State Persecution

Press freedom organisations have called for the release of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has being tried in a closed-door proceeding in Beijing. His trial on espionage charges began on August 15 and ended late that afternoon without an immediate verdict. "We have seen no evidence that Ching Cheong has committed a crime, and we call for his immediate release," Committee to Protect...

Maldivian journalist Jennifer Latheef who was serving a 10-year jail term for terrorism has been pardoned by the government. Latheef has, however, rejected the presidential pardon. ACCUSED OF TERRORISM: The Maldives government announced Jennifer Latheef’s release on August 16. She was jailed for 10 years in October 2005 after being convicted of inciting a riot in 2003. International human rights...

Legislation and a strong industry code of conduct are necessary to end the complicity of Western Internet companies in political censorship in China, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. China’s system of Internet censorship and surveillance, popularly known as the “Great Firewall,” is the most advanced in the world. In the 149-page report, “Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention today of Hangzhou journalist Zan Aizong. Authorities placed Zan under a seven-day administrative detention this evening after warning him to stop writing about arrests and injuries involving Christians protesting the July 29 demolition of a church, according to the Independent Chinese PEN Center. “The government has launched a...

In a country widely referred to as the world’s largest democracy, the Indian government has succumbed to mounting Israeli pressure and ordered a nationwide ban on the broadcast of Arab television channels. The Indian government’s ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban...

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has claimed its first journalist. Layal Nejib, a photographer working for a Lebanese magazine was killed Sunday when her taxi was hit by a shrapnel as Israeli warplanes bombarded a convoy of people feeling their homes near Tyre in southern Lebanon. Nejib, 23, is the first journalist to be killed in Israel's offensive to push back Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two...

Amnesty International has accused Internet giants Yahoo, Microsoft and Google of violating human rights principles by cooperating with China's efforts to censor the Web and called on them to lobby for the release of jailed dissidents. The London-based human rights group also called on the Internet companies to oppose in public Chinese government requests that violate human rights standards. ALL...

Israel is fast catching up with its adversaries in its attacks on the press. Seven journalists and media workers were injured in a space of two days during attacks carried out by Israeli forces in Lebanon earlier this week. Two Palestinian photographers were shot at last week in the Gaza area. BOMBED OUT: The compound of buildings housing the television station of the Lebanese Shiite militant...

July 14, 2006 | While Melanie Morgan debates with Ann Coulter about whether the executive editor of the New York Times should be killed by gas chamber or firing squad, the institutional forces behind the San Francisco radio host deserve to share in the national spotlight now focused on her. Morgan's brand of authoritarian extremism is brought to her radio listeners every day courtesy of the Disney...