Asia

Assailants on motorbikes attacked a Sri Lankan newspaper editor and his wife as they drove to work Friday morning, stabbing them repeatedly, the Associated Press (AP) has reported quoting authorities. The couple received minor wounds and both were expected to recover. Four people on motorbikes blocked Upali Tennakoon's car outside of Colombo as he and his wife were heading to work at the...

Nazari Paryani, the news editor of the daily Payman, has been released after eight days of detention in Kabul because of an allegedly blasphemous article that was published by mistake. Paryani was freed provisionally and still faces possible prosecution. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for all charges to be dropped. Exhausted by the ordeal, Paryani on Thursday told Paris-based RSF: “I...

A broadcast journalist was killed by two unidentified gunmen in a southern Philippine city, according to news reports. Badrodin Abas, 38, was shot in the head by two motorcycle-riding gunmen late Wednesday in Cotabato City, 930km south of Manila, according to the city's police chief, Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane. Dangane said the victim, a broadcaster for a radio station in Cotabato, was...

Trust in the media apparently promotes health. A study of people from 29 Asian countries has shown that individuals with high levels of trust in the mass media tend to be healthier. A team of researchers led by Yasuharu Tokuda from St. Luke's International Hospital and Takashi Inoguchi from Chuo University, both in Tokyo, used data from a survey of 39,000 people to investigate the relationships...

The International Press Freedom Mission has condemned a "culture of impunity and indifference" over killings and attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka. Since the beginning of the New Year, both the killing of a senior editor and the attack on the facilities of a popular independent TV channel have led to a total paralysis of the media community. Launching a new report, 'Media Under Fire: Press...

The Afghanistan prosecutor-general has decided to continue the detention of journalist Nazari Paryani, head of news pages on the daily Payman. He has been imprisoned at the remand jail in Kabul since January 13. “The newspaper mistakenly published an article containing ambiguous judgements about religions, but Nazari Paryani had no direct responsibility for this," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

The Vietnamese government has announced the imminent early release of journalist Nguyen Viet Chien of the daily Thanh Nien, who was sentenced to two years in prison on October 15, 2008 for “abusing democratic freedom to damage state interests”, after he investigated a major corruption scandal in 2006. Public security vice-minister Le The Tiem announced that he would be released on January 17 along...

Four people have reportedly been arrested for the murder of journalist and women’s rights activist Uma Singh, who was stabbed to death in her home in the southeastern lowland city of Janakpur on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. At the same time, local news website Republica quoted state-owned Nepal TV on January 12 as reporting that an underground group had claimed...

Sri Lanka's government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island's rulers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka's anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga, officials who declined to...

A woman reporter who worked for a local radio station in a troubled region of southeast Nepal has been stabbed to death by a group of unidentified assailants. Uma Singh, also a member of a rights group, Women's Human Rights Defenders Network, Dhanusha, was attacked late on Sunday while she was sitting in her home in Janakpur, 98 km southeast of Kathmandu. A group of 14 people attacked Singh, a 24...