Detentions of journalists reporting on ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region has been continuing, according to press freedom groups. The Beijing-based Uighur academic and blogger Ilham Tohti, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has been missing since July 8 when he told a friend he had received a notice of detention. On July 6, Beijing public security officials questioned...
A group of Venezuelan journalists with the regional television network Telesur and the state-owned station Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) left Honduras on Sunday after being detained and harassed in the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. "We are gravely concerned that the media environment in Honduras has become increasingly polarized while the interim...
The Sri Lankan government is continuing its offensive against the independent news media, blocking domestic access to a news website and smearing lawyers who are representing a leading newspaper. The government launched aggressive efforts to curb independent media in 2006—at the same time it began an all-out military effort to defeat the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On May...
Authorities in northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang are said to be harassing journalists reporting on ethnic rioting in regional capital Urumqi, according to press freedom groups. One journalist was detained for two hours in Urumqi Tuesday for reporting independently of a government-organised media tour of the damaged city, according to National Public Radio. "I went independently of the group...
Journalists in Malaysia are being restricted from covering the parliament proceedings by seemingly sudden and unannounced tightening of security rules, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has reported. As the parliament is first and foremost a public institution, restricting journalists from its proceedings is tantamount to restricting the public's right to know, CIJ feels. Online news...
Lese majeste charges were filed Tuesday by a private citizen against board members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT), according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Violations of lese majeste laws are a criminal offence in Thailand, punishable by three to 15 years in prison. The charges were filed by Laksana Kornsilpa, a translator and a sympathiser of the People's...
A Filipino radio presenter, Jonathan Petalvero, was recently shot dead at a restaurant in Bayugan, in the southern province of Agusan del Sur, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Petalvero hosted a programme that supported a local politician. “It is too soon to say whether this murder was linked to the victim’s work as a journalist, but the authorities must quickly assign enough...
Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition Khmer-language daily Khmer Machas Srok, has been sentenced to one year in prison stemming from his reports on alleged government corruption. According to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a Cambodian court ruled Saturday that Hang Chakra violated criminal disinformation laws by publishing a series of articles that accused officials working...
The Sri Lanka government has decided to restore the former Press Council, which will have the power to pass jail sentences on journalists and newspaper publishers. The decision comes amid continuing tension between the authorities and renewed threats against Jaffna-based Tamil newspapers. “A press council can be a useful tool for managing relations between the media and the public,” Paris-based...
American reporter David Rohde and his Afghan fixer Tahir Ludin have managed to escape from their Taliban captors who had been holding them for the past seven months. Their driver, Asadullah Mangal, is still being held. According to the New York Times, Rohde and Ludin escaped from the compound in which they were being held in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, on June 19 and made their...
