Asia

  
Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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People pay tribute to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in a park near Hong Kong's Victoria Habour in July 2017. The journalist died a few months after China finally agreed to release him on medical parole. (AP/Vincent Yu)

In China, medical neglect can amount to a death sentence for jailed journalists

Four months after Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer shortly after his release from jail on medical parole, the writer and journalist Yang Tongyan died under similar circumstances in a Shanghai hospital. Like Liu, Yang had been seriously ill for several years, but Chinese authorities granted him medical parole only three months before…

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Indian paramilitary soldiers and a policeman, second from left, guard a checkpoint during a strike to mark International Human Rights Day in Srinagar, India, on December 10, 2017. State police arrested french filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards on December 9, in Srinagar while he was shooting a documentary on people injured by pellet guns. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

French documentary filmmaker arrested in Kashmir

New Delhi, December 12, 2017– Authorities in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state must immediately release French documentary filmmaker Comiti Paul Edwards from custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Bangladeshi journalists cover proceedings outside a Dhaka court in May 2016. The country's vaguely worded defamation law is creating a climate of self censorship, local reporters say. (AP/A.M. Ahad)

Bangladesh’s defamation law is ‘avenue to misuse power,’ local journalists say

It started with a Facebook post about a goat and ended in a day in jail for Bangladeshi journalist Abdul Latif Morol, when a fellow journalist filed a defamation complaint against him.

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Journalist shot dead in India’s Uttar Pradesh state

New Delhi, December 6, 2017–Authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state must identify the motive in the shooting death of Naveen Gupta, a stringer for the Hindi-language Hindustan newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown assailants on November 30 shot Gupta dead in the town of Bilhaur in Uttar Pradesh state.

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Prominent blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, left, stood trial on charges of propagandizing against the state. Quynh maintains her innocence and her lawyer said her reporting did not constitute a crime. (Vietnam News Agency/AP)

Vietnam upholds blogger Mother Mushroom’s 10-year jail sentence

Bangkok, November 30, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a Vietnamese appeals court’s decision today to uphold a 10-year prison sentence against blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, widely known as “Me Nam” or “Mother Mushroom.”

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A panel at the Sporting Chance Forum in Geneva discusses the obligation of host nations to create a safe environment for the press. (Courtney C. Radsch/CPJ)

CPJ joins coalition to establish sports and human rights center

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of international sport organizations, civil society, and governments that are establishing an independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights. In a statement published today, the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, which CPJ is part of, outlined its commitment to establishing the center in 2018.

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Nguyen Van Hoa, center, was sentenced to seven years in prison on November 27, 2017, after being convicted of spreading anti-state propaganda. (Cong Tuong/Vietnam News Agency/AP)

Vietnamese blogger sentenced to 7 years for anti-state “propaganda”

Bangkok, November 28, 2017–Vietnamese authorities should immediately release the blogger Nguyen Van Hoa who was sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison on charges of disseminating “propaganda against the state,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A message of transmission suspension of Pakistani private news channels, displayed on monitors, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's media regulator ordered a media blackout on November 25, 2017, following the deployment of troops in the capital Islamabad to quell two weeks of violent protests that have left more than 250 people injured, according to news reports.(AP/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistan arrests journalist whose rental car was rigged with bomb

New York, November 27, 2017– The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Pakistani security forces to immediately release journalist Khalil Afridi, who police are holding without charge in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Authorities detained the correspondent for the Khyber News TV channel on November 24 after an explosive device was found under a car…

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People in New Delhi protest the killing of journalists in India in September. An investigative journalist was shot dead on November 21 in Tripura state. (Reuters/Cathal McNaughton)

Investigative journalist shot dead at paramilitary base in India

New Delhi, November 22, 2017–Indian authorities must thoroughly investigate the shooting yesterday of Sudip Dutta Bhaumik, an investigative reporter at the Bengali-language daily Syandan Patrika, and ensure those responsible are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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