Asia

Dear Mr. McKinnon, On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its concerns about press freedom violations in Malaysia and Sierra Leone, which have been Commonwealth member states since 1957 and 1961, respectively. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the leaders of these Commonwealth countries rank among CPJ’s “10 worst enemies of the press” for 2000.

On World Press Freedom Day ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1999 ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1998 ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1997ENEMIES OF THE PRESS 1996

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the imprisonment of Nongthonbam Biren, chief editor of the Manipuri-language daily Naharolgi Thoudang, and Thounaojam Iboyaima, the author of a speech recently published in the newspaper.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by the recent assassination attempt against Amnat Khunyosying, owner and editor of the newspaper Phak Nua Raiwan, which is published in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in VIETNAM. New York, April 14, 2000 — Journalist Sylvaine Pasquier, a reporter for the French weekly magazine L’Express, was expelled from Vietnam by local authorities, who put her on an April 14 commercial flight to Bangkok. Pasquier, a French citizen, was reporting in southern Ho…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the April 12 statements of a senior Chinese official, warning Hong Kong media that they are not free to report independently on the contentious issue of Taiwan’s political status.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the prolonged imprisonment of Gao Qinrong, a reporter for China’s state news agency, Xinhua. Gao has been in jail on trumped-up charges since December 4, 1998, for exposing flaws in a much-touted irrigation system in drought-plagued Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, according to his wife, Duan Maoying.

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in SRI LANKA. New York, April 4, 2000 — Shortly before midnight on April 3, an explosive device was detonated at the home of Nellai G. Nadesan, a columnist for Veerakesari, the country’s leading Tamil-language newspaper. Nadesan was not injured in the blast, though the explosion…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the effective banning of the independent bimonthly magazine Detik, whose publishing license has been cancelled by your government.

By Ann CooperAs a foreign correspondent covering the Soviet Union a decade ago, I was an eyewitness to a dramatic example of the press’ critical role in building democracy. Granted a bit of freedom by Mikhail Gorbachev’s mid-1980s glasnost policy, long-suppressed Soviet journalists set their own daring agenda: they probed forbidden history, investigated contemporary corruption,…