Asia

22 September 2008
Malayasia falls back on draconian security Act to silence journalists and bloggers

Malayasia falls back on draconian security Act to silence journalists and bloggers

The arrest of a prominent blogger and a journalist under Malaysia's draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) is being seen by free speech advocates as the start of a wider crackdown ahead of an anticipated opposition push to gain control of parliament. Malaysia's leading blogger, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a staunch government critic on his website Malaysia Today, was the first to be taken into custody

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17 September 2008

UN urged to stop discriminating against Taiwanese journalists

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has deplored the UN's refusal to issue accreditation to the Taiwanese media for the 63rd session of General Assembly that opened in New York on September 16. The press freedom organisation recently wrote to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon asking him to help find a way for Taiwan's journalists to be able to cover the General Assembly. The United Nations has been...

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15 September 2008

Pakistan: Four journalists temporarily abducted, assaulted during armed attack on press club

A group of 50 armed men Sunday attacked the Shahpur Jehanian Press Club, of Tehsil Daulatpur, in Nawabshah District of Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has reported. The attackers beat and abducted four journalists and took physical control of the press club. Among those assaulted were: Manthar Dahiri, correspondent of the daily newspaper Sobh and...

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12 September 2008

Singapore attorney-general sues Wall Street Journal Asia

Singapore's attorney-general's office has initiated legal action against the Wall Street Journal Asia and two editors over articles allegedly casting doubt on the judiciary's integrity, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A statement on the website of the Attorney-General's Chambers on Friday said the articles "impugn on the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore judiciary...

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12 September 2008

Former journalist and mullah sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing translation of Koran

Press freedom organisations have urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to intercede on behalf of former journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai and Mullah Qari Mushtaq, who were sentenced Thursday by a Kabul court to 20 years in prison for publishing a Dari translation of the Koran. Dari is the Farsi (Persian) dialect spoken in Afghanistan. "We appeal to the president's spirit of tolerance and ask him to...

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11 September 2008

Sri Lankan journalist critically injured in gun attack

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm at the shooting of Sri Lankan journalist Radhika Devakumar on Monday evening. A gunman or gunmen fired on Devakumar, an ethnic Tamil, at her home in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka. She was in critical condition Thursday after being transferred to a Colombo hospital, the reports said. Initial reports differed on details of the attack...

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11 September 2008

Critical blogger in Vietnam given 30 months in prison

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a Vietnamese court decision on Wednesday to imprison blogger Nguyen Van Hai, better known by his penname Dieu Cay, on charges of tax evasion. The court in Ho Chi Minh City, in southern Vietnam, convicted Hai, 55, in a closed-door trial, sentencing him to 30 months in prison, according to news reports. He was first arrested on April 19 and...

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5 September 2008

Journalists, photographers in Malaysia lack protection

Cases of assaults and threats against journalists and photographers in Malaysia used to come and go quietly. It has now become almost a tradition that mainstream print and broadcast media give minimal coverage to issues about the profession, leaving the true gravity of the problem hidden from the public. Since 2007, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), based in capital Kuala Lumpur, has

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2 September 2008

Journalist kidnapped and jailed by Taliban, then killed in air raid

Abdul Aziz Shaheen, a local journalist working for local dailies Azadi and Khabarkar in the troubled district of Swat in the NWFP province of Pakistan, was killed on August 29, in an attack by jet fighters on a Taliban hideout, where he was being held by the Taliban, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has eported. Shaheen had gone to the Peuchar area of Tehsil Matta of Swat to investigate who was...

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27 August 2008

Pakistani TV anchor detained, interrogated by intelligence agency personnel

Hasan Abdullah, an anchor and reporter for Pakistan's leading television channel Dawn News, was detained for six hours by officers of an intelligence agency on August 26 and was released after being interrogated, the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has reported. The agents kept his cellphone and a tape containing an interview with Balach Marri, head of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), who...

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