Asia

A freelance Filipino journalist, Carlos Conde, has alleged that that his name appeared on a 2007 official Armed Forces "order of battle" document, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Conde said he is concerned that the official document amounts to a "hitlist" that contains more than a hundred names, mostly and members of anti-government groups. The names, Conde said, are...

The Thai government has announced its plan to regulate the programme content of radio stations and cable and satellite TV stations in the country, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) has reported quoting media reports. The Bangkok Post quoted on May 14 Prime Minister's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey as saying the government will ban any programme, whether broadcast over community...

A journalist from Bangued was unharmed after gunmen fired at her family's house on May 14, delayed reports have said. Bangued is the capital of Abra, a province approximately 408 km northwest of Manila. Marjorie Bandayrel-Trinidad, news editor of the weekly community newspaper Abra Today, said she and her husband were awakened by the sound of breaking glass at around 3:30 a.m. (local time) on May...

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested three Tamil doctors - Thangamuttu Sathiyamorthi, Thurairaja Varatharajan and V. Sunmugarajah - for providing the news media with information about the humanitarian situation in Vanni, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The government will be held responsible if the army’s military victory is accompanied by such criminal acts of revenge...

A new wave of obstacles has been imposed by Myanmar's junta on Internet usage besides expelling two American journalism teachers on May 6. It is getting steadily harder for the Myanmarese (Burmese) to send emails or access websites while all means of communication were cut on May 14 around opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. “The increased restrictions on Internet usage following Aung San...

The situation in the Swat Valley has turned alarming with the Pakistani armed forces stepping up their operations against the Taliban there. Newspapers had already stopped publishing after the military imposed a curfew. Now journalists are fleeing to safer areas. The Khyber Union of Journalists has now urged the government to allow the media access to Mingora, the largest city in the valley. At a...

A year after the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province, journalists are still being persecuted. After the recent harassment of several foreign journalists and the arrest of least one local writer, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Sichuan province to allow journalists to report freely in the area on the one-year anniversary

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has sent emergency funds to help the dozens of Swat valley journalists who have been forced to flee the area because of fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban. More than 30 journalists and their families have had to seek refuge in Peshawar and other cities since the army launched its offensive against Islamist militants in the Swat valley...

Khawar Shafiq, the Daily Waqt (Daily Time) correspondent in Faisalabad, told colleagues he managed to escape from abductors on April 11, 2009, four days three bearded men grabbed him by his home near Faisalabad and shoved him into a car. He said the men made him inhale fumes from a liquid that made him lose consciousness, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported...

Channel 4’s Asian correspondent Nick Paton-Walsh, producer Bessie Du, and cameraman Matt Jasper were briefly detained by police in Trincomalee in the east of the country before their expulsion. They are now in Bangkok with their journalist visas cancelled and banned from further visits to Sri Lanka, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The report broadcast on May 5 showed both...