief editor Omar Makhfi and his brother, Jalal , the station’s Morocco correspondent, on June 21 because Jalal referred on the air to opposition calls for protests against tomorrow’s referendum in Morocco on a proposed constitutional reform. The journalists were fired two days after the minister gave a televised address about King Mohammed’s June 17 speech announcing the referendum, according to Paris-based press... MORE
June 17, 2011

Equatorial Guinea deletes German TV crew's footage

New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the detention of a German television crew and the destruction of their footage by authorities in Equatorial Guinea. On Saturday, plainclothes state security agents led by Teobaldo Nchaso Matomba, the director of the state-controlled broadcaster TVGE, arrested reporter Jorg Brase, cameraman Michael Berger, camera assistant Stanley Oriaro, and their fixer (identified only as "Robert") while they were filming a... MORE
June 1, 2011

China must allow free reporting in Inner Mongolia

Authorities in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region restricted domestic reporting on the student-led protests, which were sparked after Chinese coal mine employees killed two ethnic Mongolians who voiced complaints about the environmental impact of mining in mid-May, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting international news reports. Demonstrators angered by the two attacks gathered in several cities in the northern region, expressing... MORE
May 13, 2011

China: Media memorialising Sichuan earthquake censored

Amid a harsh media crackdown, Chinese authorities censored discussion of the May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake anniversary that referenced independent investigations into the damage, according to international news reports. New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) interviewed filmmaker Alison Klayman about activists imprisoned for documenting official negligence which contributed to the destruction, including detained artist Ai Weiwei, to mark the anniversary. A... MORE
May 12, 2011

Philippines court bids to gag massacre trial scrutiny

An appeals court in the Philippines has decided to curb outside scrutiny of legal proceedings against suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, in which 32 journalists and media practitioners were systematically shot and murdered, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On April 12, Manila Court of Appeals Justice Danton Bueger ordered Monette Salaysay, a widow of one of the journalist victims, and Rowena Paraan, a director of the National Union... MORE
May 10, 2011

Malaysia: Fired reporter says his newspaper was used for propaganda purposes

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned daily Utusan Malaysia’s decision on 21 April to fire one of its journalists, Hata Wahari , because he accused it of failing to provide the public with objective news coverage in the run-up to last year’s elections. “By firing Wahari, Utusan Malaysia’s management has just confirmed the correctness of his criticism,” RSF said. “As president of the National Union Of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ), he did what he was supposed... MORE

Pages