Asia

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have welcomed the release of Saw Myint Than, the former chief correspondent of Flower News Journal, a privately-owned magazine. He was held for seven weeks without being tried and without having any chance to defend himself. “We are relieved by Saw Myint Than’s release, just a few weeks after the release of U Win Tin, Burma’s...

An Afghan appeals court has sentenced journalist Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh to 20 years in prison for blasphemy overturning a death sentence ordered by a provincial court. Kambakhsh was accused of printing and distributing an article from the Internet about Islam and women’s rights, on which he had written some comments about the prophet Mohammed’s failings on that issue. "The court has sentenced...

The lawyer of Afghan reporter Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh sentenced to death on blasphemy charges accused authorities Thursday of holding his client beyond a legal deadline, as the young man neared a full year in detention, says an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. The appeal of Kambakhsh -- arrested last October and sentenced to death by a primary court in January -- has been repeatedly delayed...

A Hanoi court has convicted two journalists of "abusing democratic freedoms" for their reporting on a corruption scandal in the country's transportation ministry. The court Wednesday sentenced journalists Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, to two years in prison, and Nguyen Van Hai, 33, to one year on probation. Chien was convicted of "abusing freedom and democracy" at the end of a two-day trial at the Hanoi...

Prosecutors on Tuesday sought a jail sentence of up to two and a half years for a Vietnamese journalist on trial for allegedly writing inaccurate stories about one of the country's most high-profile corruption cases, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Reporter Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, was charged with "abusing freedom and democracy." Another reporter, Nguyen Van Hai, 33, is facing the same...

The publishing licenses of two Rangoon-based weekly journals have been suspended by the Press Scrutiny Board (Censor Board) because of violation of its policy and regulations, Mizzima News has reported. The censor board last week suspended publishing of True News for two months and the Action Times for a month respectively for violation of the regulations of the censor board, media circles in...

Afghan freelance journalist Jawed Ahmad recently freed after spending 11 months in a US military prison says he was arrested at the suggestion of the Canadian forces. According to a Canadian Press report, Ahmad, known by the nickname Jojo among western journalists in Afghanistan, said, "It was Canadians who told them I was a risk." Ahmad, 22, was detained October 26, 2007, at a NATO base near the...

The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) has defamed the city-state's two most powerful leaders, Singapore's High Court has ruled. The publisher and editor of the magazine, owned by Dow Jones & Co, are to pay damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father and former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, after defaming them in an article published in 2006, Reuters reported. The damages for the...

Burma's longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was freed Tuesday after 19 years in detention. He emerged from Yangon's Insein prison still dressed in light-blue prison clothes after benefiting from an amnesty announced by the military government for thousands of detainees ahead of the elections promised for 2010. "I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this...

The US military has freed Afghan journalist held Jawed Ahmad who was held as an "enemy combatant" at the main American base in Afghanistan. Ahmad, who worked for Canadian TV network CTV, was handed over to Afghan authorities Sunday, a spokesman of the US-led coalition announced. He is no longer considered a threat. Ahmad, 22, was detained October 26, 2007, at a NATO base near the city of Kandahar...