Chinese Stranglehold

A renowned Chinese columnist has lost his job at a magazine over commentaries on unrest in Tibet which did not conform with the official line, a watchdog group and a source with knowledge of the dismissal said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Zhang Ping, who writes under the pen name Chang Ping, was sacked as deputy chief editor of the Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine, the Paris-based...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Monday began a four-day official visit to China aiming to put in place measures that will protect journalists facing new threats as political confrontation intensifies in the run up to the Olympics. "In the last few weeks the political heat has been turned up over Tibet and the Olympics and journalists have found themselves in the crossfire," said...

A reporter and a correspondent of China Mining News, a newspaper supervised by the Ministry of Land and Resources, were sentenced to seven and six years in jail for taking bribes when covering news in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua has eported. The man, surnamed Liu, 32, a reporter in the Shanxi provincial bureau of China Mining News, was...

With international attention focused on the unfolding violence in Tibet, the Chinese media is confronting massive censorship, leaving the Chinese public largely in the dark. The Chinese government has barred or expelled virtually all international reporters from the region, and the state media presents the government’s perspective, which blames the Dalai Lama for the violence, the New York-based...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has voiced strong concern over the detention of a foreign journalist and his translator by authorities last month. Mark Magnier, Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, accompanied by a translator and a lawyer visited citizens of a so-called “grievance village” in Beijing on February 27 2008. A number of officials approached Magnier and his...

Conditions for domestic journalists remain poor in China despite the government’s promises to improve the press freedom environment before the Beijing Olympics, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Thursday. Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator, told the commission in Washington that China is holding at least 25...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: The International Olympic Committee said Friday it expects Chinese authorities to give the media full freedom to report on the Beijing Games, responding to complaints from a media rights group. The group, Reporters Without Borders, said the IOC has remained silent while China clamps down on reporters during preparations for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. "It is becoming clearer and...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned a 29 November 2007 search at the home of journalist and blogger Zhai Minglei, who was due the following day to answer an official summons linked to an investigation into the "illegal publication" of the magazine "Minjian" (Civil Society). Zhai posted on his blog, Yaobao, nominated for the international Best of the Blogs (BoB) awards, an account...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF condemns the arrests of three foreign journalists and a Chinese camerawoman on 20 November 2007 in the northeastern province of Hebei and the central province of Hubei. "It is unacceptable that such practices are still taking place in China, despite the new regulations introduced in January for the Olympic Games," RSF said. Barbara Luthi, the Beijing correspondent of the Swiss...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has called on all participants in next summer’s Beijing Olympics — the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors and other partners — to "exert serious pressure" on China to hold the government to its promises of reform. A pedestrian walks past a banner promoting 2008 Olympic Games tickets in Beijing, April 2007. Massive demand caused the Beijing...