China

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned that eight people have been charged and several media outlets forced to shut down without cause after a crackdown organised by the Central Propaganda Department and government ministers. Reporting from State-owned media and government over the exact number of violations and penalties handed down has varied and between two and as many...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has spoken out about the ongoing crackdowns in China in the lead up to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Three media workers have been detained by Beijing Police in recent weeks and hundreds of citizens have had their rights violated. Xiang Nanfu, 62, a citizen journalist with US-based boxun.com, was arrested on May 3 on...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the March 14 arrest of Huang Qi, the director of the independent news website 64 Tianwang, and last week’s arrests of three citizen-journalists who are contributors to the site and who are still detained. They were arrested in connection with their coverage of protests and other actions that “petitioners” staged in Tiananmen Square in an attempt to...

Chinese authorities should immediately release a Uighur blogger and academic who has been charged with separatism after being held incommunicado and without charge since January 15, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Ilham Tohti's wife, Guzaili Nu'er, said she was told of the arrest on Tuesday and that her husband was at a detention center in China's far-western Xinjiang Uighur...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Chinese authorities should clarify the whereabouts of two Chinese journalists who reported on detained artist and social commentator Ai Weiwei, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Family and colleagues have been unable to reach Caijing magazine journalist Zhang Jialong since the evening of April 28, according to Radio France Internationale. He...

Beijing’s reach does not stop at China’s borders. The Chinese government successfully pressured the Vietnamese authorities to arrest two people, Vu Duc Trung and Le Van Thanh, for operating an unauthorised short-wave radio station that was broadcasting in Chinese from a farm outside Hanoi, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The organisation is worried by...