Asia

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has blamed callous management at Channel-5, a private TV station in Pakistan, which contributed to the death of a cameraman who killed himself after his employer refused to pay his salary. According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ), an IFJ affiliate, Mohammad Azam Khan, 26, who worked as a cameraman for Channel-5 in Lahore had not...

An Australian television correspondent who said he was traumatised from covering wars and natural disasters has been sentenced to jail for 10 months by a Singapore court for drug offences. Peter Lloyd, 42, New Delhi-based correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was arrested while on holiday in Singapore on July 16, and pleaded guilty to three drug-related offences. In...

A radio commentator was shot dead as he was leaving work, becoming the eighth journalist killed in the Philippines this year, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Leo Mila, 38, of Radio Natin in San Roque township in Northern Samar province, was heading to the gate of the station's compound on his motorcycle when shots rang out late Tuesday. More from the AP report: [ Link] Authorities found...

The remains of Jagat Prasad Joshi, a journalist with Maoist daily Janadisha in Nepal's Kailali district who went missing on October 8, have been found. Skeletal remains were found in a nearby forest on November 28, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After a 52-day search, Joshi’s skeleton was found in Pragati Mahila forest, 500 metres from his home in Malakheti and less than a kilometre...

Police officers beat journalist Mohamed Hussein with batons because he was covering the suddenly-imposed dawn-to-dusk curfew in Batticaloa on November 29, the Colombo-based Free Media Movement has reported. Hussein is associated with the Kalmunei media house, run by Inter News. According to FMM sources, on the morning of November 29, Hussein took a bus from Eravur to go to his work at the Kalmunai...

The government-controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC) censored the BBC Sinhala and Tamil service programmes broadcast on November 27, five press freedom groups have said. Sections of the programme on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V Prabhakaran's "Hero's Day" speech and a Defence Watch press conference were censored, making them inaudible to listeners. Defence Watch...

A Belgian TV journalist and his crew were assaulted while reporting on AIDS in Central China, Reuters has reported. After interviewing several representatives of AIDS groups on Thursday, Belgian journalist Tom Van de Weghe and his production team from Flemish public television VRT were beaten and robbed of cash and equipment by 12 men recruited by authorities in Henan province, a VRT spokesperson...

The escalating number of violent attacks on certain parts of the Nepali media can no longer be regarded as hooliganism. Instead, they point to an organised assault on freedom of expression in Nepal, free speech group ARTICLE 19 has asserted. On the morning of October 24, the CEO of leading media house Himalmedia was attacked on his way to work. Just a few weeks later, bundles of Himalmedia's newly

Fifteen Pakistani journalists returning from a press conference held by Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud in the Orakzai tribal region in the north-west were arrested by the military on November 26, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. They were held for more than five hours at a check-point near Kohat, 60 km south of Peshawar, by security forces who prevented them from continuing their...

Seven-year jail sentences have been handed down to Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, editor and manager respectively of the privately-owned Myanmar Nation, which has since closed down, Reporters sans Frontières and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have reported. The two were sentenced on November 28 by a court in Thingangyun, near Rangoon under the Printers and Publishers Registration Act for being in...